Dismissals and Suspensions: Part 2
Welcome to part 2 of our discussion on suspensions and dismissals. Part 1 can be found here. In Part 1, we discussed how suspensions are treated in three different scenarios: 1) violation of team rules; 2) violation of school/athletic department rules; and 3) suspensions due to misconduct while representing an institution in competition. In this brief we will be talking about academic suspensions, governing body suspensions, and conference suspensions. As a reminder, the NAIA bylaws treat specific suspensions differently based on who issued the suspension and the terms of the suspension. As a note, we will use the term “suspension” as the general term to encompass suspensions, dismissals, and expulsions (or the equivalent) throughout this brief.
Suspensions are discussed in Article V, Section D, Item 6. According to the bylaw, all suspensions must be served at the issuing institution or another four-year institution. There is an exception however, if the suspension was issued in the student’s first two semesters at a junior college, then a student could serve the suspension at any institution of higher learning.
Exception 2 to Article V, Section D, Item 6, addresses when a student is removed for failing to meet institutional academic standards. The exception states if a student is dismissed for failing to meet institutional academic standards but still met NAIA academic standards at the time of the dismissal, then they would have to sit out from competing for one calendar year after the dismissal. The general rule is a student must sit for a residency period when they are suspended. Here the exception states that a student could attend another institution of higher learning for one calendar year or they could not attend school at all and work for one calendar year. The main point is that they could not participate in intercollegiate athletics for one calendar year. In the latter case they would not have to sit for the residency period. For an example of what this would look like, please tune into our Facebook Live video. This type of suspension is not sport specific.
Conferences in the NAIA can have different rules and their own punishments for violations of those rules. If a student is suspended by a conference and transfers to another school outside of the conference, the suspension will travel with the student. This scenario is true for a suspended student-athlete transferring between amateur athletic associations, such as the NCAA or NJCAA.
Tune in this week to our Facebook Live broadcast as we are going to go in-depth to give you specific examples of all of these dismissals and their implications. Please join us, live at noon central standard time for the video. If you miss the live version, the video will live on at the bottom of this brief and on our Facebook page!
Feel free to answer the question at the bottom of the page to give us feedback on what you learned from today's brief.
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