Glass brings in new associate director

The IU Athletics Department added a new administrator — one who has worked for the NCAA since 1999 — as the replacement for the current senior associate athletics director for Compliance and Administration.

IU Athletics Director Fred Glass said the new hire, Julie Cromer, is a “nationally recognized expert” in compliance, certification, governance, gender equity and academic reform. She will replace Mary Ann Rohleder, who is retiring, at the beginning of July.

Rohleder has worked in the department for 17 years.

“Mary Ann Rohleder’s shoes will be very large to fill,” Glass said. “She is an outstanding compliance professional, and beyond that, she was someone whose council I relied on a great deal.

“I think Julie is certainly of the caliber to do just that — fill those shoes and take it even beyond that.”

Cromer has served as the NCAA’s Director of Academic and Membership Affairs since 2003, where she launched the Facilitating Learning and Achieving Graduation program and directed the Academic Progress Rate programs for the NCAA.

“The fact that she was interested is a real coup for us,” Glass said. “We reached out to recruit her as much as she pursued the job with us.”

Cromer said the position appealed to her because Glass has made compliance his No. 1 priority.

“I was particularly drawn to the position, in part, because of the commitment to integrity and to compliance as a priority on the campus, but, in larger part, because of the reputation of IU and the fine people working in the athletic department there,” she said.

Cromer is, like Glass’ last hire — IU men’s soccer coach Todd Yeagley — an IU graduate with Indiana ties. She graduated Friday from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs with a Master of Public Affairs in Policy.

“It’s a huge bonus that she is a Hoosier, not only in terms of having lived in the state ... but is a Hoosier in terms being an alumnus of the University,” Glass said.

Her experiences at IU as a student, Cromer said, were helpful in making the decision to accept the position.

“My graduate schooling at IU is something that was well underway long before I started talking to Fred about coming to work for the athletic department, but certainly, through an opportunity to be academically engaged with the IU system, I have a strong affinity for Indiana University,” she said.

She said her strong background in compliance will allow her to offer a credible perspective on national rules and regulations.

“I think the thing that I can bring is the ability to translate what happens nationally at the campus level and to take the rules and translate them into their real-life situations,” she said.

Attracting Cromer, an experienced member of a national organization dedicated to the field, is a sign of departmental progress, Glass said.

“It’s a real statement that IU Athletics is a destination for athletic administration professionals,” he said. “It is somewhat an endorsement of what we’ve done over the last year and a half to reestablish the credibility of the department.”