When Cary Groth was named associate athletic director on Jan. 6, she became the first of the current NIU associate ADs to be appointed without a national search of the position.

Clarence Hudson and Leo Hensley, both of whom are NIU associate ADs, were chosen from a field of national applicants.

Athletic Director Gerald O’Dell recently said there was no need to do a national search for the latest opening because Groth was the right person for the position.

“Why do you conduct a national search if there’s someone in house who appears to be very capable,” O’Dell said in reference to Groth.

O’Dell said his department did do an internal search of NIU because, “That’s basically what you’re supposed to do.”

To get permission to avoid a national search for the position, the athletic department had to go through NIU’s Affirmative Action office.

Marilyn Monteiro, the director of NIU’s Affirmative Action program, said the athletic department had to first request a waiver of the national search—which they got from Monteiro.

The next step in the hiring process involved setting up an internal search. This required the athletic department to advertise the position opening throughout the campus—which it did.

A search committee was formed which was to review every application it received. In this case, only Groth’s application was submitted.

Members of the the Affirmative Action office then review all requests for interviews and the athletic department’s request to make a final hiring. In Groth’s case, both the interview and the recommendation to hire were approved by Monteiro.

Monteiro said the determination of whether to waive a national search is made on a case-by-case basis based on a combination of the following criteria:

If the necessary funds are available to perform the national search.

If there are any women or minorities in the department who currently fill a similar position or one of a comparable level.

If the need to fill the position is an emergency.

If there are promotional opportunities for current employees.

In this case, there was no emergency need to fill the associate AD spot and it was questionable whether the funds were available for the national search, Monteiro said.

She said there were no women at the that postion level in the athletic department before Groth was hired, but there was one minority (Hudson). Also, the hiring did serve as a promotion for Groth, who had served as an assistant AD for about three years.