Sue Harriman is leaving the Bates College athletic department to serve as UC Santa Cruz’s director of athletics and Office of Physical Education, Recreation and Sports. (Bates College photo)

Sue Harriman was named both director of athletics and Office of Physical Education, Recreation, and Sports at NCAA Division III University of California at Santa Cruz last week, inheriting a department that spent much of the past year under heavy scrutiny for perceived poor treatment of its personnel.

Harriman, 57, has served as assistant athletic director and senior woman administrator at Bates College since 2013.

Her hiring fills out a Slugs athletics department hit hard by a poorly received shake-up the past year and a half. In addition to the firing of director of athletics Cliff Dochterman in a cost-cutting measure in October 2016, two popular head coaches and all of the school’s assistant coaches were told their contracts would not be renewed in June. Many of the assistants were rehired after re-applying for their old positions.

“I’m very excited,” said Harriman, noting that during her extensive research of UCSC she paid little attention to the public black eye the Slugs endured over the summer. “I want to come in and move forward. I want to be positive and listen to what they want and dream about. … I want to bring us back to prominence on a national level.”

Harriman will start at UCSC on Jan. 15. Her husband, Mark, will remain in Maine, where he has served as head coach of Bates’ football team the past 20 years. Their son Mark, 34, lives in Lake Forest, Calif.

“It’s going to be hard,” Harriman said of the cross-country move. “I’ve been part of the Bates community for 20 years. I’m so used to saying, ‘Go Bobcats!’ It’s going to take me a while me a while to say, ‘Go Slugs!’ I’m going to have to change my wardrobe. Everything I have is garnet, cranberry, maroon, crimson, some sort of red.”

Harriman will live with her sister Michelle Jung, an accomplished artist, in Santa Cruz.

Harriman oversaw fundraising and event planning for 31 varsity teams and 13 club sports while leading Friends of Bates Athletics from 2009-2013. UCSC features 15 varsity teams and 21 sports clubs.

Herriman said two revenue-generating successes at UCSC were driving forces in her seeking a role with UCSC’s athletics department.

The Campaign for UCSC, which launched quietly in 2009 and went public in 2013, saw 63,064 donors contribute $335 million — $35 million above the university’s goal. The fundraiser concluded this summer six months ahead of schedule.

“It was an absolutely fantastic display of loyalty and support,” Harriman said in a phone call from Maine last week.

She was also delighted that Measure 68, an Intercollegiate Athletics and Athletics Activities Access Fee, passed in May.

“With those two pieces in place, it made me think this is a job primed to move forward in a positive direction,” she said.

Harriman and her leadership team will focus on organizational strength, strategic planning and fundraising at UCSC.

“Our focus is developing a strong base of resource and support,” said Latham, the Slugs’ vice chancellor. “She is so enthusiastic to come to this particular campus. She has the energy for this particular position and the strategy and problem solving that is so critical to OPERS. That struck me during the hiring process.”

Harriman first joined Bates in 2003 as Associate Director of Alumni and Parent Programs. She has also worked in athletic departments at Rider University, Georgetown, Harvard and five other colleges.

“Sue is a staunch supporter of, and a tireless advocate for, the student-athletes and coaches,” Jason Fein, the director of athletics at Bates, wrote in an email. “UC Santa Cruz is getting an experienced administrator, manager and fundraiser. She coordinated our Friends of Bates Athletics fundraising events and oversaw operations of our athletic facilities. In addition, Sue is a big supporter of club and recreational athletes and oversaw all of our club sports. We wish her nothing but the best as she embarks on her new journey with the Banana Slugs.”

Harriman said she did her best to attend every sporting event at Bates and plans to do the same at UCSC.

She wasted little time in beginning to build a rapport with her new colleagues. She emailed Slugs basketball coach Ron DuBois after his men’s team won its third straight game in Hawaii last week to improve to 8-4 overall.

Later in the week, she watched the live-stream of the UCSC women’s basketball team, which suffered a double-overtime loss at Kaiser Permanente Arena. She plans to meet some of her new colleagues Jan. 2 and 3 before returning later in the month for good.

She said she’s also excited to be seated in the Slugs’ gymnasium soon and learning to cheer for her new favorite team. She also strives to bring the athletics department and OPERS to a previously unseen level.

“I have a unique skillset on a number of levels,” she said. “I applied for it as fast as I could.”

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