UMD Begins Search for New Athletic Director

The University of Maryland, College Park is at the beginning of the process of finding a new athletic director for the flagship campus. The situation, although routine in NCAA sports, is a delicate one, considering that Deborah Yow, the school's long-time athletic director, left the position in June after 16 years of service for another job, and the university's president will also resign later this month.

A 19-member search committee handpicked by university President C.D. Mote met for the first time in July to discuss guidelines for finding its next athletic director, said Linda Clement, vice president of student affairs for the university and chairwoman of the search committee.

According to Clement, there were not any major steps taken at the initial meeting, which saw the committee get its marching orders from Mote on the best way to proceed with the search. At the next meeting, she added, the committee plans to speak in more detail about its search and what qualifications it wants from its next athletic director.

Randy Eaton, the chief financial officer of the university's athletics department, was named interim athletic director in June after Yow left the university to pursue the same position at North Carolina State University. Yow, who was hired in 1994, was the first female athletic director in the history of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Prior to her departure from College Park, she was the second-longest tenured  athletic director in the ACC.

The search committee is looking to fill the position with a person of "integrity ... somebody who can be a leader and good with alumni," Clement said Tuesday. The search for a new athletic director is concurrent with the university's hunt for a new president. Mote, who has served as university president since 1998, is stepping down this month and returning to a faculty position in the school's engineering department.