Reports from exit interviews go public
Site published feedback to school from athletes
When graduating University of Mexico studentathletes meet each spring with the University of New Mexico’s Faculty Athletic Council for the purpose of conducting exit interviews, it’s anyone guess what might be said.
Some of the student-athletes have made accusations against the program that are downright salty. Others can be extremely complimentary to the UNM athletic programs.
But it’s the Faculty Athletic Council’s job to sift through both compliments and complaints and take them to athletic director Paul Krebs. He is not in the actual interviews, but his duties are to use the feedback to identify if anything is wrong and correct it.
The past two years, there were some doozies. UNM, however, defends itself against some of the more provocative remarks, which were published recently on a website created by an Albuquerque native in response to public records requests over several months. Albuquerque Academy graduate Daniel Libit published stories based on the council reports and raw notes from 2015 and 2016 exit interviews.
Some of the more provocative comments and UNM responses:
One athlete claimed an adviser wrote a paper for a student-athlete. UNM says that after investigating the allegation, it found that did not happen.
One said a particular sport(s) breaks NCAA weekly time-limit rules; UNM says that athlete didn’t understand the rules fully.
One said he or she couldn’t pursue the major she/he wanted and play sports at the same time — and was misled by a recruiter. Finnie Coleman, chair for the council, said he has not found any such case.
“I haven’t seen any evidence of a coach saying, ‘Hey
you need to change your major.’ But if a kid is a chemistry major and practicing on a Wednesday and chem lab is on Wednesday, it’s sometimes tough to get to chem lab,” Coleman said.
“The other side of this, there are a number of times you’ll see a key player missing from practice in football. Why? Because a class is only offered at that time. That’s the stuff that doesn’t get reported.”
Coleman said it is challenging for any student, athlete or otherwise, to graduate in four years in some majors.
Krebs agreed that student-athletes have a lot of juggling to do, but he acknowledged, “In some instances, I believe we need to provide greater explanations and more in-depth answers during the recruiting process. Better communication to all partners is something we have stressed as a result of these interviews.”
A number of female athletes from different sports complained about being body-shamed so they would lose weight. Krebs said he took action.
“We did talk to strength and conditioning coaches and our coaches about having a more heightened sense of awareness about body-shaming,” Krebs said. “In this day and age, there needs to be a greater sensitivity about the issue; especially with women when it comes to body image and issues of anorexia and other eating disorders.
“The student-athletes need to be fit by eating properly, proper nutrition and healthy lifestyles. We want them to have healthy lives and careers after competing in athletics.”
How it works
Graduating student-athletes in their final semester of athletic eligibility are encouraged to participate in the exit interviews, but they are not mandatory.
“And we provide them something to eat, as an incentive,” said Amy Neel, Faculty Athletic Representative.
“We tell the student-athletes that everything that they tell us is confidential,” she said. “The NCAA requires that exit interviews be done, but doesn’t specify how they have to be done. This is a process that has been working for us very, very well in getting important information from student athletes.”
UNM administrators said they are concerned that athletes will not participate now that they know some of the comments — even though said anonymously — may appear in published reports. Said Krebs, “When credible and significant issues are raised, they get addressed. … But now I am concerned about students being reluctant to raise issues.”
But UNM says no athlete has complained about the summaries being made public last month.
The reports summarizing the students’ statements — not the statements themselves or the identities of the athletes who made them — are public record, and were released upon request by Libit and posted on his website, NMFishbowl.com.
During the interviews, the studentathletes are asked a variety of questions about UNM and their particular athletic program and coaches. They are also asked how they feel about the facilities, conditioning programs, the school, the faculty, their classes and majors and scholarships and other topics.
UNM says athletes also are asked if they would recommend the school and athletic programs to prospective student-athletes, and if so, why? If not, why? They are also asked if they would come to UNM if they had it to do over again.
The exit reports do not give the answers to those questions, but school administrators say the majority said they would return to UNM.
Last year, the council — for the first time — broke up each session into smaller groups, usually with about six to 10 students and two faculty members for up to an hour. Neel said the council then met, without the student-athletes, for another “hour or two to summarize” the findings.
Each report included the names of the members of the council and the sports represented by the studentathletes attending. The names of coaches being critiqued were not included in the council’s summaries.
After the website published the stories last month, UNM sports information director Frank Mercogliano posted a story on the school’s athletic department website, GoLobos.com, about the value of the exit interview process and how a “trust has developed between faculty and students that information obtained during the interviews would … remain anonymous.”
In the UNM story, Neel was quoted as saying potential publication of raw notes (which the Journal has not included) from the interviews could jeopardize “the very transparency that the athletic department seeks to have.”
Libit responded with a column on his site, calling Mercogliano’s story “a dishonest pile of nonsense” and a “blundering ode to secrecy.”
Libit, who has written for Politico in Washington, D.C.. and CNBC.com, is a free-lance journalist in Chicago. He told the Journal he has no animosity against UNM and simply picked the school because of his Albuquerque roots.
“It’s basically an experiment,” said Libit, who launched the site in November. “My intent was to focus on one college sports program and scrutinize all aspects of it.”