NCAA initiative aims to recruit more ‘student-athletes of color’

The National Collegiate Athletics Association just started an Inclusive Leaders Program to help schools increase diversity in their sports programs by recruiting and retaining more “student-athletes of color.”

However, some advocates for racial unity are questioning the necessity of the program.

Launched this spring in partnership with the sports diversity consulting group Return On Inclusion, the Inclusive Leaders Program offers free workshops to help administrators and coaches to “better meet the needs of student-athletes around diversity, equity and inclusion issues,” the NCAA website states.

Tiffany Alford, a workshop facilitator and director of community engagement and inclusive excellence at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, said one of their goals is to help athletics program leaders understand how to create a safe, inclusive atmosphere for student athletes, according to an NCAA news release.