UHSAA looks to update to bylaws, constitution

MIDVALE — The constitution and bylaws of the Utah High School Activities Association got an update Thursday afternoon, including specifics about what constitutes recruiting and who is responsible for investigating and enforcing rules.

"Most of the changes are to really take a document that was written primarily for public school districts and adapt it so it includes private and charter schools," said assistant executive director of the UHSAA Bart Thompson. "Most of our growth in membership is in the charter and private schools and we just wanted to bring the constitution in line with that reality."

The constitutional changes are posted on the association's website www.uhsaa.org. The changes to the bylaws will be posted on their website early next week.

One significant difference is how the bylaws will deal with recruiting and undue influence.

"We beefed up recruiting a bunch," said UHSAA attorney Mark Van Wagoner. "We needed to make it clear what is consider recruiting so we don't have some subjective notion of it."

He said the bylaws offer a "laundry list" of activities that constitute recruiting, including offering academic tutoring to out-of-boundary student athletes who subsequently attempt to transfer.

There will also be a great responsibility for school officials to help the UHSAA enforce the rules of the association.

"We have made it clear that the principal is responsible for compliance," said Van Wagoner. "We've changed the wording to reflect two things. One of them is institutional control and atmosphere of compliance, borrowing from the NCAA. We are going to insist that schools do more. (Administrators) have an affirmative responsibility to investigate the eligibility of everyone on the team. It will not be an excuse to say, 'Gosh, we didn't know.' "

A subcommittee studied both the constitution and bylaws for more than a year, according to Thompson. The changes adopted by the Board of Trustees (which are representatives from the state school board and each classification and district) will be voted on by every school district at the end of August.

The changes will be posted on the UHSAA website until the BOT's next meeting Aug. 25. During that meeting, officials will take public comment on the changes and then vote on a final version to send to schools.

Thompson said the votes come through the districts, and each district gets one vote for each member high school.