On Friday, Stanford Athletics Chief Operating Officer Alden Mitchell was named as Interim Athletics Director by university president Jonathan Levin. The announcement was made in tandem with the news that a search committee has been assembled to look for the next athletics director.
Stanford Athletics: Stanford Launches National Search for Next Director of Athletics
“We are focused on an exciting future for Stanford Athletics, grounded in a culture of excellence and offering exceptional opportunities for our student-athletes both on the field and in the classroom,” Levin said in the release put out by Stanford Athletics. “Our new athletic director will play a vital role in shaping that future.”
The need for a new athletics director comes in the wake of Bernard Muir resigning from his position. Rather than having Muir finish out the remainder of the academic term, Stanford has evidently decided to send Muir packing early with Mitchell stepping in until they get a new athletics director hired.
The following people will serve on the search committee:
Amy Brooks (Co-Chair), Member of the Stanford Board of Trustees and President, New Business Ventures, National Basketball Association.
Jay Mitchell (Co-Chair), Stanford Faculty Athletics Representative and Professor of Law, Emeritus.
Alia Crum, Associate Professor of Psychology and, by courtesy, of Medicine.
Asher Hong, Men’s Gymnastics Student-Athlete.
Condoleezza Rice, Tad & Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution.
Jesse Rogers, Stanford Alumnus, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Altamont Capital Partners, Former Stanford Athletics Board and DAPER Investment Fund Member.
Tara VanDerveer, Former Stanford Head Women’s Basketball Coach.
Howard Wolf, Vice President for Alumni Affairs and President of the Stanford Alumni Association
What most stands out to me about the search committee is having a student athlete on the committee in junior gymnast Asher Hong. I’m not sure if that’s common or not at other places to include a student athlete on the search committee for an athletics director, but I think it’s good that Stanford is looking for that kind of input.
It’ll be interesting to see what direction Stanford goes with respect to their search. For a variety of reasons ranging from ACC membership to NIL to finding a new head football coach, it’s really important they get this hire right.
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