The Impact of Institutional Commitment on the NCAA Senior Woman Administrator Position

Abstract

Since the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) took control of women's intercollegiate athletics from the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), female athletic administrators have searched for their role and place in the athletics department and in higher education. In the 1980s, the NCAA developed the title of Senior Woman Administrator (SWA) to aid females in the shift of responsibility as they transitioned from the AIAW into the male dominated world of NCAA athletics. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if there was correlation between the SWA as a member of the senior decision-making team and the institutional commitment to the position with compenation and professional development opportunities. A total of 138 Senior Woman Administrators within NCAA Division II participated in the survey responding to questions determining if they were members of the intercollegiate athletics department senior decision-making team and if that had any relationship to the institutions' support of the position with financial and professional development opportunities. Multiple items were selected to form scales to represent the constructs of the data. These scales were subjected to item analysis to produce a scale of acceptable reliability. The two hypotheses were tested by computing the correlations between the scales representing the constructs that the hypotheses referenced and testing them for significance. A significant correlation was found between the position of the SWA as a member of the intercollegiate athletics senior decision-making staff and the institutions' compensation commitment to the position of the SWA, r(135) = .851, p < .001, and the institutions support of the incumbent's professional development, r(136) = .717, p < .001. The correlations were positive and statistically significant. The SWA position at the NCAA Division II level has developed into a position that is supported both with professional development opportunities and with compensation. Findings will assist other divisions and institutions in integrating the SWA position within the athletics department. Future research implications include potential results from additional studies with in-depth interview inquiry to include both the SWA and the Director of Athletics, which would be beneficial in obtaining a financial and professional development picture of all divisions.