NCAA President Myles Brand visits campus today and will
discuss the state of the NCAA and current trends and issues
in intercollegiate athletics.
The Eastern Michigan University Athletics Department hosts
Brand, who will speak at 2 p.m. in room 201 Welch Hall.
The presentation is open to the entire campus community
as well as the general public.
 |
DISTINGUISHED GUEST: Myles Brand,
president
of the NCAA, will speak today
at 2 p.m. in room
201, Welch Hall. |
Brand also will attend a Champions Dinner set for this
evening. That dinner, beginning at 5:15 p.m. at the EMU
Convocation Center, is by invitation only and will honor
EMU's student-athletes and coaches, highlighted by the
record-setting eight Mid-American Conference team championships
in 2006-2007.
"The department of athletics is very honored that
Dr. Brand will visit Eastern Michigan," said Derrick
Gragg, EMU's director of athletics. "This will be
the first time an NCAA president has been on our campus,
and we are looking forward to his joining us for a presentation
in the afternoon and also to attend our Champions Dinner
to honor our student-athletes and coaches that same evening."
Brand assumed his duties as president of the National
Collegiate Athletic Association Jan. 1, 2003. He is the
fourth chief executive officer of the NCAA.
Called by some the "education president," Brand
focused most of his efforts over the last four-and-a-half
years on academic reform and integration of athletics with
the mission of higher education. He has provided leadership
and oversight to the most comprehensive initiative on academic
reform undertaken by the NCAA in decades. At the same time,
Brand has pressed for greater presidential leadership and
institutional accountability over the financial underpinning
of intercollegiate athletics.
Brand's nationally acclaimed January 2001 speech, "Academics
First: Reforming Intercollegiate Athletics," — which
he gave to the National Press Club — focused on how the
disconnect between intercollegiate athletics and education "jeopardizes
the essential mission of our universities."
Brand was president of Indiana University from 1994-2002
and also served as president at the University of Oregon
from 1989-1994.
Brand's other administrative posts include provost and
vice president for academic affairs, Ohio State University,
1986-89; coordinating dean, College of Arts and Sciences,
University of Arizona, 1985-86; dean, faculty of social
and behavioral sciences, University of Arizona, 1983-86;
director, Cognitive Science Program, University of Arizona,
1982-85; head, department of philosophy, University of
Arizona, 1983-86; and chairman, department of philosophy,
University of Illinois at Chicago, 1972-80. He began his
career in the department of philosophy at the University
of Pittsburgh, where he stayed from 1967-72.
Born May 17, 1942, Brand earned his bachelor's degree
in philosophy from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in
1964, and his doctorate in philosophy from the University
of Rochester in 1967.
Brand also has served as chair of the board of directors
of the Association of American Universities (AAU) from
1999-2000; was a member of the board of directors, 1992-97,
and executive committee, 1994-97, of the American Council
on Education (ACE); and was a member of the board of directors
of the National Association of State Universities and Land
Grant Colleges (NASULGC) from 1995-98. He also served as
a board member of the American Philosophical Association
and of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet
Development, the umbrella organization of Internet2.
His academic research investigates the nature of human
action. His work focuses on intention, desire, belief and
other cognitive states, as well as deliberation and practical
reasoning, planning and general goal-directed activity.
He also has written extensively on various topics in higher
education, such as tenure and undergraduate education.
At Indiana University, Brand oversaw the largest single privatization
effort in the institution's history — the consolidation
of the IU Medical Center Hospitals and Methodist Hospital
to form Clarian Health Partners. He initiated an innovative
marketing plan designed to more effectively tell the story
of IU's first-class programs and educational opportunities.
He helped IU become a national leader in information technology,
and he led the largest and most successful endowment campaign
in the university's history. Brand also was instrumental
in initiating the Central Indiana Life Sciences project,
with IU in the leadership role.
