In one of his final acts as president of the University of Oregon, Michael Gottfredson handpicked former Dean of School of Journalism and Communication Tim Gleason as the faculty athletics representative.
The faculty athletic representative, otherwise known as the FAR, is an NCAA-required post for someone in the school faculty to act as a liaison between the athletic department and the campus at-large. In an email to the university, Gottfredson describes the position as being “responsible for ensuring the academic integrity of the intercollegiate athletic program, promoting the well-being of student athletes, and supporting institutional oversight of athletics compliance and student eligibility.”
Gleason’s appointment intertwines with the retirement of longtime FAR, law professor Jim O’Fallon. The two will work together starting January 1, 2015, beginning a half-year training period until O’Fallon bows out at the end of June 2015.
The search for O’Fallon’s replacement officially began in late February with the creation of a confidential search committee, chaired by human physiology professor Andy Karduna. Karduna spoke to the Emerald Thursday afternoon in a phone interview and said he reached out to around 50 candidates, a list that was whittled down to five before being handed off to Gottfredson in June to take over the hiring process.
“The ideal candidate would have been someone with the rank of full professor,” Karduna said. “Just so they would have some degree of independence and wouldn’t have to worry about job security. Someone in this position might make a call that the president or others might not be happy about and they need to be independent enough to do that.”
Gleason has been at the University of Oregon since 1987 and served as the Edwin L. Artzt Dean of the SOJC for 15 years. He announced he was stepping down in January 2014 but wasn’t replaced until November, when Julianne Newton moved behind the desk.
The search wasn’t without its detractions. Members of the school’s faculty senate tried throughout the search to open the process, but to no avail. Karduna says the process itself was difficult if only for the fact that this is the first time the faculty athletic representative position has been open in over two decades. “No one else was on campus when he was first appointed,” Karduna said. “It was interesting because he had been the FAR for the longest time as far as I know among the Pac-12 teams, so it was a challenge to find out what the process should be.”