Jan. 21, 2003
Poughkeepsie, NY - Marist College President Dennis Murray announced this afternoon that the NCAA Division I Committee on Athletics Certification has certified the Marist Athletic Department in the second cycle of athletics certification.
"This certification validates Marist's commitment to assuring that our athletics program is consistent with the educational mission of the college and is conducted with integrity," said Dr. Murray.
The certification process consists of multiple steps, all-aiming to ensure integrity in an institution's athletics program and to assist institutions in improving their athletic departments. The primary components that are studied during the certification process are: governance and commitment to rules compliance, academic integrity, fiscal integrity and equity, welfare and sportsmanship.
The first step of the process is a self-study, led in this case by Marist's NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR), Dr. John Ritschdorff, and was completed in February 2002. The findings of the self-study are then forwarded to an NCAA Peer Review Team in preparation of a Peer Review Team visit. The Peer Review Team is made up of athletic administrators, FARs and presidents from other NCAA institutions, similar to Marist. The Peer Review Team visited Marist in April 2002, interviewing members of the entire college community. The final step is a review by the NCAA Division I Athletics Certification Committee.
With the completion of all three stages of this process, the NCAA has certified the Marist College Department of Athletics. This certification is an affirmation of the manner in which the Department of Athletics supports the college's overall mission. Marist received its initial certification in 1995, during the first cycle of the NCAA process.
Dr. Ritschdorff, who is also the Dean of Academic Programs at the college, characterized the year long self-study effort as one "that makes a strong effort to involve all of the college's constituencies, from students through trustees, in the process. An emphasis of the self-study is placed on making sure that the athletics area is thought of as an integral part of the college, with a common mission and compatible practices. I am very pleased that members of the college community were convinced of this and that the national committee was able to confirm that fact."
Each of the 325 NCAA Division I members must undergo the certification process, which was initially adopted in 1993. The first series was conducted on a five-year cycle, with the second series being completed on a 10-year cycle.
Marist is in its sixth season as a full member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), a 10-member, NCAA Division I conference. The Red Foxes have won four consecutive MAAC Commissioner Cups, awarded for overall athletic department excellence. Marist is the first school in the 21-year history of the MAAC to win the award four straight times, and is just the third school (Loyola and LaSalle) to earn the honor four times in the history of the award. Marist student-athletes were honored with 99 selections to the 2002 MAAC Academic Honor Roll, the most of any of the league schools.
