NCAA Dept Academic Certification FAQs

• Q: What is the timeline each quarter for when department student services officers should go into the STF NCAA Student Athletes panel and certify their student-athletes?

• Q: What exactly is the purpose of department administrators certifying the major requirements for each student-athlete?

• Q: How can I obtain a list of email addresses for all of the student-athletes in my department?

• Q: I am seeing some students appearing on my list with GR careers. How should I go about certifying these graduate student-athletes?

• Q: If a student is repeating a major requirement course for a better grade (re-taking a major course that is not repeatable for credit), should the department certify the second attempt?

• Q: Should I certify classes that I believe might count for a student’s major?

• Q: If a student changes their grading option on a class and the department has already certified the course as meeting the department requirement, do you contact us to make sure it still counts with the new grading basis?

• Q: How can I tell if I have already certified a student-athlete for the current quarter?

• Q: On the STF NCAA Student Athletes panel the name of the student is a hyperlink, why?

Q: What is the timeline each quarter for when department student services officers should go into the STF NCAA Student Athletes panel and certify their student-athletes?

A: The department should wait to certify their student-athletes each quarter until the end of the 4th week (after the final study list deadline). This way, if the student adds a course to their study list the department won’t have to go back in and re-certify the student-athlete. It would be ideal if departments could certify their student-athletes by the Friday following the final study list deadline.

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Q: What exactly is the purpose of department administrators certifying the major requirements for each student-athlete?

A: As an NCAA institution, Stanford student-athletes must satisfy certification requirements and meet NCAA enrollment, progress-toward-degree, and term-by-term eligibility requirements. Without the departments help certifying these major requirements, it would be extremely difficult for us to certify our student-athletes' progress-towards-degree.

For further information about student-athlete progress-towards-degree requirements, please see NCAA Academic Eligibility Requirements.

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Q: How can I obtain a list of email addresses for all of the student-athletes in my department?

A: Departments now have the ability to log into the Query Viewer in PeopleSoft and search for a query named STF_DEPT_ATHLETE_EMAIL. Running this query provides a list of all student-athletes that fall under your Acad Org, along with the corresponding email addresses.

For further information, see our Athlete Email Job Aid (pdf).

There are also two BI reports (Acad Summary, Undergrad SR_015 and Acad Summary, Grad SR_014)  that have been updated with student-athlete information. The “Student Name/Email Report”, within the above mentioned reports, indicates student-athletes and their corresponding email address.

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Q: I am seeing some students appearing on my list with GR careers. How should I go about certifying these graduate student-athletes?

A: Coterminal student-athletes now appear on the STF NCAA Student Athletes panel for departments to certify. If a student-athlete is a coterminal student, both their UG and GR study lists will appear for certification under the respective Acad Org. Graduate departments should place a check mark next to each course on the graduate study list that satisfies a departmental graduate degree requirement.

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Q: If a student is repeating a major requirement course for a better grade (re-taking a major course that is not repeatable for credit), should the department certify the second attempt? 

A: The department should not certify a class if the student has already completed a course with an acceptable grade for the major requirement. For NCAA certification purposes, Stanford is required to count the first attempt and not the second attempt, even though the first attempt appears on the Stanford transcript as an RP.

The only time we won’t count the first attempt of a class is if the student earned a passing grade the first time (D- or better) and is required to repeat the same exact course because the major requires a higher grade in that specific course. In that case, the first attempt wouldn’t count and the second attempt would count for NCAA certification purposes.

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Q: Should I certify classes that I believe might count for a student’s major?

A: Only certify classes that currently apply to a specific major requirement. Do not certify classes that might count, or the student has the option to count, as a major requirement. Especially if a student has already completed the requirements for the major, or a sub-category within the major, and the additional class also satisfies the completed majory or sub-category requirement.

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Q: If a student changes their grading option on a class and the department has already certified the course as meeting the department requirement, do you contact us to make sure it still counts with the new grading basis?

A: Yes, AARC advisors will follow up with the department, unless the Bulletin is clear on the grading policy. It would be helpful if departments could indicate in the notes section if a CR/NC class counts as a major requirement. When we check at the end of the quarter we will know that the student selected CR/NC before you evaluated the course and not after your evaluation.

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Q: How can I tell if I have already certified a student-athlete for the current quarter?

A: Each time you certify the major requirements for a student-athlete you should check the “Dept Reviewed” checkbox in that panel before saving. As a result, all of the student-athletes that have previously been certified for that quarter will show a timestamp with a name and date under the “Dept Reviewed” column on the initial screen of the STF NCAA Student Athletes panel.

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Q: On the STF NCAA Student Athletes panel the name of the student is a hyperlink, why?

A: Department reviewers should be able to select the student-athlete's name, which will allow you to compose an email directly to the student, if desired.

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