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DIII Management Council adds two members

By Gary Brown
NCAA.org

The Division III Management Council is adding Charles S. Harris, executive vice president at Averett University; and Louis Stark, vice president for student affairs at Coe College, to its roster. Both begin their terms immediately and will serve through the 2015 Convention.

Charles S. Harris.

The additions were warranted after Division III delegates adopted 2011 Convention Proposal No. 2 during Saturday’s business session, which expanded the Council by adding two “athletics direct reports,” which are individuals other than the athletics director who are assigned to directly oversee athletics in cases when the president or chancellor doesn’t.

Harris and Stark also will serve on a joint subcommittee of members from the Presidents and Management Councils developed to determine which broader concepts warrant review by the Presidents Council, and which proposals coming from the structure are more “operational” in nature (as a result of Convention Proposal No. 1).

Both proposals were part of a presidential leadership package that more clearly delineates strategic and operational oversight within the two Councils. Adding the athletics direct reports also broadens the Management Council’s perspective by including a voice that, while responsible for managing athletics on campus, has not historically been included in governance discussions.

About 80 percent of the current Division III membership has institutional structures that include an “athletics direct report” such as a vice president for student affairs, vice president for administration or another senior level administrator to whom oversight of athletics has been assigned.

Lou Stark.

The new 21-member Management Council must have at least two presidents, at least two faculty athletics representatives, two athletics direct reports, two student-athletes and at least nine athletics directors, senior woman administrators or conference representatives. The group must include at least three ethnic minorities, at least eight men and at least eight women, and at least two representations from each geographical region.

Harris is familiar with NCAA governance, having chaired the Division I Management Council in 2001 when he was commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, a post he held from 1996 to 2002.

He also has served on the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee (1991-99), the Division I Football Committee (1998-2002), the Division III Football Committee (2004-07) and the NCAA Financial Aid and Amateurism Committee (1992-95), among several others.

The 1972 Hampton graduate joined Averett in 2004 at the athletics director before becoming a vice president in student affairs in 2007. Before his stint as MEAC commissioner, Harris was the AD at Arizona State from 1985 to 1996 and at Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1985. He was an assistant AD at Michigan from 1973 to 1979.

Stark has headed student affairs at Coe since 1997 and worked in higher education throughout his career. He began supervising athletics at Coe in 2002. Before coming to Coe, Stark was vice president for student life at Central College (Iowa). He also has served in various positions at Tulane, Washington University in St. Louis, Rochester and Hofstra.

Stark, a 1976 graduate of Davis and Elkins College with a master’s degree from Hofstra, has been involved in many community organizations and currently serves as a member of the Marion City Council and member of the community relations committee of the board for St. Luke’s Hospital.