UNC News Services
College athletes’ right to use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are among the topics to be discussed at a public symposium to kick off the 2010 Scholarly Conference on College Sport, April 21-23 at the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education.
The one-day Issues in College Sport Symposium on April 21 will be followed by two full days of academic research presentations by sport-management faculty from across the nation to discuss issues in college athletics.
Highlights of the symposium include:
8:45 a.m.
“Thou Shalt Not Tweet: Athletes’ Social Networking Legal Rights vs. Institutional Control.â€
Panelists will examine how athletics departments approach their student-athletes posting on websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Panelists include Kathleen Hessert, president, Sports Media Challenge; Lester Munson, legal analyst, ESPN; Steve Kirschner, UNC associate athletics director for communications; and Ronnie Ramos, director of new media strategies, National Collegiate Athletic Association.
10:15 a.m. Keynote address
David Williams, vice chancellor for university affairs and athletics and legal counsel at Vanderbilt University, which abolished its athletics department in 2003, choosing to incorporate it into the larger umbrella of student life. Williams’ role is analogous to an athletics director under the conventional model.
1 p.m.
“One and Done: What is the Effect of the NBA’s Age-Limit Rule on the College Gameâ€
Panelists will investigate how the NBA’s rule preventing high school players from jumping directly to the NBA has affected the college game. Panelists include Gary Williams, men’s basketball coach, University of Maryland; Darryl Dawkins, former NBA player; Doug Gottlieb, college basketball analyst, ESPN; Michael McCann, professor at Vermont Law School and contributor to Sports Illustrated.com; and Shane Lyons, associate director for compliance, Atlantic Coast Conference.
2:30 p.m. Keynote address
Bernadette McGlade became the Atlantic 10 commissioner in 2008 after serving as the ACC’s associate commissioner for nine years and the ACC’s assistant commissioner for two. After a distinguished basketball career at UNC, McGlade served Georgia Tech’s athletics department in a number of areas, winning the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association National Administrator of the Year award in 2000.
3:45 p.m.
“Ethics of Elimination: Will Broad-Based Athletic Departments Survive?â€
Panelists will discuss whether recent economic challenges throughout the country will spell the end of large athletic departments. Panelists include Jeff Bourne, athletics director, James Madison University; Mike Moyer, executive director, Wrestling Coaches Association; Amy Perko, executive director, Knight Commission; John Cheslock, professor, Penn State University; and David Akinniyi, football player, N.C. State University.
The conference is a collaborative effort of the department of exercise and sport science in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences and the College Sport Research Institute.
The symposium is open to the public. Admission is $10 for UNC students and $25 for the general public. A schedule of the day’s sessions is available at csriconference.org/Wed%20sched.html
Registration fees are required for the remainder of the three-day conference. Highlights include speeches by author and Oregon State University professor Michael Oriard, UNC women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance and Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson. For more information, including registration, visit csriconference.org