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FSU Restructures Academic Support Program

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By SCOTT CARTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 23, 2008

TALLAHASSEE As part of the restructuring within the athletic department's academic support program, Florida State athletic director Bill Proctor announced the hiring Bill Shults on Wednesday.

A former FSU swim coach and compliance administrator, Shults will head the school's academic support program that works extensively with FSU's student-athletes. He is expected to start next week and replace current director Mark Meleney, who was informed by Proctor earlier this month that his contract will not be renewed when it expires in July.

"He had a long tour of duty at the University of Connecticut, where he worked with compliance and academics in close proximity,'' Proctor said of Shults.

Proctor, speaking at the FSU Athletics Committee's monthly meeting, also announced the hiring of Mary Wright as the head of FSU's tutorial program, and Lamont Green, a former FSU football player who will return to campus as an academic adviser working with the football team.

Wright, currently an academic administrator within Florida International University's athletic department, will oversee a department at the center of an academic misconduct scandal that rocked FSU's football program prior to the Music City Bowl and brought the school an avalanche of bad press.

"We are going to place all our tutors under one director, and that person will have no other responsibility other than the supervision of the tutorial program,'' Proctor said of Wright's role.

Other news from Wednesday's meeting:

Proctor said that Tampa's bid to host the Atlantic Coast Conference football game was much more attractive than Charlotte's, and that after the game is held in Tampa in 2008 and 2009 and in Charlotte in 2010 and 2011, he expects Tampa to make a run at hosting the game long-term.

Football ticket prices will increase a $1 next season and the school is instituting a digital ticketing program that allows fans to purchase tickets at face value and resell them at market value on the Internet. FSU receives a 15 percent cut, providing an additional revenue stream.

The Athletics Committee approved a plan to add an officially NCAA sanctioned bowling team.

Reporter Scott Carter can be reached at (850) 294-3088 or scarter@tampatrib.com.

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