Bob Gundlach is many things at Northwestern.
He is a Weinberg faculty member who was the founding director of the school’s Writing Program, a professor in the linguistics department and the faculty athletics representative for NU to the Big Ten and the NCAA.
But the “jock linguist,” as his fellow linguistics professors refer to him, took on another role when athletic director Mark Murphy stepped down to become chief executive officer and president of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers.
Gundlach became the interim Director for Athletics and Recreation at NU.
“I think the challenge has been to be as effective as I can be in providing both support and leadership during a period between Mark Murphy’s administration as the Director of Athletics and Recreation and the time when we’ll have a new, permanent athletic director,” Gundlach said. “I have really enjoyed the work. This is a complex organization, but I have found everybody very helpful and very responsive.”
NU president Henry S. Bienen named Gundlach to the role Dec. 18. Gundlach began his duties Jan. 1.
Gundlach will act as athletic director until a permanent replacement is found. He said he is not being considered as Murphy’s replacement and he is only stepping in until a replacement is found. Gundlach plans to return to his faculty athletics positions once a new director is found.
President Bienen is conducting the search for a new director of athletics and recreation. Charles Loebbaka, director of media relations for NU, said the search may take a long time, but that it is ongoing.
Gundlach said Bienen asked him to step in on an interim basis because of his administrative experience and his work within the athletic department.
Gundlach has acted as the university’s faculty athletics representative to the Big Ten and the NCAA since 2002. Within the Big Ten, he meets with representatives from conference schools to discuss academic standards for student-athletes. He currently chairs the Big Ten Academics and Eligibility Subcommittee and is a member of the NCAA Academics, Eligibility and Compliance Cabinet.
From 2004 to 2007, Gundlach was the head of the department of linguistics. He is well regarded within the department for his ability to manage people.
Linguistics professor Ann Bradlow said he is one of the best people to work with because of his deep wisdom on how to get people to work together. She said she thinks he will be a good leader in the athletic department because he is interested in helping people do their best.
Linguistics professor Gregory Ward, who was the department chair the three years before Gundlach, said Gundlach was willing to listen to different points of view and get professors to work together to better the department.
“He had an uncanny ability to achieve consensus,” Ward said. “He wanted to seek out the views of everyone involved and wanted to see the decision arrived at organically through discussion rather than superimposing his will. It was all about bringing people together.”
Gundlach helped hire two new staff members as linguistics chair. Ward noted he did not take the job as a custodial position, but saw it as an opportunity to represent the department.
While leading a small academic department differs greatly from running a Big Ten athletic program, his experience heading an organization has helped him prepare for his current position.
“I think what you do when you work as a department chair or when you’re in the director of athletics position – even on an interim basis – you’re acting as a leader of other leaders,” Gundlach said. “Faculty members are very much leaders themselves in what they’re doing – in their research and in their teaching. Your job as director is to lead people who already regard themselves as leaders.”
While Gundlach may be just an interim director, he said he is enjoying working with the people in athletic department and upholding the principles of the department until a permanent replacement is found.
“The foundation of what we do is to make a commitment to integrity,” Gundlach said. “Integrity means playing ethically and paying attention to the compliance obligations we have at every level.
“I think integrity also means we have to operate as a whole unit – that we’re all in this together.”
Reach Philip Rossman-Reich at [email protected].
