Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson with Myles Brand ’64 in June 2004 at his fortieth reunion. Photo Credit: Rensselaer/Martin Benjamin

It is with great sadness that I write to inform you of the passing September 16, 2009 of Dr. Myles Brand ’64, a Rensselaer Trustee, a national leader in the worlds of academe and college athletics, and a loyal son and devoted friend of Rensselaer.

A former university president, Dr. Brand became the fourth president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 2003, the first college president to hold the title. Dr. Brand made academic performance by student athletes, recruiting restrictions, and the advocacy of collegiate sports his top priorities. He was known nationally as a champion of academic reform, fiscal responsibility, and student athlete well-being.

Dr. Brand was elected to the Rensselaer Board of Trustees in December 2004, and was inducted into the Rensselaer Alumni Hall of Fame on the same day. He is a recipient of the RAA Fellows Award, conferred by the (then) School of Humanities and Social Sciences in 1997, the Rensselaer Alumni Association Albert Fox Demers Medal in 2007, and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, conferred by Rensselaer in 1991. As a student, Dr. Brand was a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi and the Transit Yearbook.

Dr. Brand was president of the NCAA during the deliberations on a proposal to eliminate the ability of Division III institutions such as Rensselaer to award athletic grants-in-aid to Division I student-athletes. In January 2004, delegates to the NCAA convention voted overwhelmingly to allow Rensselaer and seven other Division III institutions to continue offering athletic scholarships for their Division I teams. It was a great victory for Rensselaer, since it awards scholarships to student athletes in its men’s hockey program. The decision also cleared the way for Rensselaer to fulfill its intention to advance the Division III women’s hockey program to Division I, commencing with the 2005-2006 season.

From 1994 through 2002, Dr. Brand was president of Indiana University, an eight-campus institution of higher education with nearly 100,000 students, 17,000 employees, and a budget of $3.4 billion. He served as president of the University of Oregon from 1989 to 1994.

At Indiana, Dr. Brand oversaw the largest single privatization effort in the institution’s history — the consolidation of the IU Medical Center Hospitals and Methodist Hospital to form Clarian Health Partners. He initiated an innovative marketing plan designed to tell more effectively the story of Indiana University’s first-class programs and educational opportunities. He helped Indiana University become a national leader in information technology, and he led the largest and most successful endowment campaign in the university’s history. Dr. Brand also was instrumental in initiating the Central Indiana Life Sciences project, with IU in the leadership role. He made national news when he fired basketball coaching legend Bobby Knight for the coach’s profane tirades and physical intimidation of players and colleagues at IU.

Dr. Brand’s other administrative posts include provost and vice president for academic affairs, Ohio State University, 1986-89; coordinating dean, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Arizona, 1985-86; dean, faculty of social and behavioral sciences, Arizona, 1983-86; director, cognitive science program, Arizona, 1982-85; head, department of philosophy, Arizona, 1981-83; chairman, department of philosophy, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1972-80. He began his career in the department of philosophy, University of Pittsburgh, 1967-72.

His academic research investigated the nature of human action. His work focused on intention, desire, belief and other cognitive states, as well as deliberation and practical reasoning, planning, and general goal-directed activity. He wrote extensively on various topics in higher education, such as tenure and undergraduate education. Dr. Brand’s nationally acclaimed January 2001 speech to the National Press Club, “Academics First: Reforming Intercollegiate Athletics,” focused on how the disconnect between intercollegiate athletics and education “jeopardizes the essential mission of our universities.”

Dr. Brand served as chair of the board of directors of the Association of American Universities (AAU), 1999-2000; as a member of the board of directors, 1992-97, and executive committee, 1994-97, of the American Council on Education (ACE); and a member of the board of directors of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC), 1995-98. He served as a board member of the American Philosophical Association and of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development, the umbrella organization of Internet2.

He earned his B.S. in philosophy from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1964, and his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Rochester in 1967.

The news of Dr. Brand’s passing comes at a time when we are preparing to celebrate the dedication of the East Campus Athletic Village, a project which Dr. Brand strongly supported, and in which he took particular interest and pride. Dr. Brand was an especially active volunteer for the recently completed Renaissance at Rensselaer: Campaign for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, serving as chair of the athletics fund-raising initiative to support the new East Campus Athletic Village. At its groundbreaking in August 2007, he said, “The playing field teaches great life lessons — chief among them — personal commitment to excellence and the discipline needed to live up to that commitment each and every day.”

Funeral arrangements are pending; we will communicate information as soon as it becomes available. Our thoughts and prayers are with Dr. Brand’s beloved wife, Margaret Brand, his son, Joshua, and the rest of the Brand family at this time of mourning.

Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D.
President and Professor of Physics