On the playing field, every team from the 15 member institutions that comprise the Atlantic 10 are competitors in every aspect.
 
Off it, they are collaborators, emboldened to make an impact not just with words but with sustainable action in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
 
The Atlantic 10 formed the Commission on Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the fall of 2020, after the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery sparked a summer of social and racial unrest across the nation. In announcing the commission, A-10 Commissioner Bernadette V. McGlade said its goal was to provide “an opportunity for the Atlantic 10 to unite our people and resources on each campus to effect change locally, regionally and nationally.”
 
“We can drive change not only across our campuses but across the entire landscape of our country because we are so well positioned with our universities,” said Ken Gormley, the President of Duquesne University and a co-chair of the commission. “We have been able to leverage the collective knowledge of all 15 of our university campuses and experts and leaders on all of those campuses to advance the cause of diversity, equity and inclusion, not just in the A-10 but in society more broadly. It’s a bold approach to reach out beyond our own orbit. I do believe we can serve as a model for all conferences, and we are serving as a national model in what we are doing.”
 
A full list of Commission accomplishments can be found at the end of this story, but the most recent is an upcoming webinar with Claude Johnson on The Black Fives, a group of pre-NBA Black men’s and women’s basketball teams in cities throughout the A-10 footprint and beyond, whose stories and existence had been lost to history. Johnson, who worked for the NBA, uncovered some of those stories while doing research for the league’s 50^th anniversary celebration. This led to a book, and now The Black Fives Foundation. As part of the celebration of Black History Month, the A-10 Commission will present the webinar, in conjunction with Duquesne University, entitled “The Black Fives: The Epic Story of Basketball’s Forgotten Era” on Thursday, Feb. 23.
 
President Gormley’s vision about the A-10 being a national model is an outgrowth of the unique composition of the commission. Like many athletic-based DEI boards, the A-10 Commission on Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion features administrators, coaches, current and former student-athletes. But the Atlantic 10 also embraced the collective experience and intelligence on its 15 campuses and incorporated subject matter experts, from professors to vice presidents. This has provided the Atlantic 10 with a powerful foundation from which to educate and advocate.
 
The composition of the commission reflects diversity from multiple aspects. Brian Baptiste, the other co-chair, is Athletic Director at La Salle University. Sherene Brantley is Senior Woman Administrator at Duquesne. Cory Barnes is Director of The Center for Black Student Excellence at Loyola University-Chicago. Faith Richardson is a current student-athlete at the University of Massachusetts. LaRee Sugg, the third African American to play on the LPGA Tour, is Deputy Athletic Director and Chief Diversity Officer at University of Richmond. Cody Shimp is a former St. Bonaventure baseball student-athlete and A-10 representative on the NCAA’s Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). Dr. Verb Washington is a history professor at Dayton University. Stephanie Tryce is a sports marketing professor at Saint Joseph’s University and a lawyer.
 
“We’ve been able to get a bunch of like-minded people in the room, whether in person or over Zoom, and leverage the best and the brightest from all of our institutions,” said Chris Clunie, Athletic Director at Davidson and a commission member. “We’ve come together to have tough conversations, ask difficult questions and come up with really creative and intentional ideas to promote the work we do not just as a commission but on each respective campus. We really try to push the conversation for our scholar-athletes, our coaches and our staffs.”
 
Shimp isn’t just encouraged by what the commission has accomplished. He’s optimistic about what more will be done and the commitment level the league has shown in that regard. Funding speaks volumes, he said. A grant of $25,000 per campus – a leaguewide investment of $375,000 for the nearly 6,000 student-athletes that compete for the Atlantic 10 — will go toward programming for mental health and diversity, equity and inclusion.
 
The grant has already been implemented on several A-10 campuses for DEI programming and events, including:
 

• Duquesne – Full DEI workshop with speaker and educator Jen Fry
• Fordham -- Dedication to Community (D2C): 90 minute DEI training sessions for winter and spring sport student-athletes
• George Washington -- Return on Inclusion: Six training modules for DEI
• VCU -- Dr. Julian Capel, a guest speaker as part of Title IX education initiative

 
Additional on-campus educational events are in the works through the grant. Brantley believes the funding for those programs is proof the conference wants to offer more than just slogans and logos.
 
“It’s one thing to make bold statements about what you want to do,” Brantley said. “But the A-10 provides support and infrastructure to have those conversations when people actually want to do something about what they talked about. The A-10 provided the mindset and actual goal statements that this is something we’re strategic about, so it does have sustainability. It’s not just a t-shirt. It’s not just a button. It’s a value for the conference.”
 
By sharing ideas, Clunie said, one school can learn from another and adopt the same or similar programming. The commission has also been flexible. A recent subcommittee meeting Clunie attended was held the day after the release of the video that showed five Memphis police officers beating motorist Tyre Nichols to death after a traffic stop.
 
“We spent half the meeting talking about what everybody was doing on each respective campus to create space, to proactively be inclusive and think how (the news out of Memphis) may or may not be impacting scholar-athletes,” he said.
 
Often an initiative by one member school inspires other campus communities.
 
Baptiste was pleased when the Explorers hosted conference rival Saint Joseph’s in 2021 for a nationally televised matchup on the holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., with signage, logos and facemasks celebrating La Salle’s commitment to social justice and equality.
 
But it was more meaningful to see that initiative grow.
 
“The next year it was La Salle, George Mason, St. Joe’s and George Washington,” he said. “We were able to not only bring together our men’s and women’s programs and talk about the opportunities and the service they’re doing in the community — we were able to talk about some of the historical figures we have on our campuses.”
 
CBS Sports, one of the Atlantic 10’s media partners, has incorporated the A-10 efforts into their overall coverage of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day programming. Last year, CBS told the story of Araion Bradshaw, a Dayton women’s basketball player who formed a student-athlete advocacy and action group, Athletes Driving Change, which the A-10 Commission worked with.   The national broadcast of this year’s tripleheader featured an in-depth halftime video of Mason sophomore Chase Tucker exploring his lineage, including the story of how his grandfather, Sebron “Ed” Tucker, broke the color barrier at Stanford as a basketball player.
 
“That’s just a great story to be able to tell,” Baptiste said. “There are so many stories like that we’ve been able to share during the month of February.”
 
Along with the stories, the commission has been able to shine a spotlight and critically examine uncomfortable topics. Last year during Black History Month, former Davidson soccer scholar-athlete Clint Smith conducted a moving conversation about his New York Times best-selling book, “How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America.” It was an eye-opening experience that provided a window into narratives around the long-lasting effects of slavery that are often overlooked.
 
“It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read,” said Clunie, who moderated the discussion with the author. “It speaks to the narrative around the history of slavery and the stories that are not told, and the way slavery is woven through history.”
 
The virtual discussion – open to all A-10 campuses and beyond — particularly resonated on the Davidson campus in North Carolina. “It shone a light on the biggest and brightest at Davidson,” Clunie said. “Everybody talks about Stephen (Curry) all the time, who we love at Davidson. But this was an opportunity to provide insight into Clint and his beautiful mind and a topic that is really near and dear to his heart. It’s super relevant and will be for years to come. How the U.S. reckons with slavery is pretty powerful as a nation, but especially at an institution like Davidson, that has a predominantly white student body that is in full transparency, reckoning with its own history and relationship to slavery.”
 
Duquesne led a webinar about the NFL’s Rooney Rule. The webinar, facilitated by Gormley and Baptiste, examined equity and access in athletics and drew national coverage from Diverse Issues in Higher Education.
 
One of the discussion panels in the first year for the commission was with NABC Executive Director (and former player and coach) Craig Robinson, who spoke on the Power of the Voice of Student-Athletes and Coaches.  Robinson reinforced an idea that was one of the reasons the A-10 formed the commission – the league has a strong platform from which to advocate for change.
 
Clunie’s background working in the corporate development office of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs underpins his belief that the Atlantic 10 was right to proactivity form the commission. He worked for the Spurs during the tumultuous period in professional sports, when NFL star Colin Kaepernick created controversy by kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice, and when NBA Commissioner Adam Silver forced Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling to sell the team because of racist remarks.
 
Clunie said: “The NBA is an organization that was clear and transparent with its values and its core values saying, ‘Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion are hallmarks of our value system and our culture. This is what we’re going to make a priority.’ The Atlantic 10 is following suit. You do that when you understand that these are students first. It’s important to acknowledge that they’re people first. They’re smart, talented human beings, they have a platform, and they want to utilize that platform.”
 
Baptiste added that he finds it significant the Atlantic 10 has ensured “there is an athletic focus from a conference standpoint, but the reach has gone well beyond the athletic realm.”
 
Shimp is a former baseball student-athlete at St. Bonaventure who represented the A-10 on the NCAA Division I SAAC.
 
“Ever since I’ve been in college, I’ve seen increased activism across our campuses every year,” said Shimp, who was a freshman in 2018. “Student-athletes have realized that our voice does carry, whether that’s through our coaches or our athletic directors. A lot of student-athletes see diversity, equity and inclusion in collegiate athletics as really important. They’ve seen what’s happened across the country the past couple of years. Having this platform allows us to put out there that we care for these things, and we want to use this space to advance that mission.”
 
Bradshaw started Athletes Driving Change by reaching out to one player from every conference team toward the mission of making permanent change toward equality. Players from all 15 teams bought in, and it grew from there.
 
Like Athletes Driving Change, growth is essential to long term success. With an eye toward the future, Clunie anticipates the commission expanding to be even more inclusive.
 
“For good reason, the focus has been the sense of social injustice around Black and brown individuals,” he said. “But we also know that diversity, equity and inclusion mean more than that and is broader. At some point, we want to evolve and start looking at the Asian community and think about the LGBTQIA+ issues. I want to see the commission continue to embolden and support and empower institutions to do great work and impact more people beyond the racial moniker.”
 
Sugg hopes the commission leads to further civic engagement throughout the Atlantic 10 communities — major cities such as St. Louis, Philadelphia, Richmond, Dayton, Chicago, and the Washington, D.C., metro area, along with smaller towns such as Amherst, Mass., and Kingston, R.I., and Olean, N.Y.
 
“As our programming continues to grow, I would love to see it reach more people,” Sugg said. “Technology and webinars are commonplace to lean on this, which gives us a way to have so many touchpoints.
 
Gormley refers to the commission as, “the hardest working group I’ve ever served on.” He raises the possibility of keeping the commission fresh through rotating terms.
 
The core of the commission remains student-athletes who will ultimately represent their respective universities in the larger game of life.
 
“They experience life as anyone else who happen to play a sport,” Brantley said. “While they might dribble a ball or shoot a basket or whatever it may be, they live a life among everyone else. Of course, they have a voice. Of course, they want to make things better as they would as parents, husbands, wives, daughters, sons, however you frame it.”
 
With that in mind, Baptiste believes the commission’s impact will continue to grow as more and more student-athletes pass through the Atlantic 10.
 
“If we can inspire young people through the work of this commission, maybe they will decide to be a community activist or a community organizer or they will want to go to law school or they want to write a book,” he said. “I want us to continue to evolve and make sure these conversations stay top of mind. Diversity is really important. Equity is really important. Inclusion is really important. We’re seeing these topics become politicized, so there’s really great value in having a diversity of opinions and perspectives and being inclusive to groups, especially on college campuses. We don’t all have to agree, but we do have to respect each other’s opinions and viewpoints.
 
Brantley sums the commission’s impact with these words: “The Atlantic 10 is reinforcing a value. It isn’t just about one initiative. It isn’t just showing what one school is doing on social media. This is a value of our conference. This is a value of our membership. We’re stronger together, and together we can have impact, collectively, globally, locally as one. Beyond that, it became a value for each institution to do more. It’s encouraged everyone to raise their level and it’s not a strategy about checking boxes. It's truly sustainable strategy. We all reinforce that value on our campuses and in our campus communities. We went from initiative to sustainable strategy. This value piece is permeating the entire fabric of our membership.”
 
From Gormley, “We are making tangible progress. We are pushing the rock up the hill.” Among the achievements of the A-10 Commission on Racial Equity Diversity and Inclusion thus far:

• A grant of $25,000 per campus to be used for programming for mental health and/or diversity, equity and inclusion. This league-wide commitment of $375,000 is an investment in the nearly 6,000student-athletes that compete for the 15 A-10 member institutions. We can provide a list of the schools whose grants are focused on DEI and have been approved.
• A Social Justice Initiative program through the A-10 Commission Education and Activism subcommittee. 
• A webinar on the Black Fives, a collection of Black basketball teams prior to 1950 that have largely been forgotten (I’ve attached a flyer about this event for more info). 
• A moving conversation with Clint Smith during Black History Month. Smith is aNew York Timesbest-selling author and a former Davidson College men's soccer scholar-athlete. He wrote How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America.
• Annual MLK Day nationally televised basketball triple header / Celebration of the Life and Legacy of Dr. King
• The MLK Day partnership with CBS also extends to a webinar featuring CBS staff aimed and education within the broadcasting world (TV production, personal branding and storytelling, etc.)personal and professional development opportunity focused on various aspects of the television industry, key feature is the opportunity to learn and hear from professionals of color
• Spotlight the programs and educational sessions A-10 campuses have on and around MLK Day.
• Spotlight what A-10 campuses are doing during Black History Month, including recognition in games and social media activations as well as University-driven campus programming.
• Support of groups within the Atlantic 10 with similar missions or shared goals (i.e. Athletes Driving Change)
• Two discussion panels:Celebrating the Black Athlete Activist and NABC's Robinson Addresses the Power of the Voice of Student-Athletes and Coaches
• A-10 Votes Initiative – a drive, including a video PSA, to get students out to vote and to work the polls for the 2020 election.
• Social justice and inclusion campaigns (shooting shirts and warm ups with messages of inclusion and unity, court markings with messages and logos)
• Led by Duquesne, a discussion of the NFLs Rooney Rule titled “The Rooney Rule & What’s Next: Equity and Access in Athletics and Beyond”.
• Development of a social justice A-10 logo, which we still use today.

---

Vicki L. Friedman has spent 30 years writing about sports and national issues and is the 2013 Recipient of the Mel Greenberg Media Award.