Allenspach right for AD search committee, students

The IU student body is lucky to have Drew Allenspach, but it doesn’t deserve to have him.

Allenspach, a senior on the IU men’s golf team, is the student representative on the search committee charged with finding a replacement for current Athletics Director Rick Greenspan.

IU President Michael McRobbie appointed Allenspach to the committee to serve as a liasion between the other members and the students – a difficult job considering the low turnout at two open forums in the past two weeks.

The low turnout (less than 10 people attended the forum on Sept. 24) was embarrassing. Students never pass on an opportunity to demand a student section at Assembly Hall or complain how the athletics department does not care about the students. To pass up an opportunity to be heard reinforces the stereotype that students are apathetic for the most part.

The students might have a point – although anyone familiar with the student section situation understands why it cannot happen – but they lost a lot of clout by standing on the sidelines last week.

Thankfully, in Allenspach, the students have a capable advocate who will make sure the students’ views are know by the committee.

It’s easy to see why McRobbie chose Allenspach as the student representative. The Sugar Land, Texas, native is intelligent, as evidenced by his 4.0 GPA and his major in business with focuses in accounting and finance. More importantly, Allenspach has important skills that are crucial for the position.

Allenspach was impressive at the forum, listening to ideas and writing them down to present at the next committee meeting. He fostered an atmosphere of participation by showing genuine interest in student input and even managed to learn everyone’s name.

Perhaps the best asset Allenspach has is his added perspective.

As a student-athlete, Allenspach represents two important constituencies on the search committee. He knows what student-athletes want from an athletics department, but he also understands what it means to be a student watching the basketball team from the 45th row at Assembly Hall.

To top it off, Allenspach showed himself to be very knowledgeable about the department, and sports in general, at the forum.

The search for this university’s next athletics director is too important to make a mistake.

The problems facing the basketball program are well known, but the new athletics director will also have to continue to generate revenue like Greenspan to keep IU athletics competitive and up-to-date despite having weak football ticket sales.

Replacing Greenspan will purge the department of the two most visible faces of IU athletics last year, when former men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson and his staff committed NCAA violations.

The move is also part of a University-wide movement that has seen new faces in several prominent leadership positions in the past two years.

The committee selected by McRobbie is full of solid appointments representing every group affected by the new hire.

Students should feel well represented by Allenspach, as I believe he is committed to expressing the thoughts, wishes and needs of students.

He is dedicated to the job. I hope the student body will follow his lead.