Dr. Kurt Beron was re-elected as an officer of the national Faculty Athletics Representatives Association (FARA) in November 2019. FARA is the voice of faculty to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) on intercollegiate athletics issues of national significance. While UT Dallas is a Division III member of the NCAA, as an officer (Secretary) he is part of the leadership and works for, and was elected across, all three divisions that represent about 1,100 universities and 500,000 student-athletes.
He was also recently elected to the Division III Management Council’s Faculty Athletics Representatives’ Advisory Group, where he will work with other members of this national committee to advise the operational board of Division III.
Dr. Beron is involved with discussions that affect the campus, conference – UT Dallas is part of the American Southwest Conference – and national levels. These include issues that may seem removed from the Division III world. For example, the current discussions of name, image, and likeness (NIL) touched off by California’s recent passage of legislation that is at odds with current practice will require each Division to review and, likely, revise its way of doing things to allow more freedom for NIL.
As another example, following a 2018 Supreme Court ruling, 17 states now have laws in place, or soon to be in place, to allow betting on sports, including on Division III athletics. Dr. Beron is looking forward to providing a faculty perspective on these issues at the national level.