The University of Louisiana-Lafayette Revamps Student-Athlete Complimentary Admission Procedures with ACS InControl
In addition to implementing ACS InControl for recruiting efforts and compliance monitoring, the University of Louisiana-Lafayette also uses the product suite to proactively monitor student-athlete complimentary admissions. In previous years, the process was tedious and time-consuming for both student-athletes and athletics department staff. Student-athletes were limited to specified time periods for assigning complimentary admissions and athletics department staff spent numerous hours reviewing the lists and making changes on the fly.
“Implementing ACS InControl has allowed us to reduce preparation time for creating complimentary admissions lists drastically,“ said Jessica Clarke, Louisiana’s Assistant Athletics Director for Compliance. “(Prior to using ACS InControl) approximately ten hours were spent each week prior to game time creating the (football) complimentary admissions list. (Now), we spend approximately one hour setting up our event list for the entire season, and we only spend about thirty minutes each week printing the final list and reviewing it for accuracy,” Clarke said.
Clarke also indicated that not only does the system assist in more efficient compliance procedures, it provides more flexibility for student-athletes. “The student-athletes have also benefited as their time can now be spent on academics and athletics, rather than constantly reporting in person to sign for complimentary admissions. Completing their guest list online has allowed the student-athletes to finish this task when it is convenient for them, rather than when our staff is available during office hours,” Clarke said.
According to Clarke, in addition to increasing efficiency and reducing the burden on the student-athletes, the compliance office now has an additional tool to assist in monitoring the relationships between student-athletes and complimentary admissions recipients. When adding a new complimentary admission recipient, the student-athlete is required to answer a series of questions to aid the compliance staff in ensuring the student-athlete has not received improper benefits in exchange for the admission.
“Monitoring complimentary admissions lists has always been a challenge, simply as a result of the nature of the process,” Clarke said. “We now have a streamlined, online system, capable of being accessed 24 hours/day. The compliance office can spend more time monitoring the relationship of student-athletes to their guests and be more proactive in preventing potential violations after reviewing student-athletes’ answers to questions asked by (the) ACS (system) when requesting complimentary admissions. Reports can be generated in a matter of seconds indicating our monitoring efforts.”