The stories are familiar by now. High-school jocks driving shiny new SUVs, courtesy of college athletic boosters. Or, as the New York Times recently reported about football players at the University of Tennessee, allegations of “plagiarized term papers and altered grades among athletes.”
“But we’ve never had those issues,” says Jerry Porras, professor emeritus at the Graduate School of Business. “I really buy into the notion Stanford is trying to promote—that we have true student-athletes. We’re sort of arrogant enough to say that’s what we’re shooting for.”
For 13 years it was Porras’s responsibility, as the University’s faculty athletic representative to the NCAA and the Pac-10 conference, to ensure that Stanford followed the spirit as well as the letter of regulations regarding student-athletes. He apparently went about his work so efficiently that when his successor was named at a recent Faculty Senate meeting, several members were surprised to hear that such a job existed.
Ramón Saldívar, the English and comparative literature professor who will succeed Porras, had at least heard about the position before he was asked to take it on. As a former member of the faculty compliance committee that advises athletics director Ted Leland, Saldívar says he knew that the job’s primary responsibilities are verifying that all student-athletes are meeting the requirements of their degree programs, and ensuring that “everyone is playing on a level playing field.”
Saldívar, who begins his three-year term in September, has had rosters of student-athletes in his courses. He recently directed the honors thesis of a student on the cross country team and last year served as a reader on a varsity wrestler’s dissertation committee. Then there were all the athletes he got to know during his two years as a resident fellow in Roble.
“I went to the [athletics department] awards banquet last spring and was just amazed at what students there had accomplished,” Saldívar says. “They’re world-class athletes and world-class intellectuals at the same time.” Political science professor Lucius Barker, who served in the position on an interim basis last year, echoes that sentiment: “One of the most enjoyable parts of the position was interviewing and recommending student-athletes for postgraduate NCAA scholarships.”
In essence, the faculty representative fulfills an oversight role, certifying the athletic eligibility of some 800 Stanford players on 34 different varsity teams and poring over incoming reams of petitions, waivers and violations from other Pac-10 schools. He talks with new coaches each fall, makes sure they take the required NCAA examination and actually reads the 2-inch-thick book of NCAA rules. And he is designated by the University president to deliberate on Pac-10 conference issues—recently, voting against extending the basketball season with a tournament (a view that did not prevail) and arguing against adding a 12th, nonconference football game (which the Cardinal elects not to play).
Some seasons are busier than others. During the year Barker served as interim rep, for example, former head football coach Tyrone Willingham resigned, and Barker joined the hastily formed committee to recruit a new coach. Porras, a specialist in organizational behavior, put a lot of time into helping Leland, PhD ’83, promote a culture among coaches of “doing things the right way.”
Because there are so many NCAA and Pac-10 regulations, Porras adds, no one person can be expected to be aware of them all—not the athletics director, and not the faculty athletic representative. “So we tried to develop a strong culture in which the staff, the coaches and everyone felt responsible for compliance, a culture that said, ‘We follow the spirit as well as the letter of the law.’”
Saldívar says he’s not aware of any particularly troublesome issues on the horizon, but he knows that many faculty members are concerned about “the cost, in terms of student time,” of a successful athletic program. Then there’s the Cardinal’s top-dog, winner-of-eight-consecutive-Sears-Cups image, just asking to be taken down.
“We stand out,” Barker says. “It’s a good feeling, but there’s also the feeling that people are watching you. You’re on top, but it’s easy to come down. So basically it’s a hell of a responsibility.”
