Jackson, Ncaa Meet

Top NCAA executives met with the Rev. Jesse Jackson during the National Collegiate Athletic Association Convention and said the sides agreed that strides had been made in creating diversity but more work remained.

NCAA executive director Cedric Dempsey called the meeting “profitable and educational” rather than “confrontational” and said the group focused on ways to better evaluate diversity programs already in place.

Dempsey said the NCAA has various internship programs to increase the number of minorities and women and is developing accreditation standards for all Division I schools that would require them to be more sensitive to the issue.

The 89th annual convention drew a record 2,592 delegates, and diversity was only one theme.

Men’s college gymnastics, which had faced the loss of its national championship event after 56 years, earned a reprieve when delegates overwhelmingly supported a proposal to extend a moratorium on the elimination of championships for sports that do not involve a minimum of 40 participating schools.