Utilizing Positive Communication with your Staff when Dealing with a Conflict Situation
Speaker: Major General Vincent Brooks, United States Military Academy

Situations of crisis get no more critical than when lives are in jeopardy at war, and not many individuals know more about combat crises than Major General Vincent Brooks of the United States Military Academy. Speaking on the uncanny similarities between a man in his position and a director of athletics, General Brooks addressed the attendees candidly, stating that upon being asked to speak, he found that army generals and athletics directors have quite a bit in common.

The “team of teams” is how General Brooks describes the United States Army. Individual units serving in all parts of the world to achieve a common goal of freedom can be paralleled to individual departments within an athletics program each doing its own job for the betterment of the program and institution as a whole. General Brooks shared four statements of ethos that he feels epitomizes what it means to be part of a team:

• I will always place the mission first
• I will never accept defeat
• I will never quit
• I will never leave a fallen comrade

What a simple, yet telling set of statements. If you aren’t proud to live in a country that has military leaders instilling these ideals on our soldiers, check your pulse. The remarkable thing is that they can be applied to the field of athletics administration without stretch. If Brooks hadn’t captivated the audience to this point, there’s no doubt that all attention was on his as he told his gut wrenching account of an event that took place on December 4, 2006 in downtown Baghdad.

“Sometimes, our soldiers go above and beyond the call of duty and make the ultimate sacrifice for their teammates,” General Brooks said. “Ross McGinnis was the member of a team when a big fight occurred. McGinnis and his team were victims of one of those lucky shots that sometimes happen at your athletics events. An insurgent threw a grenade down into the vehicle from the top of a building and went right straight into his space. We train our soldiers when something like that happens to yell ‘Grenade!’ Once Ross McGinnis yelled ‘Grenade!’ he heard ‘Where, where?’ The people inside the vehicle didn’t see it come in. Instead of leaving the vehicle, Ross McGinnis, the member of a team, decided his teammates were not going to die because of that grenade, so he threw himself back into the vehicle and laid on the grenade.”

If an ant were to have walked across the floor in the ballroom at the conclusion of that story, it would’ve sounded like a herd of elephants because of how silent it became. Sure athletics directors will probably never be put in a situation where they will have to sacrifice their life for their staff, but the principle of dedicated, unconditional service to the staff, student-athletes and the institution still applies. General Brooks parted with a series of questions for those in attendance to examine about their own programs.

“What does your program stand for?” General Brooks asked. “How is that reflected in all you do? What does it really mean to put on the distinctive uniform with your logo on it? Define the ethics of your program. Is it revenue, or is it attracting and retaining character student-athletes?”

Coping with the Economic Crisis on our Campuses
Panel: Bob Bowlsby, Director of Athletics, Stanford University
Joni Comstock, Senior Vice President of Championships, NCAA
Drew Paluf, Controller, University of Notre Dame
Joe Moglia, Chairman, TD Ameritrade

The secret was finally let out in the second NACDA general session of the day. The economic crisis taking place in our nation has trickled down to and impacted places of higher education. Okay, maybe it’s not a secret, but the session was well-attended, which proves that colleagues of the panelists are curious as to how the problem started and how it can be managed until it’s fixed, and leading off to try and put into simple terms how we got into the financial state we’re in today was Joe Moglia of TD Ameritrade.

Beginning in March 2001 and lasting until March 2003, the feds drove interest rates down to a nearly unprecedented rate of one percent, making it easy to borrow money, resulting in a boom of real estate. All these people investing in mortgages had planned on the market crashing and had the cumulative idea to get out before it happened. The problem came when these people didn’t realize there were millions of others with the same plan, meaning no one was left to buy. Welcome to our current situation. This happened to nearly every financial institution in the U.S., according to Moglia.

Since the past cannot be erased, what can be done to best cope with the current economic situation on our campuses? Drew Paluf of Notre Dame, a private institution, said that they have been forced to reduce their budget at the rate their endowments decrease. Other things he laid on the table include having common sense when it comes to spending, having more practicality when it comes to business and team meals, planning more modest business events and eliminating all non-essential travel by utilizing more teleconferencing.

Bob Bowlsby, leader of the Division I program that has dominated the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup standings for much of the past two decades, is also feeling the effects of the economy on his once untouchable program. The Cardinal’s $520 million endowment at the time of his arrival on campus in 2006 has now shrunk to $410 million. Division II and III programs, as well as some small DI programs have no other alternative but to begin cutting sports, but Bowlsby emphasized why that is not in the plans for Stanford.

“We certainly are excited every year about trying to compete for the Directors’ Cup,” Bowlsby said. “There is great pride taken in it on our campus, but if you think about getting rid of a few sports at Stanford University, you are very quickly getting rid of a national championship men’s gymnastics team, or you’re getting rid of a fencing program with 115-year history.”

Concluding by putting a positive spin on the economic situation at hand, which has led to difficult decisions being made in the department, Bowlsby stated:

“I think we have had some of our low performers taken out of the department, and that can be a very healthy turning process for the department. I think in the wake of this our operations will be cleaner and we’ll be a better program overall.”