Feature: Merrily Dean Baker

MEET MERRILY DEAN BAKER, MSU'S ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

On April 3, the MSU Board of Trustees named a new athletic director for Michigan State University--Merrily Dean Baker, assistant executive director of the NCAA, a national figure who boasts experience in virtually every facet of athletic competition and administration. She replaces interim athletic director George Perles, who remains as head football coach.

Baker has competed as an athlete, coached several sports at colleges both in the U.S. and overseas, taught physical education, performed as athletic director of a nine-sport, multi-million-dollar program in the Big Ten and has engaged in many endeavors related to sports research, science, and programming at the national level. Baker becomes only the second woman in the country to take charge of an athletic department that has a Division 1-A football program (the other, Barbara Hedges, is AD at the University of Washington, the 1991 national football champions).

Baker's selection culminated a national selection process that won praise for its decorum and confidentiality. A university committee comprising students, faculty, administrators, alumni and athletic representatives from administrative and coaching ranks considered more than a hundred applicants and nominees and named her among the finalists. Provost David Scott picked her as the top candidate and President John DiBiaggio endorsed Scott's choice by recommending her to the trustees for their ratification. The MSU Alumni Magazine caught up with Baker at the NCAA headquarters in Overland Park, KA, for this in-depth interview shortly after she testified in Congress about athletic issues.

Bao: First, welcome -- again -- to the Spartan family.

Baker: Thanks. Yes, I was a Spartan briefly in 1988, certainly not realizing that a scant four years later I'd be a part of the family in a formal way. I was at the University of Minnesota and accompanied MSU out to the 1988 Rose Bowl as a member of the Big Ten entourage. I put on my green and white, as did my daughter, and we cheered George Perles and the Spartans on to their great victory over USC.

Bao: Now you are back with us as athletic director. What attracted you to this job?

Baker: Having been in the Big Ten for six years, I was well aware of Michigan State University's tradition of excellence, both as an academic institution and in intercollegiate athletics. I was intrigued with the notion of associating with a program with such a wonderful national reputation and unlimited potential.

Bao: You realize, of course, that you face a tremendous challenge. You are taking over a program that has been embroiled in turmoil. How do you plan to bring the various sides together and move forward?

Baker: Yes, there has been turmoil and that has taken a toll on a number of individuals and on the program itself. But that's history. It's time for that chapter to be closed and for us to move forward. Obviously, coming from the outside, I'm not tied to any part of that controversy. Foremost on my agenda is to sit down with all the people involved with the athletics program and determine where we go from here, what we need to do to continue the excellence that's been in place and to recapture the unity that has been fragmented of late. With the help and cooperation of others, including alumni, I hope to orchestrate a return to Spartan unity.

Bao: That would be a major accomplishment. What strengths do you bring that can help you carry this out?

Baker: I hope I can provide the leadership necessary for this program to move, to continue to grow and to achieve the level of success and excellence that it deserves. I've been involved in intercollegiate athletics for more than 25 years. I've been trained by some of the best people in the business. I've been well mentored, I've had broad-based experience in management and administration of intercollegiate athletics. The bulk and diversity of that experience will help me provide that leadership.

Bao: Many media observers say you are a great communicator. And just yesterday you were called on to testify in Congress.

Baker: Thank you. I hope so. Communication is an important people skill in any business, certainly in higher education. I had to learn to communicate as a coach, as an administrator, as a university representative, and on larger fronts with the NCAA and so forth. Any coach will tell you that communication is key. And this coach will tell you the same thing.

Bao: Do you have broadcasting experience?

Baker: Yes, as well as print media experience. I've done a number of television shows, including Phil Donahue and have had opportunities to speak on several national news broadcasts, including the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. Each opportunity makes the next one a little easier.

Bao: During the search process, you had to focus on goals for MSU's intercollegiate athletics program. What are your main goals, say, for the next five years?

Baker: Someone in the search committee asked me this same question. My answer was that a five-year plan cannot be created in a vaccum. In 1970 I went to Princeton University, which had just gone coed, to start a women's athletics program. Some wonderful committee had spent the previous two years developing a five-year plan and they handed it to me on my first day. Well, in three weeks that plan underwent a complete metamorphosis of necessity. One cannot create a five-year plan in a vaccum. I will need to work with everyone in the department to create that plan together. Each of us will need to participate in that process. We will do it within the next four to six months, but we will do it together. Unless everyone is part of that process and can buy into it, it won't work.

Bao: How about some overall goals?

Baker: Clearly I have some starred agenda items. One, we need to maintain our primary focus on the student/athlete and his or her growth academically as well as athletically. That sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. We forget that these young people came to this wonderful university for a variety of reasons, athletic participation being only one of them. It's our responsibility--the coaches, the administrators, the faculty, staff, all the support people--to make sure that those young people have the environment they need to succeed in all areas that brought them to Michigan State. Our first goal is to ensure the primacy of that mission.

Bao: You just echoed a theme of former president John Hannah, who in the late 1940s and 1950s spearheaded MSU's ascent into big-time athletics. He emphasized that intercollegiate athletics was defensible only insofar as it served the student-athlete.

Baker: Exactly. It's interesting that many feel the term 'student-athlete' is ill-forged. I disagree. There's no question in my mind that the concept is legitimate and viable at any institution. But we have to prove it. I also believe that integrity and competitive success are not mutually exclusive. And so my second overriding goal is to ensure that our program is run not only sucessfully, but also honestly, cleanly and with integrity. Third, we need to do things with economic sanity. Those are the three major focuses of any agenda. Now, these things won't happen just because Merrily Baker stands up and says so. We have to work to make these things happen. We have to enlist the people who are providing the support for this mission. We need to put resources into the right places. A lot of strategic planning has to take place.

Bao: Within that overall framework, do you have any specific goals?

Baker: Certainly. We need to look at gender equity in intercollegiate athletics and at diversity both in terms of gender and ethnicity. We need to look at how we can ensure the program's financial stability over the next ten to 20 years.