After a successful trial first year, an orientation program for first-time college presidents will become a permanent program helping new chief executive officers negotiate the challenges of overseeing intercollegiate athletics.

The program, which was introduced to the membership by NCAA President Myles Brand, has a multi-pronged purpose: to provide valuable NCAA-related information to new presidents and to familiarize them with college athletics and the NCAA; to provide resources and information that could help them assert appropriate institutional control over their athletics programs; and to establish relationships that the new president and the NCAA can rely on in the future.

In addition to involving the new president and NCAA staff members, the program also includes a "peer CEO" as an integral part of the outreach process. The peer often is a retired president or chancellor who volunteered or was nominated to be a part of the program and is familiar with both the NCAA and the role of intercollegiate athletics on campus. Dave Schnase, managing director of membership services, said the peer CEO was a vital component.

"The success of the program is largely dependent on the peer CEO," Schnase said.

The orientation sessions can be presented in two formats -- as part of a campus visit between the new president, NCAA staff members and the peer CEO, or as a small-group session at the NCAA Convention, at which several new presidents meet together with NCAA staff and former CEOs.

Schnase indicated that evaluations completed by participants showed that they were overwhelmingly pleased with the program.

Bette Landman, former president of Arcadia University, participated in both a campus visit and the session held at the 2005 NCAA Convention, and said she saw value in both.

"I think there are advantages to each, and there are individuals who really don't need one-on-one (attention), but there may well be individuals for whom that is the best way to deal with the kinds of challenges they are facing," she said. "I think the richness of being in a small group, where you all have chances to ask questions and have some real feedback and some real dialogue going on, is also helpful. Even if not all of the questions were directly related to us, it revealed concerns in other kinds of institutions that ought to have meaning for us."

In its pilot year, the program facilitated 10 outreach sessions on the campuses of new presidents -- five from Division I, three from Division II and two from Division III. At the Convention session, five first-time presidents attended the group outreach, one from Division II and four from Division III. Participants in both types of sessions were provided with informational materials about both the NCAA and issues related to intercollegiate athletics before their meetings.

During on-campus visits, a two-hour meeting with two NCAA staff members, the peer CEO and the new president was generally followed by a private meeting between the presidents. The Convention session began with an overview of issues that pertained to all divisions, followed by division-specific breakout sessions. Each new president was encouraged to contact both NCAA staff and their peer CEO in the future for any reason, and Landman said she already had heard positive feedback from two current CEOs.

Invaluable counsel

W. Clinton Pettus, former president of Cheyney University of Pennsylvania and a past member of the Division II Presidents Council, said the private sessions he had with the new presidents allowed the new officials to open up about things they might not want to share with many other people.

"Often, the conversations include other problems they might be having, not just with athletics. One of the things that as an active president they often talk about is that you really don't have enough people you can turn to when you want to just discuss things," he said. "So they have that opportunity to hear from someone who has had a different set of experiences. Even if they're doing all the right things, I think it just makes them feel comfortable that they're headed in the right direction."

President George Wright of Prairie View A&M University called the session "invaluable."

"Even though I already had a sense of the overall philosophy of the NCAA, I came away with a clearer understanding of its roles and the commitment the leadership has to the total success of student-athletes," he said.

President Edward Ray of Oregon State University said that knowing he could contact someone in the future who could relate to possible problems was the most beneficial aspect of the program for him.

"They left their cards with me and said, 'If you need to talk about issues or things come up and you want to just have a sounding board or find out if any of us have dealt with these kinds of circumstances, let us know,' " he said. "I just thought that was a pretty terrific thing for an organization to do."

Though he had extensive experience with collegiate athletics in his previous role at Ohio State University, he said there were some changes in structure and history between that school and Oregon State.

"Part of what came out of that conversation was that I did a reality check," he said. "I met with the athletics directors and some others and said, 'this is what I understand is the way we're proceeding, here are our checks and balances, is that right or not?' So it was a good opportunity to make sure that I didn't take things for granted, to make sure the checks and balances are in place."

Ray said his NCAA orientation session occurred about a year into his tenure at Oregon State, enough time for him to be acclimated in the job. Officials said that visits earlier than nine months into a new president's tenure do not allow enough time for the CEO to be familiar with issues related to college athletics and the needs of his or her particular institution.

David Skorton, president of the University of Iowa, said that both materials sent to him before the visit and the interaction with NCAA staff and a former CEO were both extremely helpful to him. Before the visit, Skorton already had decided to take NCAA President Brand's advice in having Iowa's director of athletics report directly to him.

"I had a good intention to participate, but not the knowledge that would be required to do a decent job, so I actually learned a lot from the process," he said. "And it was clear to me that the (NCAA) was interested in continuing, not just spending a couple of hours with me and leaving me to my own devices, and they made it very clear that that was the point to establish more long-term contact."

Giving back to the presidency

Since the orientation session he participated in, Skorton said he has been spurred to become more involved in the governance of the NCAA, and now serves on a presidential task force.

Because of the nature of the sessions in its first year, officials have decided to change the name from the CEO Orientation Program to the CEO Outreach Program to better reflect the content of the sessions.

Both Skorton and Ray counted the program as valuable and would recommend it to other new presidents, especially those with limited experience in athletics.

Peer CEOs have been called the key to the experience, and both Skorton and Ray indicated that the involvement of someone who had walked in their shoes was very useful. Several peer CEOs expressed a willingness to remain involved in the project as it continues.

"The bottom line is, anytime we can help one another or help someone to avoid a problem, it just makes me feel good to be a part of it," said Pettus.

Pettus said that even though he was experienced as a vice-president over intercollegiate athletics before he was named president at Cheyney, the outreach program would have been valuable to him as a new CEO.

"You never know it all, and typically you're working with people who know so much more than you do -- and that's usually very good because they do all the right things," he said. "But sometimes they don't. That's one issue, but the other one is simply to try to have a better program."

Landman also said she would have found the experience helpful as a new CEO, and even her involvement as a peer CEO has been beneficial.

"It's an enlightening experience to kind of remember what it was like when you didn't know the things you know now," she said. "And more importantly, it's a nice experience for me because things constantly change and this is a way for me to keep up with the changing scene, the changing issues, and the emergence of that ultimate vision that we have for Division III."

Charles Wethington, former president of the University of Kentucky, said that he will remain committed to the project, which he sees as a good opportunity to share ideas, give advice and inspire new CEOs to become a part of the NCAA.

"I'm committed to it, I think it's worthwhile, and I know that the NCAA staff, including President Brand, is active and involved with the project," he said. "As long as this is an initiative with the NCAA staff and the membership wants to see it happen, then I'd like to be involved with it."

Officials are searching for more former presidents to be a part of the outreach program by serving as peer CEOs. Anyone interested in participating as a peer CEO or first-time CEOs in the first year of their tenure who are interested in participating in the program can contact Schnase at dschnase@ncaa.org or at 317/917-6561.