Kansas University’s search committee for a new athletics director has a chair.
Reggie Robinson, counselor to the chancellor, told the KU Athletics Board on Friday afternoon he has been appointed to head the search for Bob Frederick’s replacement.
“We’ll try to have recommendations by July 1,” Robinson told the board at its regular May meeting.
“We’re looking for the best person we can find, build on Bob Frederick’s legacy and take the program to the next level.”
Frederick announced last week he would serve until June 30, then teach in the KU school of education.
Chancellor Robert Hemenway plans to hire an outside consulting firm, according to Robinson.
“He wants that firm to come up with 10 to 15 candidates to present to the search committee,” Robinson said. “Then he wants the committee to narrow the number to between three and five.”
According to university by-laws, the search group must be a sub-committee of the KUAC board, and Robinson said some board members will be on the committee.
Board chair John Ferraro, a professor of hearing and speech, will be with the searchers, for instance. However, the remainder of the search group hasn’t been determined.
“The chancellor doesn’t want only (KUAC) board members on the committee,” Robinson said. “He has others in mind as well.”
How many people will comprise the search group hasn’t been determined, either.
“No, there’s no specific number,” Robinson said. “The chancellor wants to make sure various groups are represented on it, but he doesn’t want it too big.”
Achieving the July 1 deadline might be a tight fit, but Robinson is confident.
“We will see as we go through the process how many obstacles we have to negotiate,” he said.
In the meantime, board members lauded Frederick for a job well done as he attended his last KUAC board function Friday.
“I want to join all members of the board in expressing true regret about Bob’s decision to step down,” said David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs.
Dana Anderson, an alumni board member from Los Angeles, read Frederick’s accomplishments, saying he wanted them in the minutes of the board meeting.
For his part, Frederick said: “I have a thousand things I’d like to say, but I’d have a difficult time doing that. It’s been a great 14 years.”
Frederick, who took some heat for dropping men’s swimming and men’s tennis earlier this year, announced the athletics department would take additional cost-cutting steps by leaving three vacancies unfilled an assistant strength coach, an academics counselor and associate athletics director for administration.
Amy Perko resigned the latter post in March to work with the Fayetteville, N.C., franchise in the fledgling National Basketball Developmental League.
Perko was also listed as KU’s senior woman administrator. Frederick said Janelle Martin, associate AD for compliance, would represent KU as the SWA at the upcoming Big 12 Conference meetings.
Frederick estimated the KUAC will save between $175,000 and $200,000 by not filling those three positions.
In other business Friday, the KUAC board:
l Re-elected Ferraro chair for 2001-2002 and named Tom Mulinazzi, a professor of engineering, vice chair.
l Welcomed Mulinazzi, Bill Tuttle and Renate Mai-Dalton all former board members as replacements for outgoing faculty members Don Steeples, Wayne Osness and Diana Carlin.
l Approved Susan Wachter’s FY2001-2002 budget. Wachter, the department’s chief financial officer, said she expected about a $200,000 windfall in conference money that will make up for an approximate $190,000 football shortfall on the FY2000-2001 budget.
l Changed the athletics department mission statement to include sportsmanship, ethical conduct and a commitment to hiring women and minorities, as per NCAA recommendation.
l Heard Frederick report that 62 percent of all KU student-athletes who enrolled in 1994 have earned degrees. That’s seven percent higher than the entire student body over the same six-year period and an eight percent jump over 1993’s 54 percent student-athlete graduation rate.