Field down to 3 for AD

The Southern University Athletics Director Search Committee Wednesday identified three candidates qualified for the vacant athletics director position.

The athletics director position opened following the April arrest and firing of former athletics director Greg LaFleur, a position he served for six years.

The 10-member committee met for five hours in closed session last Wednesday morning to narrow its search of candidates to three applicants. The committee eventually will send the names of the finalist to Chancellor James Llorens, who will make the final decision.

"I guess in the next couple of weeks we'll see what the next step is with the interview process," said tennis head coach Jeffery Conyers, who represents all head coaches on the committee.

He said the committee needed someone who was familiar with APR standards and thought the candidates selected had experience and was knowledgeable in NCAA rules.

The university released the names to the Advocate, stating formerSouthern AD Floyd Kerr is one of three finalists to be the school's new athletic director, the Advocate released last Friday.The other two candidates are Paula Jackson and John Robinson.

Kerr is currently the athletics director at Morgan State. Jackson is the assistant athletics director and senior woman administrator at Alabama State and Robinson is the executive director of student academic enhancement services at Texas Southern.

"We have a very diverse bunch," said Student Government Association President Demetrius Sumner. "We have two candidates who are very familiar with Southern, one who served in the capacity of athletics director before here at Southern University, another who was a student athlete."

Llorens said in a statement released by the school that he hopes to make a decision before the end of the year. The release added that Llorens is pleased with the finalists selected by the search committee formed in August.

The committee witheld the identities of finalists from The Digest when asked Wednesday.

Kerr, who was replaced by LaFleur, served as Southern's athletic director from 2000 to 2005. He has been at Morgan State since 2005.

Robinson's key accomplishments include institutiting a comprehensive student assistance program, which he said contributed to a 115 percent increase in graduation rates.

Jackson, a 1986 Southern graduate, serves as assistant director of athletics for compliance at Alabama State University.

"Alabama State is prehaps the top athletics department amongst HBCU's right now," Sumner said. "Robinson has an outstanding adcademic qualification. We gave the chancellor a bunch of options and he can go any way with it."

Sandy Pugh, the women's basketball head coach, has guided the school's athletics department since taking over when LaFleur was fired.

Southern became the first school to face postseason bans in two programs — men's basketball and football — because of academics.

"Mostly all the coaches stressed the fact that we needed somebody to come in and help us with the APR problems and help us get back to those glory days," Conyers said. "That was my main concern in representing the coaches."

In a university release made at the start of the search nearly 80 days ago, Llorens stated he will not be apart of the search committee's deliberation and "this will be an open process."