UND will move to NCAA Division I in all sports beginning next year. And now the school must find an athletic director to pave the way.
UND announced Wednesday that athletic director Tom Buning has resigned, effective Nov. 2.
The school has gone through several athletic directors in recent years. Buning became the fourth to resign since 1990.
Phil Harmeson, UND vice president for general administration, said the turnover is a concern.
"We just need to do a real good job of setting the table for an athletic director," he said. "We need to equip that person with a very strong upper management organization, which would include something like a bit of a business model, where you have a chief financial officer, where you have a chief operating officer, where you have a lead on compliance, where you have a lead on external relations.
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"A system needs to be in place to better undergird that position."
Harmeson said he will make the hire after a search committee forwards names to him.
The search for a new athletic director began Wednesday. The committee is being formed.
Complicating matters is that President Charles Kupchella has announced his resignation, effective at the end of June. A lame-duck president could be unsettling to some potential candidates.
Harmeson gave no timetable for a new athletic director to be in place. Steve Brekke and Betty Ralston are the acting athletic directors.
"At the end of the process, I would assume they would come to me with three to five names that would be unranked," Harmeson said.
Harmeson said the profile of the UND athletic department must change.
"It's even more critical with the move to Division I," Harmeson said. "We need to get some technically strong, high-end people in the critical upper-management level."
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One of Buning's complaints about his job is that he inherited a program in July 2005 with "weak management staff" and "no organizational structure."
Lowell Schweigert, a member of the Sioux Booster board and an alumni representative on the school's intercollegiate athletic committee, said it will be critical to hire an "outstanding, dynamic athletic director.
"It's going to be critical for the success of the move to Division I," he said.
Jon Bonzer, a Sioux Booster member, said he believes the department has a lot to offer an administrator.
"We will have a lot of outstanding applicants for that position," Bonzer said.
"It is unfortunate having to search for an athletic director and a president at the same time. I can't recall a time they were trying to fill both a president spot and an athletic director spot at the same time."
Reach Fee at 780-1127, (800) 477-6572 ext. 127 or kfee@gfherald.com . Read his blog at www.areavoices.com/fee .
