Terry Holland announced on May 2 that he will end a six-year tenure as athletics director on June 1 to become a special assistant to President John T. Casteen III.
Senior Associate Athletics Director Craig Littlepage will serve as the interim athletics director as the University conducts a nationwide search to fill the vacancy.
According to Littlepage, the University has not set the timetable for the search.
As a special assistant to Casteen, Holland will represent the University's athletics program and focus on raising funds for a facility to replace University Hall.
The Board of Visitors approved initial planning for the project two years ago, and it is on the University's six-year capital projects list submitted to the state in April. Casteen expects private fund-raising to begin this summer.
Recently, Holland had been working on fund-raising and planning efforts for the improvements to Scott Stadium. According to Holland, Littlepage already had been conducting most of the athletics department's daily operations for a little over a year.
"We're formalizing a process that began when we were working on the stadium," Holland said. "Given the needs of a project of that scope and what we anticipate the arena to be ... we had to have a hands-on, day-to-day person operating the department."
Littlepage "had assumed more and more of [the athletics director] role all along and really hasn't had the title or all the authority to be the most effective he could be in that role," Holland said.
Littlepage also said these changes had been discussed numerous times in the past, ever since the Scott Stadium improvement project began to occupy an increasingly large amount of Holland's schedule.
"The first conversation that Terry and I had about it was probably at least about a year ago, probably not in the detail of it, but certainly his perspective on what would need to be done with a new arena," Littlepage said.
Holland became Virginia's athletics director on May 12, 1995 after a five-year stint as the athletics director at his alma mater, Davidson College. Before becoming involved in senior-level administrative work, Holland coached the Virginia men's basketball team from 1974-1990 and still stands as the Cavaliers' winningest coach with a 326-173 record.
As athletics director, Holland made large strides in improving the University's athletic facilities. In addition to the stadium project, Holland oversaw the dedication of the Park and U-Hall Turf Field and the opening of the Aquatic and Fitness Center and the Sheridan Snyder Tennis Center.
He led the Virginia athletics program to a No. 8 ranking in the 1999 Sears Director's Cup. The ranking reflects the overall competitiveness and success of the entire athletics program compared with those of other schools. This achievement was one of Holland's most important goals when he became athletics director in 1995, Holland said.
"We've shown the University and its supporters that it can be done here, which I think is a critical piece of what we had to do," Holland said. "No one knew that we really could do that until we did it."
Holland said one reason he decided to take on a new position and focus on the basketball arena project was to ensure that Virginia athletics will remain a top echelon program in the future.
"Staying there is a heck of a lot tougher [than getting there], and we've already established essentially what that price tag will be to stay there," Holland said. "So now it's a matter of the University deciding whether this is a goal that is worth the price tag."
Littlepage also stepped in as the interim athletics director in 1995 while the University conducted a nationwide search to replace Jim Copeland.
But according to Littlepage, this turn at the position will be different from six years ago.
"This is unlike five to six years ago, from December 1994 to July 95, where I was essentially doing the director of athletics job plus my other job," Littlepage said. "This is easy because I'm doing the job I've been doing for the past year or so. The only difference is that there is a different title."
Littlepage also expressed interest in retaining the position full-time, but he believes that a nationwide search for a new athletics director should take place.
"The bottom line is that my goal would be to get what is best for the University and for the department of athletics," Littlepage said. "If it's me, that's great. If it's somebody else, we'll go with that."
As interim director, Littlepage will try to address the changes that the Strategic Athletics Planning Task Force proposed in its April report to the Board of Visitors.
"I think there is far more in the task force report that the people here at the University can agree with than those things that would need future discussion and planning, in particular things that relate to academic success, academic performance, academic support of our student-athletes," Littlepage said.
"Let's get on with the things that we agree on and take a look at whatever options there are to deal with the financial issues"
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