Measuring the success of the NCAA's Fellows Leadership Development Program depends on the perspective of the person doing the defining. Clarkson University Athletics Director Sean Frazier has a unique vantage point on the program since he was a member of the 1999-00 class.

When he began the 18-month initiative, he was an assistant director of athletics at the University of Maine, Orono. His work there included co-founding the Student Heritage Alliance Center, a facility for multicultural events; establishing internships and educational programs; and providing senior administration and leadership for the men's ice hockey program, which won an NCAA championship in 1999.

Before he completed the Fellows Program, he was hired as the athletics director at Division III Manhattanville College, where he broadened his skills in financial areas such as increasing revenue through ticket sales, creating a varsity sports shop with trademark agreements and strengthening the event concessions program.

Frazier can only measure the success of the program by analyzing where he and the other five members of his fellows class -- who are all now senior-level administrators in conferences or member institutions -- ended up.

"Where are these people after they graduate from these programs and what are they doing at this point?" said Frazier, who has been at Clarkson since 2002. "Are they getting interviews? Are they being recruited? I think all that needs to be a part of the evaluation process."

Frazier was fortunate to be courted by Manhattanville while he also was learning about subjects that would make him a better athletics administrator.

His work at his previous job played a major role in his advancement, but so did the time he put into the Fellows Program, which was established in 1994 and modeled after the American Council on Education Fellows Program.

Frazier said perhaps the biggest impact the program had on him was from the mentoring component, during which he was paired with University of Arizona Athletics Director Jim Livengood, with whom he remains close.

"With my aggressive personality and his attention to detail -- I can tell you right now he taught me things that I would've never learned from a book or from an applicable experience component," Frazier said. "The NCAA Fellows Program has a leg up on any other program because it pairs senior-level administrators who are the best in the country with up-and-coming people."

After learning some of the nuances to being an athletics director from Livengood, Frazier, who already was convinced he was ready to take on the role of being an AD himself, was more prepared for the next step in his career.

"I was being mentored by a guru of fund-raising, development, quality control and human-resource management," said Frazier, who earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, where he competed in football. "I was getting straight feed on all of this. To this day my family is very close to Jim and his family. We have a long-standing relationship, and he is actually quoted in several periodicals about mentoring me and being a part of my decision-making as I move through my career. We're very tight, and he's a great human being. He took the time to welcome me in. That was the single thing that prepared me for Manhattanville, Clarkson and any other place I may end up."

Frazier still relies on advice from Livengood on matters ranging from contract negotiations, fund-raising and facility development, which is critical at any level of college athletics.

He appreciates that his relationship with Livengood didn't end when his time in the Fellows Program was finished.

"He was a guy who didn't close the door after 18 months," Frazier said. "This is a partnership that the NCAA helped foster. Without this program, I might not have had the type of interaction necessary to develop credibility with boards of trustees and presidents. He has helped my leadership skills."

Frazier said another positive of the program is the relationships developed among peers who work together through a curriculum that provides academic and practical work experiences that enable individuals to develop their talents and abilities -- and mesh skills with aspirations.

Frazier never hesitates to talk with former classmates Kathy Worthington, the executive senior associate AD at the University of Maryland, College Park; Floyd Kerr, the AD at Southern University, Baton Rouge; or Dell Robinson, the associate commissioner of compliance at the Mid-American Conference.

He said the program has helped create a network of minority administrators that wasn't there before. And those who have completed the program can look out for others who are ready to advance.

"If I'm on the phone with one of them, I can say, 'I've got a kid who's coming up who looks good and is really hungry.' Now you have this network of power brokers, because we're seasoned," he said. "I'm a two-time AD now instead of being a young buck."

Frazier said he has completed about 90 percent of his original strategic plan at Clarkson. Since 2002, he has established a television contract with Time Warner Cable and radio contracts that cover northern New York, and he has created a department licensing plan with new athletics logos and trademarks.

While Frazier experienced a measure of success through the Fellows Program, he said there needs to be more success stories for programs such as the fellows initiative to have a lasting effect.

"Numbers help," Frazier acknowledged. "At the end of the day, it's that in-your-face statistical data about the number of black coaches and minority administrators that will move the needle. You can't really run from that.

"We graduated and all of us went on to senior-level administrative positions. That's the type of data that will grab a trustee or a president and make them say, 'If this person went through that program, there may be some merit about their leadership and their ability to get the job done.' "