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A new athletic director was named in an April 6 ceremony at Patrick Gym.

Jeff Schulman ‘89, is currently serving as senior associate athletic director.

He will take over the position from current athletic director Robert Corran July 1.

“Jeff’s strong commitment to honesty and integrity, his extensive experience in Division I athletics and his love for our University make him the right choice to lead this unit for years to come,” President Tom Sullivan said at the ceremony.

Schulman was a student-athlete himself, playing men’s hockey at UVM for four years between 1985 and 1989.

“It’s an incredible honor to have the opportunity to lead a department at a university that means so much to me,” he said.

He will report directly to Sullivan.

“It’s a strong sign from the highest level of leadership at the University that athletics are extremely important,” Schulman said.

Schulman will undergo a transitional period with Corran and his team before taking the job permanently July 1.

“We have some really important decisions going on right now,” he said about the people who will work with him.

Schulman stressed the urgent need for new facilities and praised the work being done this summer on Virtue Field.

“We have some fairly significant facility needs,” he said, calling improving facilities an “extremely high priority.”

Schulman said there were several ideas being pitched about a new multipurpose arena for basketball and hockey.

These pitches include proposals for both on-campus and off-campus sites, such as a facility in South Burlington.

A best-case scenario would be new facilities for basketball and hockey within the next three to four years, Schulman said.  

However, he said plans to add 2,500 seats, a press box and a connecting plaza to Virtue Field will be completed this summer, as the University has received all of the necessary permits for these plans.

The only work left will be a support building, which would include locker rooms, showers and training rooms.

“When you can develop a facility that has an impact on more than one varsity team,” Schulman said, “you feel really good about yourselves as an athletic department.”

Supporters of bringing back baseball or those who desire to see a new sport at UVM will be disappointed, however.

UVM will not be adding any new sports unless there is a “transformational endowment or change in the landscape of college athletics,” Schulman said.

Schulman is UVM’s ninth athletic director in modern history, and just the fourth since 1970, according to UVM athletics.

The outgoing athletic director is optimistic Schulman will push UVM athletics “to the next level.”

“When this search process began,” Corran said, “I was hopeful Jeff would emerge from the pack.

The future of UVM athletics is in good hands,” he said.