Page 10 - OGC Annual Report 2024

10
University of Minnesota Office of the General Counsel
The Twin Cities Campus
OFFICE OF ATHLETIC
COMPLIANCE
hosted over
97
EDUCATIONAL
SESSIONS
conducted
8
AUDITS
Monitoring
practice/competition at
128
EVENTS
performed
11
INVESTIGATIONS
13
SELF-REPORTS
to the NCAA/Big Ten
72
NCAA/BIG TEN
WAIVERS
Office of Athletic Compliance
During the 2023-24 academic year, the University of Minnesota teams and student-athletes performed
at a high level both on and off the playing field. They received numerous athletic and academic awards.
The Office of Athletic Compliance worked closely with the Athletics Department to ensure that coaches
and staff were prepared to compete while remaining compliant with NCAA, Big Ten and WCHA
rules. This past academic year was also year three under the NCAA’s new Name, Image, and Likeness
guidance allowing student-athletes to profit from commercial activities in ways that they have never
been permitted to in the past. The Office of Athletic Compliance helped advise an outside entity, also
known as a “collective,” named Dinkytown Athletes, which began operation in academic year 2022-23.
The Office of Athletic Compliance worked with Dinkytown Athletes to ensure it was abiding by NCAA
and institutional guidelines, as Dinkytown Athletes worked to provide Name, Image and Likeness
opportunities for University of Minnesota student-athletes.
The NCAA and Power 5
conferences, which includes the
B1G, are working to finalize
a settlement agreement with
plaintiffs in the House lawsuit.
This settlement agreement will
substantially change the way
college sports operate. Some
of the changes within this
settlement agreement include
shifting NCAA rules from
scholarship to roster limits,
permitting institutions to share revenue directly with student-athletes, and creating a separate NIL
clearinghouse to evaluate NIL deals. The Office of Athletic Compliance continues to advise the Athletics
Department on these rapidly evolving changes to ensure the University of Minnesota is best positioned
for the new age of college athletics.
Data Access and Privacy Office
As in recent years, the University continues to experience an increasing volume of data requests.
The ever-changing legal landscape shaped by the MN Government Data Practices Act, as well as
numerous federal privacy laws, continues to add to the complexity of honoring the University’s
obligations to both protect private data and provide public access. As in previous years, the work of
Data Access and Privacy continues to grow in volume and complexity.
In FY24, we received an all-time high number of 1,779 requests which was a 25% increase over
FY23. Of special note this year was a nearly 40% increase in the number of requests from media
outlets while requests for police, financial and employment records continue to be the most
sought-after records. While the number of requests increased from the past year, our response time
improved to an average of 7.4 days with a mean of two days. We attribute this increase in speed, in
part, to the policy and procedural changes that were implemented in December 2020 which allows
us to provide more requesters with data faster than ever before.
The University’s Records and Information Management (RIM) program, which is housed in the
DAP Office, works with University faculty and staff to ensure that the information they create
and receive is kept according to legal, administrative and historical requirements and destroyed or
deleted when no longer needed.