USU fills hole with interim A.D.

USU President Stan Albrecht didn’t look far or waste time to find a temporary replacement for former athletics director Randy Spetman.

Albrecht named Ken White as the interim athletics director Wednesday. White is the associate director of research in the Center for Integrated BioSystems and a professor in the animal, dairy and veterinary sciences department at USU.

“Ken knows the operation,” Albrecht said. “He’s been the faculty athletic representative for eight years, and he’s been on a number of NCAA committees. He played a key role in helping us with our re-certification process. He knows the people and he knows the budget, so this was an easy appointment to make as we go through the search.”

Spetman took a lucrative job Monday as athletics director of Florida State University.

White has been a USU employee since 1991 and has been associated with the athletics department since 1999.

USU’s policy, Albrecht said, is that an interim director will not be considered a candidate for the permanent job.

“Appointing one of them interim, it would have taken them out of the process, and I didn’t want to do that,” Albrecht said. “They have to make the decision they need to make There were lots of options, and we could have gone a number of different directions with this.

“I’ve had some conversations with some of the senior associate directors who are working through in their minds whether they want to be a candidate.”

Albrecht has appointed an athletic director search committee to be headed by university Provost Ray Coward. No timetable has been set on finding a permanent replacement, but the committee is supposed to begin work immediately.

White said he plans to keep the athletics department on the course Spetman charted.

“There is a lot of strength in the department, and we’ve accomplished several very important things, not the least of which is the Athletics Center in Romney Stadium,” White said. “My goal is to make sure we don’t skip a beat and that our student-athletes have all the resources available to them that they need to be successful both in the classroom as well as on the playing field.

-samuel.hislop@aggiemail.usu.edu