Posted by SMAD November 6, 2007
Story by ROB SINCLAIR

HARRISONBURG, Va. - Dr. Roger Soenksen has just about done all there is to do at James Madison University. Since he first came here in 1976, Dr. Soenksen has taught thousands of students, coached debate and forensics teams, received the Distinguished Teacher Award, and been named as a Madison Scholar. Even though many would consider these significant accomplishments laurels enough to rest on, that simply would not be Soenksen’s style.

Instead of trimming his workload during his 31st year at JMU, Dr. Soenksen chose to go another route and increase his responsibilities. In addition to continuing in his roles as a professor for the Schools of Media Arts and Design and Communications, the Assistant Director of SMAD, and a student advisor, Soenksen added faculty representative to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to his already impressive resume.

Dr. Soenksen describes his role as JMU’s NCAA faculty representative as being “the eyes and ears of [JMU President] Dr. Rose.” Since Dr. Rose’s responsibilities are too time-consuming for him to be fully versed in the numerous rules and regulations that the NCAA enforces for collegiate athletics, it is the job of Dr. Soenksen to know these rules, make sure JMU athletics are fully compliant with them, and report any issues to President Rose.

For example, student-athletes must have their test scores approved by a NCAA clearing house before they are allowed to practice or play. Two members of the JMU football team had not been cleared, although they both had passed the required tests, and thus were not eligible to participate in team activities. After the Compliance Office discovered this, Dr. Soenksen reported it to Dr. Rose. He then communicated with the coaches and made sure the two players did not practice until all the paperwork had gone through. If the school does not deal with violations like these, then there can be stiff penalties handed down from the NCAA, such as reduced scholarships, fewer practices, and even games being taken off team schedules.

Soenksen's responsibilities extend beyond rule enforcement though. He also helps develop policies and programs to benefit the JMU student-athletes. Right now he is working on making a school-wide excused-absence policy that will allow students who miss class due to a school-sponsored event to not have the absence count against them. Although many professors currently do not punish such absences, it is not universally accepted, and thus Soenksen desperately wants to employ it on a campus wide basis.

Soenksen is also in charge of monitoring the NCAA rules education process to all the members of the JMU sports team's coaching staffs. Each year every coach and assistant coach must pass a test on NCAA rules. The test covers a wide range of topics from recruiting rules and practice times to scholarship policies. Soenksen monitors workshops during the year to make sure that all of the coaches know and understand the numerous rules enforced by the NCAA and then administers the test. All of JMU's coaching staff passed the test this year, which Soenksen attributes as “a testament to the Compliance Office.

Soenksen takes his job as JMU’s faculty representative to the NCAA very seriously, and his results show this: no major violations during his time in the position and all JMU coaches having passed the required NCAA tests. His dedication is even more admirable considering he has plenty of other responsibilities both academically, teaching hundreds of students each semester, and socially, supporting his wife and three children. Even after thirty years of service, Dr. Soenksen continues to give himself fully to the needs of the university, and like another proven veteran that keeps coming back for more, his football hero Brett Favre, Soenksen shows no signs of slowing down soon.