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CC.98.10
February 9, 1998

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
URBANA-CHAMPAIGN SENATE

Committee on Committees
(Final - Action)

CC.98.10 Senate Approval of Nominations for the Athletic Board

Background

The Athletic Board includes six faculty members and two student members who are appointed by the Chancellor from nominations submitted by the Urbana-Champaign Senate. Terms of faculty ordinarily shall be three years and of students two years. The terms of two faculty members, Georgia M. Green and Tony G. Waldrop, and one student member, Susan A. Simon, expire at the end of the annual meeting of the Athletic Board in the summer of 1998. Continuing members of the Athletic Board and the expiration of their terms are as follows:

Faculty:
John B. Braden ACES 2000
Barrington Coleman FAA 2000
Thomas L. McGreal EDUC 1999
Mary H. Slaughter ALS 1999

Student:
Bryan Lutes ALS 1999

The Committee on Committees recommends approval of the following slate of nominees. (Biographical information pertaining to each nominee is attached.)

Nominations

To fill two faculty positions for terms expiring in 2001:

J. Fred Giertz CBA
David R. Gross VMED
H. T. Wilkinson ACES
Joyce Wright LIBR

To fill one student position for a term expiring in 2000:

Peter M. Amberg FAA
Adam Collopy LAS

Committee on Committees
Nancy O’Brien, Chair
Kim Aichele
May R. Berenbaum
Timothy Butler
Tom R. Ward
Cynthia Wilson
Richard E. Ziegler

Nominations from the floor must be accompanied by the nominee's signed statement of willingness to serve if elected. The statement shall be dated and include the name of the position to be filled. If present, the nominee's oral statement will suffice.


Biographical Sketches of Faculty Nominees to the Athletic Board

J. Fred Giertz (CBA), Professor, Department of Economics

I am a Professor of Economics and a member of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs. I believe that I have the background and interest to make an important contribution to the Athletic Board. I am concerned with the administrative, financial and educational policy issues that are of importance to the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics (DIA).

In regard to my experience, I currently serve on the Board of Trustees of the State Universities Retirement System (SURS). This nine-person board is responsible for overseeing the activities of the $8 billion state retirement system. Since my appointment to the SURS board by Governor Edgar in 1995, I have been active in reforming and restructuring the procedures of the organization, serving as chair of the search committee to select the new SURS director in 1995-96. I have also been active in the Urbana-Champaign Senate and served as chair of the Faculty Benefits Committee for several years. I would be an active and involved member of the Athletic Board

As an economist, my research interests deal with public policy issues in the public finance, public choice, and regional economic development areas. I have published in journals such as the American Economic Review, the Journal of Public Economics, the National Tax Journal, Public Choice, and the Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance. I specialize in state and local taxation and expenditure analysis and in regional economic development issues. I served as research director for the Illinois Tax Reform Commission, as a member of the budget subcommittee of Governor Edgar’s transition team, and as an advisor to the Illinois bureau of the Budget. I am a former president of the Illinois Economic Association and former vice president of the Midwest Economics Association. My teaching is in the area of public finance (Economics 214, 314, and 414) and microeconomic theory (Economics 300 and 400).

I have a long-standing interest in sports and college athletics. I have been a life-long sports fan and an active sports participant, most recently in golf and tennis. I would be a supportive, but not uncritical, member of the Athletic Board. I believe that I have an understanding of the financial and budget issues that face the DIA. For the last two years, I have been an active member of the Athletic Audit Review Committee. This committee oversees DIA audits and deals with a broad range of compliance issues that face the DIA and the individual teams. I believe this experience would be valuable in the Athletic Board’s activities.

David R. Gross, DVM, Ph.D., (VMED) Professor and Head of Veterinary Biosciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine

I am currently Professor and Head of Veterinary Biosciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine. In addition to being the administrative officer of my department, and all of the duties associated with that office, I currently serve as a member of the Research Policy Committee for the Vice-Chancellor for Research and am Chair of the Research Policy and Allocation Committee for the Illinois Affiliate of the American Heart Association. I am active in the Champaign Rotary Club and participate in a variety of other community service activities.

I teach a Discovery Course, in both the fall and spring semesters entitled: Heart and Circulatory Disease: What’s Happening to Grandpa?; This course has been quite popular with first year undergraduate students. I also lecture on renal physiology in the 2 semester organ system physiology course taught in the veterinary curriculum. I participate actively in the graduate education program of the department and have two graduate students in my lab at present. I conduct an active research program in cardiovascular physiology and, over the years, have published several papers dealing with the effects of exercise on the cardiovascular system. My major research interest is in cardiovascular devices, including prosthetic heart valves and blood pumping devices. I am currently helping to organize a campus-wide effort to form a Center for Biomaterials Sciences. We are preparing a proposal that will be submitted to the NSF to fund this effort. My interest in this regard is to involve the considerable resources of this University in the area of the chemistry, physics and engineering of materials into a collaboration with biological scientists who can help investigate the interaction between these materials and biological systems.

As a former athlete, captain of the swimming team at Colorado State University in 1957-58, and as the father of two sons who participated in varsity sports throughout high school and their undergraduate years in college (both completed degrees in engineering while participating in their sport) I am very aware of the positive influence athletics can have on an individual. I have been a strong proponent of participation in either music or athletics, at the high school level at least, as being a predictor of success in medical and veterinary school curricula. Students with this kind of background have learned to compete, to manage their time efficiently, to understand the importance of practice as related to studying. They have learned persistence and how to deal with failure (all athletes and musicians lose a competition at some level but learn to learn from a loss and come back stronger). These skills enable these students to not only succeed, but excel in the pressure-filled environment of professional school programs. At the same time I feel it absolutely essential that all athletes participating in our programs understand that their primary purpose is to obtain an education from the University of Illinois. They must be encouraged, in every way possible, to graduate with a meaningful degree that certifies they have completed a rigorous academic program and are ready for success. The public must know and understand that all degrees granted from the U of I represent strong and rigorous programs. Potential employers should know and understand that athletes with a degree from the U of I have completed such a program successfully and are educated individuals prepared to take their place in society. The Athletic Board owes it to all our athletes, both scholarship and non-scholarship, to do everything in their power to make certain this is our policy and that the public is aware of the policy. Obviously the Athletic Board must make certain that our programs follow not only the spirit but the letter of all NCAA rules and that we assume a leadership role in formulating and overseeing compliance with these rules in the Big Ten. It is also imperative that all our programs stand up to the closest possible scrutiny for fiscal responsibility. We cannot afford nor condone anything less that setting the standard for adherence to the strongest ethical codes of behavior in everything we do at this University. Thank you for your consideration.

H. T. Wilkinson, (ACES) Professor, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences

I would like to nominate Professor H. T. Wilkinson for the University of Illinois Athletic Board. Hank has a very impressive background and philosophy concerning the integration of academic and athletics. In brief, he has been very active and accomplished in working with student-athletes and numerous facets of the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics. I am particularly pleased to nominate him because he truly believes that a strong, academically-focused athletic program produces excellent graduates.

Hank is a leader both on campus and off. On campus, he served as a member of the subcommittee on judicial affairs, and still works with Dr. Dick Justice in the one-on-one mentoring of students. He serves as an academic advisor to many students, some of which are athletes. He has been successful in developing summer internships, the most recent with the St. Louis Cardinals, for students interested in careers of turf management. He has been particularly active in advising students as they are preparing for professional careers or graduate school. Hank is the leading advisor for campus turfgrass management. He advises the Division of Operations and Maintenance, the Division of Campus Recreation and the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics on design, construction and maintenance of turf for sports and recreational areas. Academically, he is a leader as well. He is the author and leader of a multi-university program for the genetic advancement of turfgrasses for resistance to diseases. He is the turf advisor for the Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers and numerous other professional sports programs. He is an internationally recognized leader in sports field design, construction and maintenance. He has been invited to speak at hundreds of conferences, both nationally and internationally, and was awarded the researcher of the year by the International Sports Turf Managers’ Association.

He has excelled both academically and practically. His research is continually focused on solving practical problems dealing with turfgrass. The turfgrass industry spans sports fields to cemeteries, and his research is internationally recognized. He has written two books, one of which is used by the English turf industry. He also produced the first turf disease management CD, which he has developed into a modern teaching tool. His research has produced more than 50 refereed articles, many abstracts, 2 patents, over 75 popular articles, and he has been invited to present his research and ideas at most of the land-grant universities with turfgrass programs.

Hank has a very interesting background that has integrated athletics into his professional life. He was an excellent student-athlete. He has been a nationally recognized wrestling official in both the PAC-10 and Big-10 conferences. He was also a collegiate and FIFA soccer referee. Hank has taken the time to learn both the workings and the student athlete mission of the DIA. He has worked closely with Ron Guenther and the athletic directors before him to develop better sports facilities on this campus. He believes that the quality of the sports program in terms of academics, athletics and facilities is important to the reputation and recognition of this university. His experiences, skills, cognitive powers and interest should give great strength to the Athletic Board.

Submitted by: Gary L. Rolfe, Head, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences

Joyce C. Wright, (LIBR) Head of the Undergraduate Library and Associate Professor of Library Administration

As Head of the Undergraduate Library and Associate Professor of Library Administration, I am responsible for the busiest and most popular library in the system. I manage a diverse staff of six professional librarians, fifteen support staff members, ten graduate assistants, and over seventy student assistants.

In my twenty-three years as a professional librarian, seventeen have been working in academic libraries, of which fifteen years have been dedicated to teaching undergraduates how to use the library for their research needs. I have worked with student athletes formally and informally in developing their library skills; all my encounters with these students have been positive and most of all a great challenge. During my sabbatical in 1996, I visited undergraduate libraries in the United Kingdom and United States to see how libraries are using information technologies to deliver user education programs and instruction to undergraduates to effectively utilize relevant technologies, such as the Internet in their research. The Internet is an essential resource to all users. In addition to library instruction, I continue to study the special concerns of cultural diversity in academic libraries on exploring issues relating to recruitment, retention, and affirmative action policies and practices.

College athletics is a vital component of academe; I enjoy sports on both the college and professional levels. To me the Big Ten is an exciting conference and I feel that my tenure in higher education has provided me with a variety of opportunities and experiences which are congruent with the responsibilities for this appointment. Thank you so much for your consideration.

Biographical Sketches of Student Nominees to the Athletic Board*

Peter M. Amberg (Sophomore in FAA - Urban Planning)

1. I want to become a member of the Board to represent the ideas of the student body and assist the Board in its efforts to maintain an active line of communication with the student community. If selected to be a member of the Athletic Board, my goal would be to fairly and cooperatively represent the sentiments and interests of the students of the University while contributing to the continued success of the University of Illinois athletic program. My career goal is to become a successful and respected urban and regional planner. I believe that membership on the Board would improve my public relations and communication skills, both vital tools which I will no doubt need to reach my career goals as a planner.

2. I am currently involved in the Finance Club, Student Planning Organization, and occasionally intramural soccer. I participate in these three groups approximately two hours per week. Besides my involvement on campus I am currently employed as Youth Activities Coordinator at St. Patrick’s Church in Urbana. On average I spend an additional one to two hours a week planning and facilitating the youth activities. However, I am sure that these 3-4 hours a week will not have a detrimental effect upon my capacity to serve the Athletic Board to the best of my abilities.

3. I have previously been involved with the athletic program indirectly as I have worked in the past at football and basketball games for ESPN as a productions assistant which includes showing camera crews around our beautiful campus and coordinating workers for the games. More directly though, I have participated in the intramural soccer program.

4. If I was selected to be a member of the Athletic Board, I would be willing and able to devote part of my weekends to serving as a student representative on the Board.

Adam Collopy (Junior in LAS – Economics)

1. I have a passion for all types of sports-related activities. Becoming a member of the Athletic Board would allow me to further express my deep interest for sports. I played baseball, basketball and soccer as a child. I played soccer throughout my childhood, into high school, and continue to participate in the Intramural program here at Illinois. While in high school, I was fortunate enough to be elected captain by the coaching staff for my junior and senior years. While in this position, I attended two leadership programs. The leadership programs provided athletes from the Southwestern suburbs of Chicago with the opportunity to gain valuable experiences in life. The goal of these camps was not only to educate the attendees, but it was also our job to educate our fellow teammates and peers. These leadership camps helped me to emerge as a leader in the athletic field.

If given the honor of becoming a member of the Athletic Board, this would allow me to contribute extensively towards my goal of helping the UIUC athletic program to achieve success not only on the athletic field, but also in all areas of life. One goal that I would like to help achieve, is to see that the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics existing mission to achieve excellence both in the classroom and in sport competition is achieved on a regular basis.

Membership on the Athletic Board would allow me to further develop specific skills in the athletic field. These skills would help me to attain my goal of successfully involving sports within my future career. For the past three or four years, I have envisioned myself as becoming a member of the business field, particularly in sports management or sports marketing. This past summer I had the chance to attend the National Sporting Good Association Convention at McCormick Place. Over five hundred companies and organizations involved in the sporting goods industry were present. This convention fully convinced me that athletics are going to play a big part in my career.

2. This is currently my third semester as a member of the American Marketing Association. This organization involves various activities throughout the semester. The AMA allows students to meet representatives from major companies involved in the business world. I currently participate between 1-2 hours per week. Membership within this organization is on a volunteer basis. Students are free to devote as much, or as little time as they wish.

Money is one thing that most college students love to have. With this in mind, I decided to find a very flexible part-time job last January. Considering how much I love sports, I decided to become an Intramural Soccer Official. Not only do I make money participating in something that I love to do, but I am also able to pick which days and times I am available to work. On the average, I work three to six hours a week. Since I am free to set my own schedule, participation in this event would not limit my accessibility to serve on the Athletic Board. I am very confident that I will be able to balance the Athletic Board position and academics successfully.

3. During the summer, I contacted the editor of the Fighting Illini Newspaper to inquire about a job as a reporter. This is a volunteer position that has provided me with very exciting opportunities within the UIUC athletic program. I have had the chance to interview D. A. Points, an excellent golfer who transferred here this past fall from LSU, and I wrote a feature article for the newspaper. I have also written a feature article on transfer student Kelly Buszkiewicz, a standout on the Inaugural Illinois Women’s Soccer Team. I am currently working on a mid-season preview of our undefeated Illini Swimming and Diving Team. Being a student-reporter for the Fighting Illini Newspaper has allowed me to gain valuable knowledge of many of the Varsity sports here at the University of Illinois.

4. I have absolutely no problems with devoting part of my weekends to the Athletic Advisory Board. I would be able to devote as much time as necessary to the Board to ensure its success. The weekends are the ideal time for me to participate in activities outside of schoolwork.

___________________________________

*The following questions were asked of each student nominee:

1. Why do you want to become a member of the Athletic Board, and what are your qualifications? If selected to be a member of the Athletic Board, what would your main goal or objective be? How would membership on the Board relate to your career goals?

2. In what other activities (clubs, honoraries, etc.) are you involved on campus, and how many hours per week do you participate in them? How much time will you be able to devote to the Athletic Board? (Are you currently employed or involved in another time-consuming activity that might limit your ability to serve on the Board?

3. Have you previously been involved with the Athletic Board or the UIUC athletic program in general? If so, please describe.

4. If selected to be a member of the Athletic Board, how would you feel about devoting part of your weekends (i.e. Friday evenings and/or Saturday/Sunday mornings) to this committee?