Judy W. Rose oral history interview 2, 2013 January 10

Description

Judith (Judy) Wilkins Rose, Director of Athletics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte), discusses her association with Chancellor James H. Woodward. Ms. Rose begins by talking about how she came to UNC Charlotte in 1976 - originally as a lecturer and coach for the Women's Basketball and Tennis teams. She recalls how she became involved in the administrative side of collegiate athletics culminating with her appointment as Director of Athletics by Chancellor Woodward in 1990. At the time she was one of only three female athletic directors in all of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the only one on the east coast of the United States. Ms. Rose describes some of Chancellor Woodward's accomplishments, noting his ability to connect UNC Charlotte with the community, and recalling some things she did also in this regard. She also lists the campus aesthetic as one of Woodward's accomplishments, using an anecdotal story about the Wells Fargo Field House to illustrate the point. Ms. Rose describes the construction of the Student Activity Center and how that facility helped begin to dispel the notion that UNC Charlotte was just a commuter school. She talks about her part in that process, which involved fundraising - noting the donations by Dale Halton and Pepsi which helped pay for the arena portion of the center. Mrs. Rose continues with a discussion of NCAA governance and collegiate athletic conference realignment, noting that both played a factor in UNC Charlotte joining Conference USA in 1995. She notes that conference realignments in the late 1990s set the stage for a push for a football program at UNC Charlotte in 2001, but that the recession incurred after the 9/11 terrorist attacks slowed the momentum. Ms. Rose elaborates on football further, noting that she broached the topic with Chancellor Philip L. Dubois in 2005. She briefly summarizes the series of events that led to the start of a football program at the university, culminating in a return to Conference USA from the Atlantic-10 Conference in 2013. Ms. Rose concludes the interview with an anecdotal story about how the Student Activity Center was renamed to honor James. H. Barnhardt.