Holden Thorp is stepping down as chancellor at the University of North Carolina to take over at Washington University in St. Louis.
It’s no accident he’s leaving a school that regularly plays for national titles at the NCAA’s highest level to one that competes at its lowest.
Thorp’s done with big-time college sports, and if he had his way, other school presidents would be finished with them, too. Many leaders just don’t have the training to handle a major athletics program, he argues.
It’s a message that may resonate with administrators at institutions that have lately felt the sting of scandals tied to athletics.
“I feel great compassion for my colleagues that are getting caught up in this,” Thorp said. “My main concern in this, and the reason I’ve been saying what I’ve been saying, is I’m worried about the people who are my friends. But I’m also worried about the institutions that are having their leadership diverted in this way.”
Thorp will resign from his alma mater with its 18,000 undergraduates at the end of June to work at Washington (about 6,000 undergrads) after spending most of the past three years dealing with a withering array of NCAA and athletics-related problems. They dominated his time, despite the fact that at least when he took the job he was a novice in the business of athletics.
He’s come to the conclusion that presidents should step aside and let their athletic directors handle the job.
