At a recent meeting of the Ivy League presidents, two changes were made to athletic policy, but neither of them involved a rule that many students want to see overturned -- the post-season football ban.
The first change involved the fall practice schedule for men and women's soccer and field hockey. Practices will now start eight days before the first day of allowed competition.
In previous years, sports had different practice start dates because their championship tournaments started on different days.
Recently, though, the NCAA has moved to make the start date for the championship tournaments the same, thus making it possible for all three sports to share a date for the opening of practices.
According to Jeff Orleans, executive director of the Ivy League, the adjustment was made to allow for a uniform start date for the three sports.
The second adjustment, effective during the 2006-07 season, changes the way certain basketball contests are counted toward the maximum number of 28 per year allowed by the Ivy League. Certain multi-game events, such as NCAA-exempt invitational tournaments in which an Ivy team wants to play, will now be counted as one contest instead of each individual game counting as a separate one. Penn will begin its 2006-07 season with such a tournament, the Black Coaches Invitational hosted by Syracuse.
That change follows a proposal that was passed by the NCAA in January detailing the same measures.
There were also discussions regarding the Ivy League's post-season ban on football. However, no changes were made to this rule, and the Ivy League presidents don't appear to be changing their views any time soon.
"There is, and has long been, a clear and strong consensus in the group. Realistically, this can't go any further," University President Amy Gutmann said.
Orleans, who was present at the meeting, views this as an issue that only the presidents should decide.
They "view this as an education decision," Orleans said. "They're looking to find the best way to fit this sport into the education experience that football athletes will have."
This year's meeting came after increasing pressure from the Ivy Council, the collection of student governments, who passed a resolution in the spring asking the presidents to reevaluate this rule at their annual meeting.
The Undergraduate Assembly at Penn passed its own resolution in the spring calling for Gutmann to speak out on this issue. Zack Rosenblum, a 2006 graduate and former UA executive vice chairman, was a proponent of a football policy change.
As Gutmann "becomes more familiar and respected among Ivy presidents, hopefully she'll becomes more comfortable in taking the lead on important issues, and I hope this would be one of them," Rosenblum said.
Rosenblum spoke to Gutmann after presenting the resolution and, according to him, she was willing to bring the issue up for discussion.
"I've listened carefully to Penn students about this issue, and I have faithfully presented their arguments, several times, to my fellow Ivy League presidents," Gutmann said.
Rosenblum says this is a serious issue and not something that can be changed quickly, he feels students should be informed of what's been going on.
"We deserve to know what's being discussed," Rosenblum said. "Saying that they're looking into it would be wonderful to hear."
Rosenblum also hopes that the two new Ivy presidents, Cornell's David Skorton and Harvard's acting president, Derek Bok, will provide different opinions and insights into the issue in the coming years.
They would be the ones most likely to effect change, since Ivy League presidents, not athletic directors, hold most of the power.
But for now, Penn students will again have to pick a different fall team to cheer on in post-seasons to come.
