Following 13 promising phone interviews with candidates for the position of athletic director, the search committee, led by Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Cindy Babington and Vice President for Communications and Strategic Initiatives Christopher Wells, decided to add an additional step to the interviewing process, conducting off-site interviews with the seven most promising candidates.

These interviews will occur over the weekend as the committee hopes to narrow the pool to two or three candidates to visit campus for further interviewing.

Babington said the process will be behind in terms of scheduling due to the added interim interviews. The on-campus interviews were originally planned to take place the first week of November. 

“We’ll bring the first candidate to campus the week after Monon, I hope,” Babington said. 

Babington said the committee is seeking a candidate who can assist in the move from the SCAC to the NCAC. She also said the committee is seeking a candidate who has experience in the planning of athletic facility construction, as DePauw will likely be constructing new facilities within the next few years. 

“We have a really strong program, but I think that taking that to the next level … moving into a new conference, I think we need someone who can help facilitate that move,” Babington said.

The selection committee is made up of two faculty members: Pam Propsom and Geoff Klinger, coaches Robbie Long, Chris Huffman, Scott Riggell and Mary Bretcher, administrators Cindy Babington and Chris Wells, and admissions representative Keith Stanford. 

The search began when current athletic director Page Cotton announced in early August his intention to move into the role of senior adviser to President Brian Casey.

Cotton has spent 15 years as athletic director and 42 total years at DePauw. He hopes a new director will be found by the end of the semester. If not, he will remain in his current position until a new athletic director is found.