Athletic Committee Meeting Minutes
Meeting Details:
Fiscal Year: FY2026
Date:
Time: 1:00 pm
Location:
Minutes Recorded By: Anna Abernathy
Attendance—
Attending Members
- Amir Harring (Student Athlete)
- Josh Arpin
- Jana Fitchett
- Anne Cao
- Anna Abernathy
- Ryan King
- Austin Bogina
- Susan Williams
- William Collins
- Shu Tosaka
- Jack Ritter
Approval of Previous Minutes —
- Motion to approve meeting minutes from January 30, 2026
- Josh approves, Austin seconds
- Minutes approved
New Business —
- Student Athlete Report (Anne Cao)
- Ryan notes that roster decrease was planned due to roster limits
- Anne notes that School of Professional Studies (SPS) is relatively new and has grown in its number of student-athletes. The professional performance degree is popular among student athletes. Other programs at SPS are offered 100% online which may be appealing to student athletes, such as Criminal Justice.
- Amir shared that athletics is helping student-athletes explore and enabling athletes to be flexible in their major exploration.
- Annual Student Athlete Report (Ryan King) - Highlights
- Spring 2025 saw the highest department GPA in program history, 85% of student-athletes named to the AD honor roll.
- Graduation numbers for the 2018-2019 cohort – 69% of all students from cohort graduated, whereas 71% of student-athletes graduated.
- Athletics anticipates that number to decrease given changes in recruitment and the transfer portal.
- Class average for 4-year cohorts: 69% for student-athletes, compared to 68%
- Academic Progress Rate (APR) – 996 single year average across all sports (only 10 teams in the NCAA achieved perfect score of 1000)
- Colleges/schools with biggest share of student-athletes are CLAS, SOEHS, BUS
- Committee Updates
- Shayla spoke with the calendar committee and they granted a permanent exception for permission to hold activities on stop day. They still ask that students and coaches communicate plans as early as possible.
- Matt and Austin met with KU Leads team who are doing excellent work.
- Josh shared that the four required courses for business minors are being offered online this summer.
- Josh shared potential issue with students transferring and being unable to complete all required assignments. No known issues so far.
- Susan noted that student-athletes with absences outside of KU athletics are not technically excused and policy is up to the discretion of the faculty member.
- Faculty are encouraged to request that student-athletes provide documentation or written notice. Unfortunately only 1 instructor is notified by advisors when multiple instructors are listed, which may cause confusion.
- Shu has been involved in ongoing discussions with Stellic. There are many inaccuracies with the tool itself, particularly when it comes to certifying student-athletes. It’s taking 2-3 times longer to check student advising reports now.
- Question of whether Stellic maintains notes when changes are made each semester came up. It is supposed to be able to retain notes, but this isn’t always working.
- Josh comments that the testing center is working great and sessions are filling up.
- New business
- Susan notified faculty on committee that athletic directors’ advisory council is making some structural changes. Athletic directors’ advisory council is going to be eliminated and this committee will become the de-facto advisory council. This change is not official yet but is in the works.
- Happy birthday Shu!