Rockville Centre, N.Y. - Over 100 freshmen student-athletes from all eight East Coast Conference institutions gathered at the Molloy College campus Sunday for a Diversity Workshop, facilitated by the National Consortium for Academics and Sports (NCAS).  The event, sponsored by the conference's Senior Women Administrators council, was the first of its kind in focusing on educating freshmen student-athletes.

"We were very pleased to have had such great participation by our student-athletes for this outstanding event," commented ECC Commissioner, Dr. Robert Dranoff. "All credit for this program goes to our SWAs, who identified the need to provide diversity training to our freshmen team members and developed the idea for today's workshop." 

After lunch and opening remarks from Commissioner Dranoff, the student-athletes broke up into small groups and worked through exercises with a NCAS facilitator.  Throughout the two-hour workshop, diversity issues involving race, ethnicity and gender were discussed and different perceptions were examined.

"It is so important for student-athletes to embrace diversity as we have teammates from different backgrounds and ethnicities in the conference," reflected ECC S.A.A.C. Co-Vice President, Jackie Bove.  "It is wonderful that we get to experience this training with our fellow ECC student-athletes." 

ECC institutions recruit student-athletes from six continents with vastly diverse backgrounds.  By educating first-years students-athletes the conference hopes to foster an accepting environment where diversity is encouraged.

"We have built a strong relationship with the National Consortium for Academics and Sports," Dranoff further stated.  "They are on the cutting edge of programming in the area of student life issues and we look forward to doing more programming with them in the future.  Thanks also to (Molloy director of athletics) Sue Cassidy-Lyke and Molloy College for hosting us. "

The National Consortium for Academics and Sports:
The mission of the National Consortium for Academics and Sports is "to create a better society by focusing on educational attainment and using the power and appeal of sport to positively affect social change."  The NCAS evolved in response to the need to "keep the student in student-athlete."  Since its inception in 1985, NCAS member institutions have proven to be effective advocates for balancing academics and athletics.