As Erin mentioned yesterday, the Department of Education is planning an announcement regarding compliance with prong three. Today Vice-President Biden will be the bearer of the news that the 2005 Office of Civil Rights "clarification" of the interests and abilities prong that allowed schools to use email surveys alone to gauge interest will no longer be acceptable. As the NYT article points out, and as we have noticed here ourselves, few schools have taken the interest-survey only approach, in part because of the opposition to the policy by the NCAA. Given the uncertainty regarding the future leadership of the NCAA, I myself am reassured by the timing of this announcement.
The use of surveys will continue, but they will not be allowed to be the sole factor in assessing interest and non-responses will not automatically be read as lack of interest.
The official announcement will be made this afternoon, but the news has already generated national headlines with stories in the as-linked-above NYT article, the AP, and a snippet on NPR's Morning Edition.
If there is further information after this afternoon's announcement we will be sure to report on it.
