Student-athletes form advisory group

It was just last March, Megan McKay recalls, that 32 Penn student-athletes formed the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Now in its first full year and with a detailed constitution under its belt, the SAAC is ready to rock and roll. According to McKay, SAAC's president and captain of the women's volleyball team, the committee serves as a "liaison between the Athletic Department and the student athletes." McKay also said the creation of the committee was spurred by a new NCAA requirement for each university to create such a group. SAAC, comprised of 32 student-athletes -- one representative from each team -- meets once every other month to discuss various issues pertaining to Penn's student-athletes, including academic support, relationships with coaches and weight-room hours. Although SAAC is still in its infancy stage, the "initiation" for the committee "developed as long as two or three years ago" D. Elton Cochran-Fikes, Athletic Department Administrator and faculty adviser to the committee, said. Last March, Penn Athletic Director Steve Bilsky and other administrators met with the 32 representatives and appointed them to the first-ever Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Each of the representatives were selected by either the coach or the team itself, McKay said. "It doesn't really matter who's raising the concern. It might be an issue we present to them, it might be an issue or concern that they bring to us," Fikes added. As SAAC is less than a year old, they have made few tangible changes to the Athletic Department. According to Reggie Brown, the men's soccer representative, the committee has "brainstormed a lot of different issues" and plans to "tackle three or four [issues] this year." Maggie Klarberg, one of SAAC's representatives for the Ivy League, agreed. "While last year was a big year just getting organized, this year's really going to be about action," said Klarberg, a member of the women's crew team. One such action, for example, is Brown's student-athlete survey -- a lengthy questionnaire that he plans to distribute soon to Penn athletes. "We're just trying to get a feel for different ideas about student-athletes and get a perspective on how they see their lives as Penn student-athletes," said Brown, chair of the Student-Athlete Life sub-committee. Besides Student-Athlete Life, SAAC is split into three other sub-committees: Facilities, Communications and School Spirit and Community Service. Each of the 32 members of SAAC are required to serve on one of these four committees, according to the organization's constitution. An executive committee, consisting of nine elected members -- including a president, a vice-president, a secretary, Ivy League representatives and chairpersons of committees. The executive board was elected by the members of SAAC at the first meeting. "A good SAAC member will be having team meetings or will take the opportunity in a team meeting to apprise his or her teammates about what concerns SAAC is currently dealing with and then get input from the team," Fikes said. "It should not be the individual's perspective on an issue, but the individual should be representing his or her team's perspective on an issue," Fikes added. While every Ivy League school has an SAAC on their campus, they do not all operate under the same constitution. Some schools, like Cornell, have an SAAC that has operated for several years, while other schools, like Yale, have a "Captain's Council" -- an organization comprised of captains from each sport -- that functions in a similar manner to SAAC.