Program to Lead Research, Produce Published Works, and Host Events That Examine the Meaning, the Morality, and the Impact of Sports on a Global Scale

NEW YORK, Oct. 23, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Recognizing the immense social, economic, cultural, and geopolitical impact of sports, the NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies (NYU-SCPS) will, this week, launch NYU Sports and Society, with an all-star advisory board that includes: Gary Bettman, Fay Vincent, Jr., Harry Carson, Garland Allen, Bob Costas, Tony Ponturo, Lesley Visser, and Shelley Zalis.

The program aims to become an academic home—a think tank—for scholarship and dialogue that will further the study of sports as a societal force. It will offer a blend of programming and academic research that will explore sports from a variety of perspectives. The goal is to increase and to enhance the public understanding and appreciation of sports in a global society, as well as its ability to effect change in fields as diverse as the natural and social sciences, business, medicine, law, media and communications, and education. It also will serve to educate young athletes in the importance of sportsmanship, character, and integrity, whether they are playing for fun or playing in the hopes of pursuing a career as a professional.

NYU Sports and Society Board of Directors:

• Arthur R. Miller, chairman NYU Sports and Society, NYU University Professor, director of Public Dialogues at NYU-SCPS; and one of the country's foremost legal experts in civil procedure, civil litigation, copyright and unfair competition, and privacy. Miller has moderated Socratic dialogues for several PBS series, and won an Emmy Award for his work on The Constitution: That Delicate Balance. He is generally credited with bringing legal commentary to television though his programs on NBC, WCVB-TV Boston, PBS (The Fred Friendly Seminars), and Great Britain's BBC; and for being legal editor for ABC's Good Morning America for over 20 years.
• Ted Shaker, chief operating officer, adjunct professor at the NYU-SCPS Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management (Tisch Center). He is a former executive producer at CBS Sports, where he won 13 Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards; former executive producer CNBC Business News, founder and president of Sports Illustrated Television; and co-creator of CNN/SI, television's first 24-hour sports news cable channel.
• Arthur L. Caplan, world renowned bioethicist, Drs. William F. and Virginia Connolly Mitty Professor of Bioethics and director of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center. He has served on the special advisory committee to the International Olympic Committee on genetics and gene therapy, and the FIFA special advisory committee on the use of technology in allowing athletes to adapt to altitude and other environmental challenges
• Robert Boland, academic chair and clinical associate professor of sports management at the NYU-SCPS Tisch Center, which offers an M.S. and a Graduate Certificate in Sports Business; a B.S. in Sports Management; and numerous noncredit certificates and courses. Boland is a leading sports attorney and a consultant to collegiate conferences and leagues on strategic and legal issues.
• Lee Igel, clinical associate professor at the NYU-SCPS Tisch Center, who is a regular contributor to Forbes.com, and an industrial/organizational psychologist, whose teaching and writing focus on behavioral insights and decision-making.
• Wayne G. McDonnell, Jr., clinical associate professor of sports management at the NYU-SCPS Tisch Center, who is a regular contributor to Forbes.com, and a frequent media commentator on all things baseball.
• Brendan Parent, an attorney and clinical instructor in the Division of Bioethics at the NYU Langone Medical Center, and was previously a fellow at the NY Task Force on Life and the Law.

NYU Sports and Society boasts an advisory board of nationally renowned industry leaders who will help to guide and to support the program's activities and research. The board will provide a critical link between the academic focus of the program, and current and emerging trends present within the sports industry.

NYU Sports and Society Advisory Board members:

From Leagues and Sports Organizations-

• Gary Bettman, commissioner of the National Hockey League (NHL), who oversaw the expansion of the NHL's footprint across the United States.
• Francis Thomas "Fay" Vincent, Jr., former entertainment lawyer and sports executive who served as the eighth commissioner of Major League Baseball
• Harry Carson, New York Football Giants former captain and linebacker; Pro Football Hall of Fame member, author, and broadcaster.
• Garland Allen, former teacher, coach, and director of athletics for Greenwich High School (CT) and Ridgewood High School (NJ).

From Media, Marketing, Advertising-

• Bob Costas, 24-time Emmy Award-winning broadcaster, whose work for NBC, HBO, and the Major League Baseball Network has spanned the globe.
• Tony Ponturo, former global sports marketing chief at Anheuser Busch;founder and CEO of Ponturo Management Group, specializing in producing sports and entertainment properties on Broadway, TV, and in film.
• Lesley Visser, pioneering sports journalist in both print and television, first woman to have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
• Shelley Zalis, CEO of Ipsos Open Thinking Exchange, recognized as a leading pioneer in the use of the Internet to conduct market research for the entertainment industry and for Fortune 500 advertisers.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Integrity of the Game: Ethics and Today's Athlete: November 18, 2013   (FREE)

The program's formal launch and inaugural event, moderated by its Chairman, Arthur R. Miller, with a panel of leading figures in sports management, business, ethics, journalism, fandom, and professional playing including: Fred Wilpon, Harry Carson, Garland Allen, Robert D. Manfred,Mike Francesa, Tony Ponturo, Steve Greenberg, Arthur Caplan, and Lesley Visser, will cut to the heart of ethics and justice. The panelists will assume the roles of key players in the life of a growing athlete and will make real-time decisions on the most confounding issues facing the sports world. These issues include age deception, performance enhancement, responsibility of role models, impact on academics, business corruption, and preservation of privacy and health. The narrative will present actual events that have brought cheating and depravity in sports to the public's attention. Additional panelists to be announced.

The event will take place at NYU Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South, Rosenthal Pavilion, New York, NY. Doors open a 6:30 p.m. The panel discussion, which begins at 7:00 p.m., will be followed by a reception.     Visit scps.nyu.edu/sportsandsociety/events to register.

Additional events:

NYU Sports and Society: 48 Hours Before Superbowl 48: Mega Events: January 31, 2014

A collaboration between NYU Sports and Society and GlideSlope—global management advisors who help clients to achieve their goals and to seize new opportunities through sport—that will debate the immense gains and drains of bidding on, preparing for, and hosting mega sports events, while gauging their long-term impact. The event will take place at NYU Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South, Rosenthal Pavilion, New York, NY. Panel discussion begins at 4:30. Additional details to come.

NYU Sports and Society Global: Abu Dhabi,: October, 2014

From NYU's campus in Abu Dhabi, a conference which will feature an assembly of international sports luminaries, empire magnates, and chief government officials who will identify and discuss the risks, the keys to success, and the legacies of mega sports events in the Gulf States. Additional details to come.

NYU Sports and Society Publishing:

Handbook on Sports and Society

NYU Sports and Society will be publishing THE Handbook on Sports and Society: an unprecedented collection of original work from leading global scholars across the NYU universe. In this seminal text, philosophers, historians, sociologists, physicians, scientists, religious leaders, and lawyers will explore the constant and powerful ways in which sports reveal and reinforce the lifeblood of human society. NYU authors will expose how "games" are responsible for guiding social justice movements; igniting city-wide riots; uniting countries; permanently injuring youth; revolutionizing views about race, gender, and class; and producing several of the most successful global industries. Prepare for an unparalleled teaching aid and an invaluable source of insight, shepherded by NYU Sports and Society's unrivaled capacity to reinterpret the competitions and the feats that touch every human life. Additional details to come

For more information about NYU Sports and Society, please visit scps.nyu.edu/sportsandsociety

About the NYU School of Continuing and Professional StudiesEstablished in 1934, NYU-SCPS (scps.nyu.edu) is one of NYU's several degree-granting schools and colleges, each with a unique academic profile. The reputation of NYU-SCPS arises from its place as the NYU home for study and applied research related to key knowledge-based industries where the New York region leads globally. This is manifest in the School's diverse graduate, undergraduate, and noncredit programs in fields such as Real Estate, Real Estate Development, and Construction Management; Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management; Global Affairs; Fundraising and Grantmaking; Advanced Digital Applications and Graphic Communications Management and Technology; Publishing; Professional Writing; Human Resource Management and Development, Marketing, Public Relations and Corporate Communication, Management and Systems, Project Management, and Accounting, Finance, and Taxation; Liberal and Allied Arts; and Foreign Languages, Translation, and Interpreting.

More than 100 distinguished full-time faculty members collaborate with an exceptional cadre of practitioner/adjunct faculty and lecturers to create vibrant professional and academic networks that annually attract nearly 5,000 degree-seeking students from around the globe. In addition, the School fulfills the recurrent continuing higher education needs of local and professional communities, as evidenced by close to 48,000 annual noncredit enrollments in individual courses, specialized certificate programs, workshops, and seminars. The School's community is enriched by more than 27,000 degree-holding alumni worldwide, many of whom serve as mentors, guest speakers, and advisory board members. For more information about NYU-SCPS, visit scps.nyu.edu

SOURCE NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies

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