“What do you think of this?” Diane Yee asks as she holds up a rough draft sketch for the upcoming New School Olympics. The image is a cartoon-like drawing of various New School residence halls and campus buildings clumped with New York City landmarks. The New School Olympics this coming November will feature games of basketball, dodgeball , “Name That Tune,” Taboo, Trivial Pursuit and volleyball as well as soccer goal kicks and a flag design competition.

In her two years working at The New School as the Director of Athletics and Recreation, Yee has incorporated her own ideas with the desires of the students. Open to input and feedback, the Office of Athletics & Recreation has expanded its intramural activities, fitness classes and varsity sports teams.

Though not officially within the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and therefore not ranked in a division, The New School has a blossoming athletic presence. A new sports team for tennis just launched in September 2014.

Currently the Narwhals consist of cross country, tennis, basketball, soccer, cycling, and ultimate frisbee. The Office of Athletics and Recreation hosts group fitness classes such as kickboxing, yoga, and pilates as well as away trips for activities like archery, rock climbing or nature hikes.

Another thing Yee did when she began working at The New School was to hold elections for a mascot. Though her original preference was for an owl as a contender, she soon embraced the narwhals and Gnarls. She claimed she likes it also “for the alliteration.”

Before Yee came to The New School, she spent a year as an intern at Villanova. She then served as Intramural Facility Coordinator at Brown University for three and a half years. Just before coming to TNS, Yee worked as recreation director at Drew University, a Division 3 school.

She finds the shift from working at larger Division schools to smaller ones, and now to a division-less school “interesting”.

“I really like that I get a lot of freedom in what I do and what I plan,” Yee said and stated that it is something she is grateful for. When Yee worked with Division 1 universities, she felt her responsibilities fell into a niche, which though she enjoyed, she much prefers the more personal interactions and broader scope of working in a smaller institution. Yee recalled her earlier days when she worked in the larger Division 1 schools and described the changes as “tremendous.”

“We had televised basketball and football [games]  that I helped with on the communication side. So I was actually working with ESPN, ABC and all the networks that came. I was a stage manager during games. I would sit in the press box with the commentators and pass them queue cards and different stats at certain times when the producer would radio in on my headset,” Yee explained. “So that was an amazing college job. Then during basketball season, I would go sit in this news truck and watch the game on a nine inch black and white screen and I would take specialty stats.”

As the athletic programs of the places she worked got smaller, her roles got bigger.

Yee is involved in more than just Athletics.  She will be contributing to Commencement for the May 2015 graduation. She is also on the Staff Advisory Committee and the Dining Committee. She started Staff Development Day and serves as its co-chair.

The first annual Staff Development Day happened last March, “Out of a thousand staff members, 450 came to this event,” Yee said. “I thought for the first time for that event, it was an amazing turnout.”

At the event, staff members hosted workshops for each other and played games together while Chartwells catered. Yee modeled the event after one she participated in when she worked at Brown.

“You get to see people you would talk on the phone with all semester long, but never get to see because they’re across campus. It’s a time to share stories and meet with old friends,” Yee said. “Last year was our first time doing it here, and to be able to bring that concept to life in such a short amount of time is awesome. So I guess my enthusiasm towards that got me invited to a lot these other committees.”

Yee credits her predecessor, Michael McCreary for his innovative approach to the recreation office. According to Yee, he started the relationships with the McBurney YMCA, where many intramurals are currently still held. He also set up basketball practices.

“He really laid the groundwork for where we’re moving to today,” Yee said.  “He was here for four years, and there were still a lot of students that didn’t know this existed, so I really wanted to make sure that we got out in front and made sure that students knew who we were, where we were, and what we stood for. That’s where the mascot thing came from.”

However, enlarging the sports presence at TNS hasn’t been easy. Yee sees the limited facility space as a challenge for the ever-expanding Narwhals, but is ultimately hopeful. She has worked to build relationships with other schools who are also growing their sports teams.This helps to open up facility space for games and practices, as well as some friendly rivalry.

Last year, the Narwhals participated in a tournament called NASBI, or the Northeast Art School Basketball Invitational. Yee refers to NASBI as “the brainchild” of herself and Dean Baker of Cooper Union.

“He’s been a tremendous help in my career here at The New School. He’s really been a mentor as far as starting an athletics program at a school that doesn’t have any facilities,” Yee said, of Baker. “He’s really been a great person to look up to as far as getting advice and expertise from him.”