by Adam Burns
Sports Editor
University of Houston "Chancident" Arthur K. Smith, who will take office Tuesday, has named Bill McGillis as interim athletics director during the search for a permanent athletics director.
Smith said he will start a search quickly and that he expects to find a permanent replacement for Bill Carr, who announced his resignation Feb. 24, by midsummer.
McGillis has worked in the UH athletics department for 13 years, most recently as senior associate athletics director. He served as interim athletics director from November 1992, when Rudy Davalos left, to April 1993, when Carr was hired.
McGillis said he has not discussed the possibility of being a candidate for athletics director with Smith.
Smith had strong words of support for the athletics program, which has faced, and still faces, a slew of problems.
"Intercollegiate athletics is part of the fabric of the institution," Smith said, adding that it brings support from the community and alumni.
Smith said that, if the program's financial deficit is not the top concern for the new athletics director, it should at least rank highly on the list of priorities. But he added that fund raising is not just up to the university president and the athletics director.
"It's going to be a universitywide approach if it's going to be successful," he said. "The community has to get behind the athletics program.
The planned addition of two women's sports, possibly soccer and softball, is an challenge for the next athletics director, Smith said.
"It is necessary for us to come into compliance with Title IX without cutting men's programs," he said, referring to a federal law requiring state institutions to offer an equal number of athletic scholarships to male and female student athletes in proportion to the student population. "That compounds financial problems."
McGillis officially begins serving as interim athletics director Tuesday.