Atlantic universities have a new marketing tool to recruit future student-athletes while highlighting the successes of their current players.
The Atlantic University Sport announced its vision for the coming three years Tuesday in Charlottetown. The 20-page document came after the association paid $17,000 for a strategic plan.
“It’s a consolidation of all our institutional efforts to position ourselves for recruitment purposes,” said Ron Annear, UPEI’s athletic director.
“We’re positioning the conference as a destination for prospective student-athletes, not only in Atlantic Canada, but domestically and internationally.”
The effort includes a redesign of its website, a new initiative (BecAUSe We Care) to showcase student-athletes’ volunteer work, highlight academic success as well as a implement a new concussion awareness program. It also includes new tools for mobile devices and live-streaming championships at austv.ca.
The new initiatives will not cost the 11-member universities more, as the conference has allocated $20,000 in its annual budgets for the new initiatives.
Jordan Knox, a fourth-year business student who plays for the UPEI Panthers hockey team, said being a student-athlete has taught him about time management while making him a better citizen.
“I believe student-athletes are role models, not only on campus, but off-campus as well,” he said. “Each and every time a student athlete at UPEI steps off campus, they are being judged on how they conduct themselves.”
Each institution has its own concussion protocols, but the conference will be rolling out a new standardize approach. AUS executive director Phil Currie will also now review all hits to the head resulting in injury and be able to levy further discipline.
(www.atlanticuniversitysport.com)
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The following are figures from the 2011-12 Atlantic University Sport season:
Student-athletes - About 2,000.
Total hours of community service -15,800 with 112 causes across the region.
Charitable causes - $86,000 raised.
