As the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) gets ready to contemplate implementation of a universal drug policy, Saint Xavier University is content with the policy it has in place for athletes.
Readers of The Xavierite learned last week (“NAIA Considers Universal Drug Policy”) that the NAIA has no official drug testing policy, instead allowing member schools to make an autonomous decision on drug testing.
So, what does Saint Xavier’s drug policy for athletics look like?
“First of all, we follow the policy of the student handbook. Student-athletes are students first, and at the present time, no, we have no drug testing and no drug policy for athletes here on campus,” said Bob Hallberg, Saint Xavier’s director of athletics.
When asked what factors played a role in Saint Xavier not adopting a drug testing policy, Hallberg reiterated a concern that the NAIA held about drug testing: it is expensive.
“Depending upon what you’re testing for, it could be as low as $6,000, most schools spend about $15,000 and some of the [National Collegiate Athletic Association] Division I schools might spend $80,000 a year, so cost is a factor,” said Hallberg.
“It’s also invasive,” added John Pelrine, Saint Xavier’s Vice President for Student Affairs, the division of the university administration that oversees athletics. “It’s highly invasive and there should be a reason to drug test. Just randomly testing someone because they’re an athlete strikes me as a way of singling out a group unnecessarily.”
In light of this position, Pelrine and Hallberg were asked how they would respond to the changes that the NAIA is proposing to its drug policy. (The NAIA will be discussing a drug education policy and testing at championship events at their national convention next month.)
“That’s the first I’ve heard, as the athletics director, that they would be testing at championship events, so if that is the case that’s news to me,” said Hallberg.
But both Hallberg and Pelrine thought that the system currently in place for Saint Xavier athletes was adequate to deter drug abuse.
“Unless there was mandatory legislation put on us by the NAIA, am I satisfied with the way things operate right now? I guess we are, because we haven’t had anything called to our attention that would make us unsatisfied,” said Hallberg.
While there is no formal drug policy in place, the administrators said that the champions of character program that the NAIA requires member schools to employ solidifies what coaches teach their athletes.
“I can’t speak for [President Christine Wiseman] directly, but in the past she’s been enthusiastically supportive of [the champions of character program],” said Pelrine. “She believes that it has a positive effect on our athletes.”
The program is now an online seminar in which coaches must participate when they are hired. Coaches then give access information to athletes, who are encouraged to participate as well.
“But [the program] is just one tool,” said Pelrine. He said that athletes have other support systems for positive values, including “a good coaching staff, a good athletic administration, a student handbook—the whole ethos of what it means to be a student-athlete at Saint Xavier.”
But the champions of character program is not expressly about drug education. Rather, it deals mostly with athletes’ behavioral choices.
“Most of the stuff deals with conducting yourself, what a student-athlete representing the NAIA is supposed to be: good grades, community service, even the proper handshake before and after a ballgame,” said Hallberg.
The NAIA convention in April may well mean dramatic changes to the system that Saint Xavier uses for drugs and drug education in athletics.
But until that time, the university and the athletics department are pleased with the values and support systems currently in place.
Tim Carroll
Senior Sports Editor
About Post Author
