A committee charged with finding UND's next athletic director also will take up the issue of whether that director should report to UND's next president rather than Vice President for General Administration Phil Harmeson, the committee's chairman said today.
If the committee believes the next AD should report to the next president, the members will make that recommendation to UND's current President Charles Kupchella, said the committee's chairman, Provost Greg Weisenstein.
Kupchella plans to retire June 30 after nine years at UND. The State Board of Higher Education plans to name his successor in early February. Weisenstein is one of three internal candidates and nine total finalists in the running.
"There are people who have raised questions about whether those reporting lines will have an impact on our ability to generate a very robust pool of candidates," Weisenstein said. "So we want to talk about those things right up front and if we need to recommend a different reporting structure, we'll do that early in the process so there's no confusion."
The search committee meeting will begin at 3 p.m. Tuesday in room 17 of Swanson Hall.
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The committee will have about 16 members, Weisenstein said, and a preliminary list of those members likely will be released sometime today. Officials are still working on adding one name to the list, he said. One agenda item for tomorrow's meeting is also to discuss whether any constituencies are missing from the current position, he said.
The committee will begin the search immediately but will not be prepared to recommend a list of three or four finalists until around March 1, Weisenstein said, about a month after the State Board of Higher Education will choose UND's next president.
If the committee recommends that the next AD report to the next president and if President Kupchella signs off on that recommendation, Weisenstein said, President Kupchella and the named president would probably work together to pick an AD form the committee's list of finalists.
Former AD Tom Buning reported directly to Kupchella for most of his two-year tenure. He began reporting to Harmeson early this summer and strained relations between the two men may have been one factor leading to Buning's recent resignation.
Buning resigned about two weeks ago after successive leaves of absence totaling about seven weeks. Buning's resignation followed an anonymous survey of athletics staff in which he received very low ratings.
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Marks reports on higher education. Reach him at (701) 780-1105; (800) 477-6572, ext. 105; or jmarks@gfherald.com .
