Glass makes cuts to athletics staff

IU Athletics Director Fred Glass announced Tuesday that he made changes to a senior staff he has already cut by one-third since becoming active athletics director this January. 

Glass eliminated a position by merging the duties of senior staff members Kevin Clark and Tim Fitzpatrick, who recently took a job as athletics director at Texas A&M at Corpus Christi.

Clark was promoted to senior associate athletics director for internal operations.
Clark will keep the load he had as head of finances but will add Fitzpatrick’s former duties to his daily log. Included in his new responsibilities will be overseeing facilities, women’s basketball and internal administration.

Glass said his decision to fill the position internally instead of seeking outside help will take close to $200,000 off IU’s current payroll.

“One of the things I’ve been wanting to do is to try to prune back the senior management in the department,” he said. “It seemed funny to me that while we were an underfunded department, we were a top-heavy department as far as management.”

The eliminated costs will give IU the opportunity to better serve athletes, Glass said.

“We’ll be able to take these resources that had been absorbed into senior management and allocate them to other priorities within the department that will more directly touch our student-athletes,” he said.

An academic adviser and a strength and conditioning coach were added when IU last eliminated two positions.

“The idea is to have less money with people like me,” Glass said, “people that don’t coach anybody, that don’t recruit anybody. It’s a necessary evil to make sure the department’s run well.”

Along with Clark’s new position within IU Athletics came the reshuffling of multiple job descriptions for other administrative employees.

Including Glass, four members of the senior staff will receive some sort of promotion or added responsibility.   

Glass has constantly talked about the amount of money IU spends per sport, announcing their second-to-last seeding on multiple occasions.

He has now placed himself in the perfect position to change that. The recent transitions landed him as the direct sport administrator in charge of IU football, while he will also serve lesser roles with three other sports.

“Football is such a driver of everything we’re trying to do in the department,” he said. “I’ve been trying to do everything I can to be supportive in the program, with the gameday experience – but also now I’ll be closely involved with IU football and coach Bill Lynch.”

Glass will not be the only IU staff member learning the ropes of a new sport or department. Senior Associate Director Scott Dolson has been promoted to the title of deputy director of athletics.

Mary Anne Rohleder and Associate Athletics Director Grace Calhoun also will see a change in their day-to-day operations.

Rohleder, a longtime fixture in the compliance office, now has received the title of senior associate athletics director, while Calhoun is to add sports administration back to her position.

With compliance in mind, Glass decided not to add any extra workload for Rohleder. 
“I want her to be solely focused on compliance,” he said. “That’s my No. 1 priority, and I don’t want her attention diverted or diluted by having other time-demanding responsibilities.” 

Sports editor Sean Morrison contributed to this story.