CALDWELL'S DR. SIME PARTICIPATES IN NCAA FELLOWS INSTITUTE

2-20-09
CALDWELL, N.J. – Most of the many roles within an intercollegiate athletics department, such as coaches, trainers and athletic directors, are familiar to most followers of college athletics. One role that is more behind-the-scenes is that of the Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR). Dr. Patrick Sime, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, serves as the FAR at Caldwell College, and last fall he met with other FARs at the Division II FAR Fellows Institute in Indianapolis, Ind.

Dr. Sime represented the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference at the FAR Fellows Institute, which is designed to help refine the roles of the FAR and develops tools and best practices related to the FAR. "The goal of the institute is to make us better and more effective FARs," said Dr. Sime, who has been the Faculty Athletics Representative at Caldwell for nine years. "There also was an exchange of ideas amongst the Fars from around the country, and it was nice to learn that we're doing a lot of things right."

The NCAA requires its member institutions to have a Faculty Athletics Representative to serve as a liaison between the student-athletes and  faculty members. At Caldwell, Dr. Sime administers the NCAA recruiting test to all coaches, reviews any NCAA policy violations, facilitates postgraduate scholarship applicants and holds preseason meetings with each athletic program. Having to deal with several different types of people increases the importance of communication for the FAR, according to Dr. Sime.

"At the Institute we participated in exercises to help us recognize the different types of personalities, and to define our own personality profile," he said. "The idea is to help us build relationships with the athletic department, faculty and other groups by recognizing personality types in others, and adjusting how we communicate."

Since the FAR Fellows Institute is a Division II initiative, the group also discussed other Division II initiatives such as the 'I Chose Division II' promotion and the focus on game environment. Overall, Dr. Sime enjoyed the experience and feels all FARs could benefit from attending.

"I liked the camaraderie with all the FARs and the sharing of ideas," he said. "We were all fairly unanimous in saying it is a positive experience. Each of us took away something that would benefit us at our institutions."


Caldwell College professor Dr. Patrick Sime attended the Division II Far Fellows Institute on Oct. 17-19 at the NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis, Ind. Dr. Sime is seated in the front row, fifth from left.