Development of an index is in the early stages, and college officials have only a vague idea of how it will be implemented. Provost and Professor of Economics at Williams College Catharine Hill is currently researching the development of an index. She hopes the index will be used to measure the admissions process.
"I believe we can make admissions decisions that weigh athletic talent appropriately," said Hill. "The idea behind some kind of measure would be to demonstrate to the community and other institutions that we are in fact making decisions in such a way that our athletes are representative of the rest of the student body."
Members of the admissions offices at the three schools will be involved with the development of the index, including Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Tom Parker. Parker hopes the index will eventually accomplish two goals.
"First, it's a way to report on the academic quality of athletes at all NESCAC schools, so we can monitor each other," he said. "Second, it's a way to try to make sure the academic credentials of admitted athletes look like those of the rest of the student body."
Parker also said the index will eventually be used to make specific admissions decisions, as a means of affirming NESCAC's stated ideals.
According to NESCAC's mission statement, "Members are committed first and foremost to academic excellence and believe that athletic excellence supports our educational mission."
The league members are committed to minimizing conflict between academics and athletics. According to the NESCAC website, the conference's policies are often more restrictive than those of NCAA Division III with regard to limits on the number of contests in a season, off-season practices and post-season competition.
"We want to be in a conference where the members share the same values and where there is, to some extent, a 'level playing field,'" said Hill. If we can measure the outcome of what we are doing, it will be easier to guarantee that this is the case."
"The index is an attempt to monitor the role of athletics in admissions, and to figure out if adjustments are necessary," said Parker.
Parker and Hill agreed that it will be difficult to devise an index. Parker said that each school will probably end up relying on its own individual rating system, as opposed to instituting a universal system for all 11 NESCAC schools.
"We will probably use our own systems, but have a bottom-line," said Parker.
Amherst, for example, rates its candidates academically from one to seven. Under a '"bottom-line" system, the schools would agree on a number for each school below which no athlete would be admitted. The number would be relative for each NESCAC school because each school has separate rating systems.
"I'm involved right now with Williams and Wesleyan, trying to figure out a way to compare our different rating systems," said Parker. "Discussions of any index are very broad right now. I think this will take a very long time."
Hill expressed a similar uncertainty about the future of the index. "I think it will be incredibly difficult to devise one number to measure admissibility," he said. "I suspect that admissibility will have to be measured by something more complicated than one quantitative measure. But it is too early to tell."
Hill added that the achievements of students at all three colleges are often difficult to quantify and consequently will complicate the development of the index.
The eight Ivy League schools currently use an index to evaluate candidates, which was developed by William Bowen, president of the Mellon Foundation and former president of Princeton University. Initial research into a NESCAC index will include a look at the Ivy Index, according to Hill. However, the Ivy Index's emphasis on standardized testing and class rank is not compatible with the admission requirements of some NESCAC schools.
"Our index will not be similar to the Ivy League index because five NESCAC schools do not require standardized testing," said Parker. "Also, class rank is increasingly not being reported to us."
Although the development of an index is still in its preliminary stages, the presidents of Amherst, Williams and Wesleyan will have report findings for the other presidents of NESCAC schools at their upcoming meeting in February or June.