Hope College president Jim Bultman has been elected chair of the Division III Presidents Council of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for the 2011-12 term.
Dr. Bultman will begin his term at the conclusion of the 2011 NCAA Convention in San Antonio in January.
Bultman is currently the vice chair of the 15-member Presidents Council, the primary policy making group for 444 colleges and universities representing over 200,000 student athletes. He is also the chair of the strategic planning and finance committee for Division III.
He currently serves with 15 other college presidents on the executive committee for Divisions I, II and III. This is the primary decision making group for 1,000 colleges and universities representing more than 400,000 student-athletes.
He will replace Widener University President Jim Harris, whose term as chair and as a Council member ends after the 2011 Convention. Dr. Bultman's Council term extends through the 2013 Convention.
Bultman, a 1963 graduate of Hope, became the 11th president of the college in July 1999. He joined the college as a faculty member in 1968 before chairing the department of education from 1976 to 1982. He was dean of the social sciences from 1982 until 1985. Bultman is familiar with intercollegiate athletics, having served as head baseball coach at Hope from 1971 to 1985 and as an assistant football coach from 1970 to 1984. He was a student-athlete during his collegiate days.
He became president at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, in 1985 and stayed in that role until moving to Hope in 1999.
Dr. Bultman graduated from Hope with a major in chemistry. He holds a master's degree and doctorate in educational leadership from Western Michigan University.
Dr. Bultman is also serving as chair of the Board of Directors of the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA), a consortium of liberal arts colleges and universities.