Last modified: Thursday, October 10, 2002
IU president to move into new role at NCAA
EDITORS: Frederick F. Eichhorn Jr., president of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University, will conduct a news conference on IU President Myles Brand's departure on Friday at 1:30 p.m. in the University Place Conference Center in Indianapolis. More news as it develops on the presidential transition will be posted at https://www.iu.edu/~breaking/.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana University Board of Trustees will quickly develop transition plans and initiate a search to find a successor for IU President Myles Brand following the announcement Thursday (Oct. 10) that Brand had accepted the position of president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Frederick F. Eichhorn Jr., president of the IU Trustees, said he was very disappointed about Brand's departure. Brand will begin his new job with the NCAA on Jan. 1.
"He will be sorely missed. But I know he will bring a high level of leadership and experience to the NCAA," Eichhorn said. "He'll do a terrific job for the NCAA."
"We recognize this presents new challenges for the university, and we'll begin to address them immediately," Eichhorn added.
The trustees may meet as early as this weekend to consider transition plans, including the possibility of naming an individual to assume the president's role on an interim basis beginning Jan. 1.
Brand was in Indianapolis at NCAA headquarters Thursday evening. He said the decision was a difficult one for him and his wife, Peg, to make.
"It's an opportunity for me to play a national leadership role on issues central to higher education, and I look forward to that," Brand said. "I leave IU with deep regrets. The university is well-positioned for the future. IU will always have a special place in my heart."
Brand has presided over a period of remarkable growth at Indiana University, including record student enrollments and national leadership in information technology and the life sciences, while maintaining the university's traditional strengths in the arts and humanities. Indiana University was named by Time magazine as College of the Year among research universities in September 2001, based on the quality of its programs to help incoming students adjust to college life.
Under Brand's leadership, Indiana University received its largest single private gift in its history, a $105 million grant from the Lilly Endowment to fund the Indiana Genomics Initiative. Last year, IU was the leading public university in private-sector support, and the university attracted well over $300 million in federal grants and contracts.
