The goal of the athletic director search committee was to have a candidate chosen by the end of the semester so that current Athletic Director Page Cotton can move into his new role as a senior adviser to President Brian Casey on Jan. 1.
While there is still a chance that can happen, Cotton or an interim athletic director might be needed to give the new athletic director more time to transition to DePauw.
The search for a new athletic director is down to its final three candidates after combing through numerous applicants to this highly attractive position, and there are two front runners.
"We are going to be pretty close," said Christopher Wells, co-chair of the search committee. "I hate to jinx it, because it seems like this has been going on forever. There's some desire to have one more meeting with folks of the board of trustees and other staffers. That will be the end of the process and a decision will be made."
DePauw decided to conduct the search internally instead of spending more than $50,000 dollars, according to Wells, to hire an outside firm to conduct the search for them. Although the search has been difficult, problems were expected in a process of such great importance.
All applications were first screened through DePauw's human resources department. They looked for certain criteria such as a familiarity with collegiate athletics, but administrative experience was not a requirement for consideration. The applications were then passed on to the search committee who conduced 16 phone interviews with applicants.
"The search committee waded through a lot of resumes," Wells said. "Some were coaches who never had administrative experience. Some had collegiate administrative experience but not a lot of athletic experience."
The committee then met with candidates near the Indianapolis airport for their first face-to-face interviews.
"In searches of this kind, you want to be respectful of peoples' confidentiality," Wells said. "They may not have told their home institution so that first step was not here on campus but in a more private setting."
After narrowing down the candidates, potential finalists were brought to campus and met with the vice presidents, coaches and some students. Now the search is in a place where there are three finalists and the two strongest of those three will interview with some members of the board of trustees.
"Early on, we wanted to be casting the broadest net possible," Wells said. "The pool was so strong with individuals who had conventional backgrounds. The finalists all have significant experience working with student athletes and administration."
The search has taken so long because of the seriousness and complexity of finding a new athletic director. Because this position is incredibly attractive given the success of almost every team here, the committee has attempted to get to know its candidates on a personal level.
"Some of the questions we asked were particularly centered around, ‘What's your understanding of the institution and Div. III athletics here,'" Wells said. "It's draining to try and get to know a stream of people you've never met before. We want somebody who can be here for a long time, so it's important that we know how they think and know how they can interact with students."
Fortunately, only the men's and women's basketball teams compete during winter break and Winter Term until swimming returns to competition on Jan. 13.