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>> Please give a warm Georgia Tech Welcome to our guest Mr Mark Roundtree. Well thank you. I know in the brochure it had Todd stand very written down and so I appreciate the opportunity for athletics to come out and engage with with students and faculty here. They don't let me out much so I jumped at the opportunity to come here and speak but I guarantee you're getting a shorter.

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Better looking version of Todd stands very then Todd was here plus Todd's Canadian if you don't know Todd he came to Georgia Tech via Iran to Canada so you know you'll be able to understand my accent as I'm from Louisiana so that I work out a little bit better but but really happy happy to be here and talk a little bit about myself my career path athletics and then a lot about Georgia Tech and the role that we believe that we play on campus and how we fit into the environment of higher education Expressway on this on this campus which is so unique compared to other campuses that we compete against in our conferences and on the on the field sports so the first thing about me.

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As you said I'm originally from West Monroe Louisiana they might know where West Monroe Louisiana is has ever seen an episode of Duck Dynasty if you think Dynasty then you know or western Louisiana is because that's where it's film so I'm like this close I'm having a beer this long and we're in cammo today but fortunately.

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I was raised by great parents I'm a first generation college student my dad put three kids and my mother to college and so I took advantage that opportunity and at Louisiana Tech and was very fortunate to play football there. As you can tell I'm not a kicker I'm not the tallest person or I think I shrunk over the years.

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But I played a very unique position there's a buy ever heard the position of asked back. Because I know that position. It is a position. That's right that's a position I played coach but when you get your ass back. So that was a position I played at Louisiana Tech.

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But I had a great experience there and it learned a lot about myself and the things that come along with sports and academics so I went to another take right I went to Louisiana Tech but was was very fortunate there back back in those days eighty seven to ninety is when I played in academic support and those things that we we take for granted now the support structures we have in place for students that exist and so somebody there reached out to me and said hey would you like to start an academic program and get your master's and I was like great I was living in a doublewide I don't have a lot of deals sure sounds great so but really that's where I found the calling for me because in our world you know having somebody in your athletic department who puts a priority on the total person which incidentally is what we do here at Georgia Tech but not just the athletic component because that's only that's only part of the world of the student and student athlete right there is the academic component and then there's just how are you doing in life and what skills are you developing to make yourself marketable available in a strong person when you leave really this is the to Sion so I jumped at the opportunity to join a staff there losing an attack and then that was a journey and since then I've worked in many positions starting out in academics where you're in a support field and then moving over into compliance and if you don't know a lot about intercollegiate athletics it's a many many company intercollegiate athletics were just depending on your level I was a poor as they are budget of the state was fourteen million dollars so I was the head see over forty million dollars company at Georgia Tech our budget is about seventy five million dollars Right so now we have lots of what we have a business office that tracks all of our finances you know that's got accountants to make sure that we're staying within budgets or monitoring our.

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Our experiment is in expenditures we have a marketing are right together we swarm you've seen that you seen the posters in the social media campaigns we have a marketing arm you know we have a compliance arm that's kind of like our legal office so if you're if you work in the world of finance you know compliance is very important so we have a compliance officer make sure we play by the rules you know and then in addition we in our business is student success on the field in the classroom in life that's what our business is and he declares in athletics so throughout my career I bet I've had a great opportunity to play many roles in a department whether it was at Georgetown and being a a C.F.O. and running the department finances to Miami of Ohio or I was a deputy director so I was a got to be involved in everything there in the athletic world there to follow it lead me where I feel like I had the skills to go to Puerto state and be the director of athletics where you learn a whole bunch about yourself when when you're the person in charge.

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And everybody's looking to you everybody looks to you to make the decisions everybody looks you could you're supposed to be the smartest guy in the room and I have a losing out of public education so I knew I wasn't the smartest guy in the room and there were probably others in there who was smarter than I I was but that's that's the whole of the stories that take advantage of that but one thing I'll tell you that I did learn when you're that person and you're sitting in that chair as a director of athletics you know.

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One of the hardest things that you have to bear it you bear the entire weight of the department on your shoulders meaning through good times and bad times you're the person who is always positive you're the person who's always making sure that our students are succeeding in their class and even when you have four losses in a row or you're missing your ticket sale numbers you have to be the person to lift everybody up and make sure you stay on that path towards success and that's hard because sometimes you want to walk away from that you like because when you go home and you know you let your dog or there's nowhere else to go I mean at that point but it's a big burden to bear so when you're looking at that and being in a day in the leadership.

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A learned a lot about myself and about that decision making process important stay. A. Couple things that I can share with you some things that I've learned over the years. In athletics whether it's being the C.F.O. or helping building a marketing plan or things like that you know and I was fortunate that I left Louisiana Tech and I've worked in D.C. and Oregon State and you know been married for almost twenty five years now next month I got married last twelve you do that we're losing an A so.

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But you know I was going to be working my talents take me I was going to let it be bound by geography or salary or titles where could my talents where could I make the most impact and work in my talents take me so that's why I worked out a lot of schools because I've enjoyed it I've enjoyed learning the learning process and working at different schools and so.

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I think that's what that's when you know your your vocation because your avocation because your vocation when those two things connect it's fun and you can you work you enjoy it with some of the things that whether whatever role you're in whether you're going to be in accounting you're in a market you finance or whatever you look at an engineer these four things I always think you have to be an expert at regardless of what you're doing you have to be an expert at these four things right you have to be an expert at support.

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Whether what role you're playing it is a matter where you're the head of the company or in the middle or the low in the company you have to be you have to learn to support the people around you support the people above you my job is to make Todd Stansbury the best effort of direct in the country because if he's the best at it direct in a country we're doing great things at Georgia Tech My job is also to make everybody around me better so you have to be an expert at supporting your staff one another and the people around you so be it expert at that the next thing is.

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Yet to be an expert at learning. You can never stop that thirst for knowledge and learning. Anywhere you. Go what position doesn't matter you should need to make sure that every stop along the way every class you take every person you're talking to that you always have an open mind you start with that have to be an expert at learning never stops.

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And then you have to be like a lot of you since you're an everybody you're smarter than me an expert at analysis. You have to learn to take in all this information and put different lenses to it. Equity Lin's financial lens fairness Lance how is this going to impact these people so learning that skill and becoming an expert at doesn't matter where you're at the.

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Learning to speak supportive the learning in how you get out and then finally the last thing is yet to be an expert and don't be afraid to make decisions. If you're if you're not strong in one of those areas then get strong at it because if you're weak in one of those areas you know you open yourself to not be the most productive group or organization or person you can be if you become an expert in those four areas those strengths and those things no matter what your position where you what you're doing help and those are the things that I've learned so I constantly try to improve in those four areas.

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Because I'm not an expert in anything I'm not an expert in T.V. media even though I've done that before and that expert in. Compliance even though I did that for a lot of years but I really believe that through the skills I know I've learned to be the best the best employee I can be be supportive of those around me never stop learning in the analysis and then if you stop making decisions as an organization or group as an athletic department you don't move you don't move the needle at all and so those are the four things you know that I think I've learned over the years and in the last thing I think that talk about me and I'll stop talking about me because I mean I think that's why if I showed up here to hear a lot about me but the last thing with thing I think I've learned over this my twenty four years in intercollegiate athletics is that.

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Me and the things the process you learned as a freshman or as a rookie to what you learned as a senior. Or as a veteran that process. Is a skill and it never stops you have to apply it every step along the way so no matter if you take a new role in the current organization no matter if you.

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Change jobs or locations you've taken your new role or you know you move from one school the next or one job to the next doesn't matter you always get back to the fact that I'm a rookie. So as a rookie how my going to impact this organization. And so the first thing you've got to do hate there's no one is a sure that once a Rookie of the first time or to come in and just be the know it all I know everything right nobody likes it that goes over really well don't try that in your first job or your second or third one but you know what he had to go and he have to learn you to lead by example that's the first thing whether you're a rookie I don't care whether if I was the athletic director at Portland State I was would be the guy in charge the first thing I did was establish that I'm going to lead this department by example they're know that I'm going to roll my sleeves I want to work hard I'll sweep the floors with them if I have to do whatever it takes to make sure they understand that we're all in this together the next thing you do that is the same thing after that you've established your.

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Leadership by example is moving on to the next level is leadership by encouragement. Right now that I've developed that trust that I'll get in the trenches with you that I'm a lead by example that I'm going to be here early leave late we're going to get things done then and then I develop that trust like to put my arm around somebody say you're doing a great job.

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You're doing a great job I'm going I'm going to need your best work today and so then after that once you've established You're those first two levels then I think you can actually lead by accountability. It's you know I believe in a dynamic leadership that leaders have to be able to lead on multiple levels and show different styles of leadership to different folks to appeal to to get results but that process never stops.

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So your first job you got to the whole become a member this unit lead by example then with your status that the union be the one who's encouraging your team and then after that you can really be the one to hold folks accountable and that whatever job you go into I've learned so as I got to Georgia Tech I guess what I'm a rookie.

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And I have to have that mentality right it's not about me it's about this group so how do I come in here and fit in work and lead by example and then move up that move up that sale it's been the same blueprint over and over. So I've as far as the introduction a little bit about me and a little bit about what how I think when it comes to working within a structure in our group in athletics that's I'll start right there does anybody have any questions about that or about me or about my career because I don't like talking about myself thank you and I've got that question a lot.

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A. Couple reasons first of all I could not there I can find a reason to say no I mean when. There was a position open here somebody had left and so Todd the athletic director had a position open he said I'd like you to apply for and I work with taught at Oregon State for five years back from four to zero eight and.

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For me it's you talking about working at a place where the the academic rigor and the academic integrity actually reputation this school is up here the athletics that we offer in the A.C.C. at the highest levels that we can offer and so to me that that compelled me to want to be a part of this and plus it's just in being in the city of Atlanta I like Urban Institute and I love being at Georgetown I actually like you know Portland State.

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And I knew I knew I had more to learn especially at this level in this position so I didn't hesitate because for me it's not about titles and things like that it was about you know being a part of this makes them special but we have a chance here Georgia Tech to do something that nobody else is doing in the country I mean we have a chance to reform what intercollegiate athletics is perceived as it should be around the country you can't do that too many schools but you can do it at Georgia Tech and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a second but could you.

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Or. Not me because I've always had to report somebody we report as They've had reports of the president and so I've always taken mentality a WERE I'm at in that organization it's my job to make that person the best present they could be the best so it really it really wasn't a big adjustment for me because you know I had to take with it the V.M. I test we took that recent retreat of the tests and one of my second trait was like humility because I'm just I just to be whenever we have a group meeting whatever do think you check your title and your ego at the door because we're here for the greater good so it really wasn't that was that hard for me.

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Because it's really about the organization in the students that were there to provide services for so it was that hard but I know some people might share with. Let's. Say. Yes or no for what. It was. And. For. That. Yeah absolutely I think to me when you look at decision making how you accumulate the knowledge to make those decisions.

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First of all you take advantage of your opportunities when you're in meetings or you're in. You're part of teams you may not be directly involved in the marketing or you may not be directly involved at unit but I believe you can you can my goodness I'm sorry on the person and I couldn't.

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It was Boston I'm sorry more than if I had to have it. But I believe you could learn a lot from indirect experience so while I wasn't you know at the University of Maryland College Park I worked there for a little while while I wasn't in the marketing office at University of Maryland I was in some staff meetings with a Marketing Officer talk and we would talk about.

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Different things they were looking at doing different projects and so I would learn indirectly and then you know when it came down time that where they are say hey we're going to group together to look at Pepsi we're looking at a contract who wants to be a part of this I raise my hand say I'd love to be part of that I'll be the guy who just takes all the notes and makes all the power points they're like great even though I wasn't in that area they'd let me join the team and I had no authority to make any decisions what so.

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Ever with Pepsi right I was just the person who said OK we want four million dollars And this is why but I learned a lot just being that person and then so then I took it to the next level and this is where I think that it really played with the decision making so even though I'm not the decision maker in that room what I did is I would watch that decision maker and I would learn I say OK what decision to they make if I was in their chair.

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What would I do. And then I would track that mentally and if they may decide this is and I did and it worked I'd be like wow. I possessed the knowledge to make that decision if it didn't work then I say wow I just learned what not to do so it's a win win for you when you're not in the chair and you get to be a part of somebody who's making decisions when you start to do that you start to play that decision making I called system making game you start to play that over and over so you can learn.

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What good decisions look like what bad decisions look like and then for me I have a degree in history and a Masters of history I read books all the time on. Just how did people act when they were in stressful situations what did they do when they made decisions and things like that but but for me in practice when I was sitting in Georgetown the A.V. had to make a big decision and we'd all talk about it he'd make a decision and make a little note what I had made that same decision and why or if I would have done differently and why and then kind of track it so that's how I've got to learn and try to hone my decision making skills.

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Yes Well I mean that's what you call culture right and so you have to establish the culture of your department and make sure that everybody understands that. That's an expectation right that supporting each other and building that and staying away from the silo model where we're going to operate over here we're not really talking to what's going on over there but making sure we.

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We take advantage of expertise from different areas we're looking at we're looking at moving the needle the comps the things but it starts with the culture in our office and they can sure people understand that's what the expectation is and what you do that over and over it should become part of your culture that that you know where there is somebody who's is working for you and you need more out of them then you need to learn how to support that person a way that gets you that makes the expectations you're looking for the same way somebody you're reporting to right it's a two way street so I Need To what do you need to make this happen but I think for us to support each other it starts with the culture in your department and making sure everybody at all levels know that that's what we're expecting and so.

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Sorry for that yes ma'am. The process of going into a new organization. Yeah. It's always challenging to me. Because you're dealing with people so the challenging point of that is learning about the people and I've always thought that the way to overcome that is I'm different you get to know people you get to know what that what what makes them motivates them is that money is it their sense of service you know what's their family life like getting you know their work life balance and what their needs are in that direction but that's the challenging part whenever you're joining a new organization is learning your people and learning what are their strengths and weaknesses and.

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And finding a way for that to make your unit better but that's always been the most challenging part but I think that's where I get when I come in I don't do i don't even know when you're a leader you have to lead but you do take the time to learn it by for example Todd our athletic director now he's having one on one meetings with everybody in our department from the guy who takes care the baseball field to you know the société for marking you know two hundred people.

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And so. That has resonated with our staff he's gotten to know them as human beings and people what their strengths are we just learning this is a story sales he you know one of his one on ones we have of a groundskeeper and a baseball who is a free spirit creativity actually own his own graphic design studio in Los Angeles played baseball with Bryce Harper in Las Vegas as Bryce I was growing up but he's a graphic designer by trade but he loves baseball and he wanted to see a such a perfectionist that's why our fields look that good they're beautiful but he's such a perfectionist and so Todd learned more about him and you don't do that unless you get to know your people so that would be the challenging thing each time you go.

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It's. All right. You know talk about George Yeah Georgia Tech. Then. We talk about Georgia Tech and Todd's vision and what we're trying to get done and what he's trying to get done here is. First of all we really believe that one of the roles that that intercollegiate athletics going to have here at the institute is taking advantage of our platform you know yes intercollegiate athletics teaches you sports teaches you the same things that you learn in classes you know team or communication hard hard work discipline you know we also teach you to miss a free throw and have to come back and make it again since I guess later right we teach you to fail fast in an environment that's very very difficult so we do actually teach that in athletics because you don't complete every pass you don't get hit every time with the bat so we have to teach students to thrive in that environment and to be successful that environment but we really feel like a Georgia Tech our opportunity here is to take the platform of athletics.

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And because I mean whether you agree that or not we really live here in the united in a sports heavy society. With professional teams and college teams and so how do we use that to our advantage here at Georgia Tech and to me it's the platform athletics is uniquely positioned.

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Because we're able to be on a network to tens of millions of homes we're able to put fifty five thousand people in a at a football game how do we use those assets. To broadcast the great things about Georgia Tech not Georgia Tech athletics because they're going to see that on the field but we have to look at ways to leverage those things into broadcast those things so that's what I and the our staff we've been talking a lot about that is how do we use the platform of sport.

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To take that unique in the greatness of Georgia Tech and take that into millions of homes. And. Because we know we can do a better job of that because this place is unique and we know it's unique. When you come to Georgia Tech you decide to come to tour to take you've already made our decision right is same thing for young men and women when they come on the players for They've already made a hard decision to come here.

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And that itself makes us unique here every majors tied to science technology engineering or business you know I'm going to go and they don't have history here I mean I know we do. But I have a great history to English it was a little archways education but here science technology so when we have and we were Christine athletes science technology engineering business that's it so it's already a tough decision so we don't have the peers at Georgia Tech.

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You know yes it looks like we do this like Clinton's our peer but Clinton you can major in Parks and Rec I mean I hate to say that you know at Stanford you can major sociology which is great I have a history degree loved it but what makes Georgia Tech differently is that now when you make that hard decision you're already coming here but that's also when it translates into is our graduates you guys.

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Are some of the most prepared young men and women when they leave the institute to be so successful in life that's what makes us different that's our brand and that's what an athletics we're trying to change the discussion and let me give an example of that. It claims and they just opened a new facility for the football team.

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It's got a mini put course. Has nap rooms. Has barbecues it's built to make people feel comfortable. And we're not trying to be clones and here I'm not trying to be Alabama because that's not in our D.N.A. We want our facilities to look like Google we want our athletics this is so when you walk.

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And you're not choosing between an apples to apples you're choosing between apple and orange it's going to look different going to feel good because that's part of the D.N.A. of Georgia Tech So those are some of the things that we're working on right now is making sure that athletics and campus that there's an integration there because.

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If the deal is in the D.N.A. of Georgia Tech and so that's why it's different we look at it we don't have peers. When it comes intercollegiate athletics because the mission of Georgia Tech is so unique and what's going on a campus so athletic should mirror that and we what we want when we want students walk in the door we want them to know that I'm at a different place I'm not choosing between I want to choose between that room and going into spaces that promote creativity and innovation because that's part of our D.N.A. here you know an interesting graphic lately is that when you look at our football program if you if you rank the programs of number of student athletes who are in the N.F.L. from football we're number two you know in the last like eight years for state was first we were number two so.

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Reverse that if you look at where the average salary of graduates are Georgia Tech was number one and floor state was at the bottom. So that is what makes us unique because you know students who want to play at the highest levels or play professional sports we don't make AND IN AND or OR IT'S and we it's it's not and in my going to go school here it's in and you know whether your pets willing or Mark to share you know you can play professional sports on your own terms and then go on to do great things in life but that's a lot of things that we're working on right now is making sure how we're going to integrate athletics and the campus but use our platform to tell the great story of what basically you guys are doing every day you know how do we recognize a student from a fifty five thousand people because they were they were the student of the year.

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Right are the faculty members doing the best research those are opportunities that I know we're looking at across campus and so I think my time might be but those are things that we're trying to bring to because that's different nobody else is doing that and we want to look different in Georgia Tech in the world of intercollegiate athletics because most of you think that intercollegiate athletics are level there's a wild entertainment industry that has gone amok.

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But I think today that's not who we are we're still about teaching young men and women just like you guys the value of intercollegiate athletics the values for the value of teamwork and the value of the huddle because we own that mathematics we take students from all over we don't when you get into the huddle where there's a basketball softball the huddle nobody knows your zip code nobody knows your family's income everybody has got to operate together a high level and so we like to think that we teach that tonight some of the things that we while also want to take that model and how how can we improve that and how do we take that into the business world that model the whole you know stop talking done so that was.

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A little bit about Georgia Tech and kind of at the high level what we're trying to do but I can answer other questions about sports and stuff like that if people would like so sorry about that thank. So you said you wanted to go where you could make the most impact and so I was wondering do you feel like you're in a position here at Georgia Tech as deputy director that you can make this is much if not more of an impact than at Portland State and if so what do you see that impact being or what do you want to be well.

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Yes I mean it made a great impact of course say and I love being there we got a new arena off the ground that also had was a campus a civic building it was great but here I know I knew the athletic director and Todd's vision for what athletics should be at this level and I wanted to be a part of that and we have an opportunity Georgia.

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To change the discussion of what employees athletics looks like on that national level so that it is about learning innovation and creativity and I couldn't do that for the state but I know here that we have. The institute in all of its resources and the brand of Georgia Tech and we compete we can attract students at the highest levels and soon at least at the highest level so to me for me it was an opportunity to jump at that because that's to me that's needed right now because like I said I think for the most people it's just like it's just all money and finances and it's just an entertainment who's going to be so I want to be a part of that So was it was an easy decision to come but.

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More Could you tell us. What you believe the top three or four challenges or in the world and Georgia Tech athletic program. And. I think for us now and if you know anything about our athletic department. Todd came in in November the previous athletic director was there for two years left in which produced prior to that it was another athletic director the interim so in the last four years there's been four different athletic directors.

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There's a lot of bumps and bruises and different philosophies and things like that that go on with that much transition so right now that's probably the number one challenge is that getting a lot getting the partment in alignment and getting that culture discussion we talked about to make sure that everybody's on the same page that Todd's vision that we're looking at so that's that would be the number one challenge I think the number two challenge for us is.

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You know looking at our long term success long term financials and how do we. How are we financially sustainable over the next few years. You know next ten years looking at financial modeling we're looking at that and then another challenge for us is I mean where you know they see started in network and in two thousand and eighteen we're going to break out the cars and they see.

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Network what that means for us is that we will actually have to become a will have to build and become our own production studio. Right Right now we have two guys to do video here every time you see a video board every time you see a strain we have two guys that run that for the whole farm and.

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I. Feel sorry for those guys as they work their butts off but now we go into this thing so adding the infrastructure for the for the network here on campus is a big deal for us because when two thousand and nineteen we have to start producing linear broadcasting here and that's a lot it's a lot of investment it's a lot of time and personnel so that's.

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That's probably the that's a problem facing this right now but I mean I would say challenges opportunities because with that broadcasting capability comes to us to be able like I said use our platform to talk about Georgia Tech in our thought it meant how we're different so yes can be hard but it'll it'll it'll have great benefits for the institute.

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A. Yes or no it's not me the microphone lawyer. So those interesting we're talking about how the vision for Georgia Tech athletics is to be unique in like represent the D.N.A.. And heard that before so this is kind of wondering like what in your eyes are like the steps needed to make that to achieve that I did in these to like is that only in recruiting for athletics or is that like a bigger kind of marketing thing rule it was were things like make the identity known for ten.

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Well. So yes yes and yes it's all of those things because we not only do we want that to become the brand the marketing but we want that to become our culture right so that with everything we do that we apply that. We're here for these reasons because that's who we are and so when you hire us so we start with first of all cream the culture in our department and make sure I understand that but then also we start with outwardly what's our messaging externally so when you walk into our facility hopefully the next six or so.

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In months or year you'll visually you'll see things that speak to innovation you know that you'll see these things that speak to students excess So you know winning coach is going to recruit they go into homes and recruit. Young men and women they will show then those things and they'll learn and then that's what will be the separator that's what will separate us from somebody who's thinking about going to cleanse and over again you're someplace else and it's not for everybody I think we all agree Georgia Tech not for everybody and that's OK but we want to make sure that we're that that messaging visually what you hear what you see and then hopefully when you walk in and you talk to people and you say we're doing it that that informant that that permeates throughout our entire department so it is a it is a new or a new or way of thinking but it start it starts at the top and then in the a company starts with the top but then it's beginning that getting the next layer then getting the next layer and then making sure that that that culture that brand that messes permeates throughout their things and then a great job of getting out speaking and talking to donors and alumni and they are in there like wow that's that's where we should be it's like it was there the whole time and then tapping into that so she lies in every resource at your disposal to make sure that that's the message of the culture you're getting out there yeah you know how much I read those quotes before I took the job I well what am I going as of into here.

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But I can tell you that that you having been here a little while I can see that with the disconnect happened and the disconnect happened where there's just one there wasn't communication like I'm in charge I would see football here as well my sports so I will do the football I were there the football schedule so people weren't having simple discussions about Coach Here's who are thinking about scheduling What do you think we have options here they would just do the scheduling tell them you like Elise give me some input right I mean or there's a marking initiative for football and we're going to go with Engineer for success because we were in engineering school and we're going to engineer physics this well is that is that really the fabric of our football program so there's better connection and better communication actually has.

[00:36:56]
Has breached that gap you know I meet with those guys more than once a week which is much different than they had before. The athletic director you know has weekly meetings with Paul and then more than just weekly meetings. Shoot the breeze meetings Hey Coach how is that how's your recruiting trip How's it going and having that dialogue having those the most simple you know where decisions get made most is made.

[00:37:22]
After five pm that timeframe from five pm to six thirty where your days knowing you've loosened the tie everybody comes in the office and you just start talking about what happened that day and exciting things and those discussions are happening more specially the football Graham but. One thing I know about Coach Johnson is that he just can be honest and to be honest with you our football locker room is bad it smells it's dark there's really nothing that expires to greatness their schools will high up in the mac has a better locker room than us much better so I get where some of that's coming from and where.

[00:37:59]
With donors and fundraisers to correct some of that so we can at least build a functional space not a great space we're not put in that rooms we're not going to build a barbershop we're not going to us it but a functional space where students can actually you know go to their locker their gears dry it smells good you know it's clean those sort of those sort of things we need to do it's inspiring with graphics and things like that so there's some work we have to do and I think Coach Johnson is giving the new agey the flexibility to get those things done because they don't happen overnight.

[00:38:35]
So there's this stereotype of like this tonight let's focus in the. Medics of the period of the school board. How those the author is trying to you know hold the students like them might be struggling with school balance but the school life and. Let it live. That's a great question.

[00:39:01]
Georgia Tech is very demanding I don't have to tell any student here that it's a demanding place and it's demanding for everybody I mean student athletes are just students they go to the same class they had the same dining halls they also play a sport that deals with a lot of travel practice a lot of it has a deal with we do have an infrastructure set up with academic support and we have an associate That's one of the things they do and they she set up community so each team will have an academic counselor and a coordinator that works with those entire teams to make sure that are they getting the necessary support if we know and not just support on the reactive side but be proactive so in a student comes in you know they get the support that they need whether it's where there's tutoring whether it's you know helping them facilitate getting to know professors better whatever they do trying to get them up to speed quicker because there is a lot of things that they have to balance with the travel and the proc.

[00:39:58]
This and things like that so it is a diff it is a difficult thing. But when you have an athletic director and you have a culture where it says you're students first because we know how hard your take is we actually it's great that I mean one of our best best multis been Lammers he's and he's a mechanical engineering major and that's OK You know I tell you what losing I take when you say you're a football player and you want to major in mechanical engineering they go out.

[00:40:24]
Not sure you're going to be able to do that the labs we can give it a try goes but here we know it's like Absolutely that's what we're about so it is a different environment here but it is difficult so we have a support structure in place to help with that transition dealing with the with the time demands of being a student athlete and the travel and the practice times and things like that so luckily we have great partnerships with with.

[00:40:53]
The schools and the deans and faculty to allow those students to reach their potential and everything that they want to reach their potential and so students do well but they do have to struggle and we try to help them with that initially but that transition. You think humans are tree for coming to talk to us so my questions and he mentioned that you know in every position you find yourself in you always try to make an impact so how do you like an innovative initiative that you've implemented and how did it positively impact let us let stakes Department Boy.

[00:41:35]
Innovation can take the shape of many different things I'll tell you that. You know. I'll give you want to give you a couple examples I guess I'll get you some from Portland State. Airport a state where willing a new building right. It had classrooms with also had a there.

[00:41:58]
Five hundred seat arena for basketball it was also renovation the bag but when we were innovating the back of the building was built like nineteen sixty nine right so I was born in sixty nine and get close to fifty and I need love and so to that building right.

[00:42:14]
So but one of the areas that was left out of the razor project was sports medicine so. The building was built for like four sports teams and now there's there were sixteen support teams they didn't have women's athletics when the building was built so I knew that space need to be renovated so the president like great go get the money.

[00:42:32]
It's not in the budget but if you want to add that to the project go gets the money so so how my going to get money for sports medicine and how my going to do this well we had a medical partner. Who was providing us with medical services but we were utilized in this person for physical therapy these people were doing in our eyes these people were doing surgeries for knees these people doing surgeries for shoulders and I was like wait a minute.

[00:42:59]
You know there's a guy's under those there's a lot of money right now. In the medical services industry and in the insurance which I know that's going to continue but that's how it is so I went to the different medical providers around town and I said look we're building a new facility you want to partner with us right in you know you can partner with us and then you know who's got the best docs in town who's got the bit so really I vetted out three different medical services unit and said you can partner with this but we need a two million dollar investment and so for port a state that was there like wow that was awesome and so not only did we do that when they realized that that's you know working with partners but utilizing what you can to get resources we did the same thing in the next contract with our porn rights contact between Coke and Pepsi again we needed some more money so it came down to working with the two of them so to me that was an innovative thing that port state had seen.

[00:43:58]
But. Innovation can take the shape of many different levels there was a lot of excitement about Portland State football when I first got there so I love to cook and I'm really good I'm from Louisiana I mean come on so. We started this thing called the eighty tailgate and so where I would cook for some people would you know if there's to be fifty people for the first one or three hundred well in the Big three hundred you know and I'd made a little thing a gumbo to serve the people I that's what I did by the time two years I left later we had a thousand people and I was making gumbo literally my wife and I would make gumbo for for three or four hundred people had to go buy a kit and buy bigger pots and you got my food and license and everything but I just saw a need I was like wow I can feel that they've sold what we do how we get people excited about a little taste of Louisiana Portland Oregon so innovation can take the shape of many different I don't tell you guys that you're smarter me but two examples from Portland State.

[00:44:52]
America when you have a broad goal like you have to kind of change the way that the platform of athletics is being used across the country and it's not going to lead to wins and losses How do you set goals and benchmark you like your program's success along the way when it's when it's intangible.

[00:45:13]
Or there's two levels there's at the departmental level right and we measure success for us. What are our what are the young men and women doing who were in our who we were responsible for working for them for four years what are they doing ten years from now if we do our jobs and setting them up to success five years after graduation teen years after graduation that's how we're measuring ourself is because if we're doing that like I said that's kind of the platform we want to come from and how we would do in your collegiate athletics so that's on a broad base but also where you're doing graduation rates and what are they doing five or ten years because it's our job hopefully we're doing a good job we're preparing them for forty years and not just for so the second thing is.

[00:45:58]
You have to take each thing sport by sport to set expectations and goal for sport by sport depending on the sport the goals for men's golf may not be the same for men's basketball or or softball soccer basically look at their sports that we need to drive revenue to help us achieve our goal our big goal and so that the expectations for those guys might not look the same as it would for our men's tennis team who's right number seventeen in the country doing great and women stand It's like number ten.

[00:46:29]
But for specifically you have to break it down to the micro level with each four. Wins and losses in basically the ties into Read how much are we given that coaching to serve resources to compete at the levels so that you have to break it down. Here is what your take was it seems like you talked a lot about what your goals are in terms of getting awareness out about what's going to take is through the these major can of the specially football etc and how you plan to support the students who are athletes there do you see or do you have a vision for what their relationship is between the athletics department and those that don't participate in bars of the athletics and how there might be any interaction for the I guess the vast majority of the students here who don't participate and maybe just show up at a football game yeah I mean.

[00:47:26]
I. Mean. The faculty of the Institute right I mean they're the arms and legs the brains they're making it happen with students every day and and with learning and research athletics is kind of the Spirit. Right it's like I said it's it can bring a huge cross-section of students you know when you're alone coming back to campus right so we figured that's another that's that's one of the things we bring to campus is can we be the heart and soul the spirit of campus so that.

[00:47:59]
Every student can be a part of that and every student feels good about their their experience here and it feels good about Georgia Tech and that that's our role that's one of our roles we play so I think that's how the role we provide to all the students is that giving you an opportunity ten years from now to come back and come to a basketball game a football game be with your classmates connect with faculty member you know and be a part of that and hopefully watch your team compete and win right and so we feel like that's part of our mission but we feel that's how Steve should interact in for us the return is like I said.

[00:48:34]
Being that platform for all suits and not just as soon as but. Every student I mean Bill Barber said if you have a few a body you're definitely right from Nike and so hopefully like I said every student feels like they have a connection to some form to athletics when you compete in our team or not you know but really we feel like and we talk about that all the time as far as how are we doing is being that spirit being that esprit de corps where we want to call it Georgia Tech because that's very important because that's what represents everybody in this room just not just not the three hundred fifty young men and women who put on the uniform but it's really stands for a lot bigger picture than that.

[00:49:16]
Mark it's seems like recently a lot of athletes have been using their platform to speak on the social issues of today and so I was just curious you know how do you think about you know advising the student athletes on the pros and cons of some of those decisions.

[00:49:33]
Well I know in my role it's. And in the role of ministries in our department and coaches first of all. What sort of dialogue are we having with student athletes now I mean I think what you want to make sure is that you get we're giving them a form and a platform and opportunities with coaches with administrators with themselves to talk about those issues and that so.

[00:49:58]
That way we can be a part of the discussion instead of being at the University of Missouri where the football team just walks out right we're just we're not practice of A because we don't agree with that our or what was in Minnesota the football team walked out because they didn't feel like their their teammates were being treated fairly because of a sexual assault investigation so for us it's making sure that you're having a dialogue up front and that we're giving those students the platform and having those discussions with our we have a student athlete board right and we have leadership councils and we have if you don't know Georgia Tech.

[00:50:35]
We have a total person program that was started by Dr Homer Rice many many years ago back in the early ninety's and there's many parts along the way that we're having that dialogue with students and and that's OK I mean you know if you're passionate about what you do it's a how to how can we help them voice their opinion how do we make sure that they're being heard in a way that's productive and not counterproductive to themselves or to the is to to but you have to do the work of for me that's where the that's where the problem comes in people don't do the work on the front end you know and so you have to do that dialogue and have those forms and have that openness to be sure that like because we know our student athletes we know the environment we set up for I don't think that.

[00:51:20]
Knock on wood. It would be very surprising if that happened here. You think well maybe not F.T. here. But I keep thinking of the Penn State situation that stunned so many of us and shook us to the core the tragedy of the kids who were abused while Joe Paterno the reputation was increasingly outstanding until all the sudden in a New York minute he loses it so Mike my question in that background.

[00:51:58]
This Pad is such a system level failure happen and what can it what should an Apple addict director learn from that situation and how do we make sure that it doesn't happen and to detect why only that I mean you spend say but you can be as recently as Baylor you know with their football program and.

[00:52:19]
I think what you know. What causes those situations is institutional culture it's not having the right thing set up like it Baylor they didn't have a title my sexual assault on campus you know so they didn't add that position to later so to me you for how we prevent those is first of all what messes What's a culture department and then transparency we talk about transparency all the time and in those schools at Penn State Baylor they didn't have that they came from a culture of let's fix it ourselves that was the culture at those two schools we can just fix this ourselves let's just try to manage system fix this ourselves right that's not right that's not appropriate so you have to have the mentality of know what we're going to do is we're transparent when things happen we address them head on and we include members of campus whether it's.

[00:53:17]
Off the student Taggerty here whether it's chief of police we include that moment's notice when we first hear about things we include them immediately you know because those are institution those are those are institutional issues but the model from one nine hundred eighty right not all from one thousand nine hundred seven into the early ninety's was how do we fix this how do we how do we do it within the family and this is what we're saying is that the family is bigger than just.

[00:53:47]
A. Coaching staff or team the family is the university so we're going to dress it within the university family and not just try to cover up things like that because I think that's where that that's where those. To institution went south just like Nixon right so I mean whenever you it never works out well whenever you're trying to cover things up so I know that's our culture it's one of transparency when it comes to dealing with issues of that magnitude and it's working with the university resources that are there.

[00:54:15]
To deal with those and so all of that if you're of course you're not it's my opinion so it's sort of does but the fact that Joe Paterno was so bigger than life made it even more stunning. And even many fans in denial yet and. You know one bad program reflects on other bad.

[00:54:43]
You know it makes makes people wonder about a shadow Grahams if you're an entire community I can tell you there's been plenty of days where I'm like I'm ashamed to work in athletics I'll be the first to admit that but I also have to find resolve in those situations say when I'm in charge that's never going to happen and so that's how I say wow I'll try to make a difference because you have to be that way.

[00:55:07]
No problem thank you so much.