2013 NCAA Convention

It Takes a Village: Shared Responsibility of Athletics Compliance

This session will review the importance of institutional control and engagement of staff members outside of the athletics department in the compliance process. Institutional staff members will share best practices for conducting a comprehensive rules education program that engages administrators and representatives of athletics interests.

Moderator: Andrew Cardamone, Assistant Director of Academic and Membership Affairs, NCAA

Andrew Cardamone joined the NCAA staff in September 2008 and is currently an assistant director of academic and membership affairs. He serves on the college academics, legislative relief, interpretations leadership development and compliance assistant teams.  Specifically within the college academics team, Cardamone serves as an APR improvement plan and progress-toward-degree waiver team leader.

Before joining the NCAA, he was the assistant registrar for athletics eligibility and certifications at Georgetown University and the compliance coordinator at Temple University. He also worked as an academic counselor in the Prentice Gautt Academic Center at the University of Oklahoma. 

Cardamone holds his undergraduate degree in psychology from Saint Joseph’s University, where he was a member of the baseball team. He also holds a master’s degree in counseling and psychological services from Springfield College.

Speakers:

Sherryta Freeman, Senior Associate Athletics Director, Temple University

Sherryta Freeman is in her eighth year at Temple and her second year as the senior associate athletics director after serving for five years as the associate athletics director for compliance and student services at Temple.  

Freeman oversees all aspects of the department’s compliance efforts with conference and NCAA rules and regulations.  She works to educate coaches, administrators and student-athletes about new rules and regulations, and processes NCAA and conference waivers on behalf of student-athletes.  She also oversees all student-athlete leadership and life skills development programming, which includes the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program.  Freeman is the varsity sports administrator for softball and men’s golf.  She is also the liaison for the athletics department to Temple’s academic offices.

Before arriving at Temple, Freeman served as the assistant athletics director/compliance at Dartmouth College.  The Hillside, N.J., native earned her bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from Dartmouth in 2001 and a master’s degree in sport management at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 2004.  Freeman was a member of two Ivy League women’s basketball championship teams and made two appearances in the NCAA Division I tournament.

Tim Millerick, Vice President for Student Affairs and Athletics, Austin College

Tim Millerick has 30 years of experience in higher education, student affairs and intercollegiate athletics.  In his role as vice president of student affairs and athletics at Austin College, Millerick has executive responsibility for the division of student affairs and athletics, which includes athletics, student services, religious life, dining services, campus police and safety, and the student life office.

Throughout Millerick’s work in student affairs, he has been involved with programs, panels and presentations addressing intercollegiate athletics and student-athlete well-being for both the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) and the NCAA.  He is a past chair of the NCAA Division III Nominating Committee.

Under Millerick’s leadership as chief administrator for the athletics department, Austin College saw tremendous growth in the athletics staff, including the establishment of full-time athletic training and sports information staffs and a full-time head coach for each sport, responsible solely for that sport.  Women’s soccer and softball also were added. Millerick also guided Austin through several monumental changes, including the transition from the NAIA to NCAA Division III and securing membership in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference.  Under Millerick, the college has also seen extensive facility projects, including the construction of Jerry E. Apple Stadium, the relocation and expansion of the Russell Tennis Complex, and the creation of a new football practice field and the Thomas R. Williams Intramural Complex.

Millerick earned both a Master of Education in counseling and a Bachelor of Science in elementary education from Bridgewater State, where he was a Division III football student-athlete.  He has participated in NCAA Division III athletics as a student-athlete, coach and administrator.

Eleanor Myers, Associate Professor of Law, Temple University

As associate professor of law at Temple University Beasley Law School, Eleanor Myers teaches professional responsibility, contracts, business organizations and the Integrated Transactional Program.  She publishes in the area of professional responsibility and ethics education.  Before joining the Temple law faculty, she was an associate at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center on Professionalism, where she developed, published and taught professional responsibility to practicing lawyers throughout the United States.  She also served as associate university counsel at Temple and provided legal services to the university and its health sciences programs, including the hospital.

Eleanor has served as Temple’s NCAA faculty athletics representative for six years and, since 2009, has been a member of the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions.  This committee conducts hearings, makes findings and imposes penalties on charges of major violations brought by the NCAA against institutions, coaches and associated athletics personnel at NCAA Division I colleges and universities.  She is also a member of the Enforcement Working Group, which recently overhauled the NCAA enforcement, violations and penalty structure.

Eleanor has traveled to China a number of times with the Temple University/Tsinghua University Joint Rule of Law Program.  While there, she taught Chinese students in Temple’s LLM program in Beijing, guest lectured at law schools throughout China, taught U.S. judicial ethics to judges of the Supreme People’s Court, and co-chaired two multi-day roundtables for Chinese law faculty.  In addition, she has made presentations on experiential teaching to Japanese law faculty at a conference at Kwansai Gakuin University Law School in Osaka, and Filipino law faculty at University of the Philippines in Manila.  She has also twice taught business law at Temple’s summer program in Rome, Italy.

Myers also serves on several not-for-profit boards.  She was formerly a public trustee of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange until it was acquired by NASDAQ OMX.  She continues to serve on committees for NASDAQ OMX.

Myers graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and its law school, magna cum laude, and is a member of the American Law Institute.  She has won awards for teaching and curriculum development.

Keith Vitense, Professor and Faculty Athletics Representative, Cameron University

Keith Vitense is beginning his 26th year at Cameron University, where he is a professor in the physical sciences department with a specialty in analytical chemistry.  He has been faculty athletics representative at Cameron for 12 years.

Vitense is chair of the Division II Academic Requirements Committee and a member of the High School Review Committee.

He is developing ethics education materials for presentations at American Chemical Society regional and national meetings.  Vitense earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and mathematics from Black Hills State University and a doctorate in chemistry from Oklahoma State University.