The Nutter Center | Photo by Grace Ramsdell| The Wright State Guardian
The Wright State University (WSU) Board of Trustees (BoT) Special Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics met virtually on Monday March 8, discussing goals and objectives needed to complete charges set by BoT Chair Tom Gunlock in January of this year.
Committee mission
Charges set by Gunlock include the committee completing an analysis of intercollegiate athletics, the current status, role and inclusion of intercollegiate athletics at universities, the impact of the coronavirus on athletics and the review of any NCAA changes to intercollegiate athletics due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Goals and objectives
“Chairman Gunlock wants us to be proactive,” Committee Chair Marty Grunder said. “We need to make recommendations in three distinct areas. Recommendations include how it [coronavirus] has affected intercollegiate sports here at WSU, how WSU can best position itself moving forward and lastly being mindful of how this will effect enrollment and retention opportunities.”
Grunder acknowledged the unforeseen difficulties that the coronavirus has brought upon the university as well as the trustee’s outside business ventures as well.
“There’s been a lot of challenges we’ve been faced with, and quite frankly with those challenges have come opportunities for us to reinvent things. You can look at the glass as half full, or you can look at the glass as half empty. In higher education especially, I believe we should view it as half full and continue to build on what we have in place,” Grunder said.
Trustee Doug Fecher placed an emphasis on looking at how WSU compares to peer institutions, whether it be fellow Horizon league universities or public universities in general.
“I think we need to spend a good amount of time hearing from key constituencies around athletics not just at universities in general, but those here at Wright State specifically,” Fecher said.
Fecher also wants to learn more about not just athletics at the NCAA competition level, but intramural and club sports at WSU as well.
“I just think if we are going to look at athletics at Wright State, we need to look at all athletics,” Fecher said.
“We need to talk to Bob Grant [WSU Director of Athletics], we need to hear from students, from faculty and Raider fans in the community to fully understand the impact of athletics here at Wright State,” Fecher said.
Trustee Brittney Whiteside agreed with Fecher.
“We have to come from a point of understanding. Gathering the information will be key for us to take a step back and really assess and make recommendations,” Whiteside said.
Trustee Andy Platt agreed with his fellow trustees, and added an emphasis on the importance of looking at recruitment and retention opportunities to ensure the long-term success of athletics and Wright State as a whole.
“I look forward to working with everyone here on seeing how we can find possible opportunities to include athletics in our work to increase our enrollment and retention numbers at this university, because that is so important as we look to the future of Wright State,” Platt said.
Moving forward, the Committee plans to meet again in two weeks, with monthly recurring meetings to follow before a final report is created and is presented to the BoT at a later date.
To view the full list of BoT meetings, meeting agendas and a full list of trustees, click here.
