Following Thursday's announcement that UNC Charlotte AD Judy Rose will retire in June, Chancellor Phil Dubois said that her replacement "needs to be somebody with ample experience in athletics administration, particularly in football," according to David Scott of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER. Dubois: "It would be pretty hard to select an athletics director who was coming from an institution that didn’t have football. That’s important. I’m sort of the mind that it either needs to be a sitting athletics director in or at a conference like ours (Conference USA) or else a senior associate athletics director at a Power 5 (conference)." Scott notes Rose "steps aside" after a 43-year career at UNCC, the final 28 as AD. She was on board for the addition of football in '13 and raised more than $100M for "construction of athletic facilities." She was also "active within the NCAA -- including being the first woman to serve on the men’s basketball committee -- and helped bring events" to Charlotte such as the Final Four in men’s and women’s basketball and men’s soccer. UNCC has also "faced no major NCAA penalties under Rose." As one of the few female ADs in the NCAA, Rose has also been a "champion of women’s sports." Dubois: "She should be nothing but proud of what she’s accomplished and I’m proud of her." Scott notes Rose has been "under fire recently" from some fans "unhappy with the direction of the athletics program, particularly in the marquee sports of football and basketball." Rose said that she "made the decision to retire last summer" and had "originally planned to announce her decision in March." She admitted Thursday that the "outside criticism had a part in the timing of her announcement." Rose: "The only effect it played was that it [sped] up when I made the announcement. It’s always hurtful when people say things, although some of it may be true in their eyes and some of it not true" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 1/5).
