Pharmacy professor and College of Pharmacy alumnus Brandon Bookstaver has been named faculty athletics representative for the University of South Carolina.
The NCAA requires each member institution to designate a representative to act as a liaison between academics and athletics. As one of several USC representatives at the NCAA and the Southeastern Conference, Bookstaver will be an advocate for student-athletes and academic integrity.
“Dr. Bookstaver has a robust background in leadership at the university, including serving as past chair of the University Athletic Advisory Committee, which makes him a strong selection as our new faculty athletics representative,” says Provost Donna Arnett, executive vice president for academic affairs. “I am confident in his ability to represent the interests of the university as well as those of our student-athletes to the SEC and NCAA.”
Bookstaver says he thinks faculty and athletics already have a good relationship at USC, and he will continue work to balance those sometimes competing interests.
“I take the word ‘representative’ seriously,” Bookstaver says. “If I'm asked to represent the university, that's what I'm going to do, and not have my own agenda.”
Bookstaver describes himself as a die-hard Gamecocks fan and started at USC in the Honors College as a mathematics major before switching to pharmacy. He was a student-athlete himself, playing baseball through high school, and he coaches baseball at the youth and high school levels.
A member of the College of Pharmacy faculty for 19 years, Bookstaver also is an infectious diseases pharmacist at Prisma Health.
He says his time on the Athletics Advisory Council makes him qualified to understand the needs of both the academic side of the university as well as the athletics side.
“I learned a lot about the inner workings of athletics, recruiting, admissions and academic compliance,” he says. “So that experience really piqued my interest in this position.”
His previous experience showed him how seemingly innocuous decisions can have an outsized impact on student-athletes — even something as basic as setting a move-in date.
“You don’t think about it affecting athletes,” Bookstaver says. “But athletes need physicals done. They need eligibility check-offs. And all these things become very timely if they have a fall season. Sometimes even the move-in date can be a significant barrier to these student-athletes.”
Bookstaver says he hopes he can be that voice for student-athletes when those decisions are being made.
“Having a representative at some of these decision tables is going to be key,” he says. “There could be easy fixes just by having a voice at the right tables.”
Bookstaver replaces physical education professor Eva Monsma, who was the university’s faculty athletics representative for three years.
“In the SEC where athletic programs are high profile and deeply rooted in regional culture, strong faculty voices like those of the faculty athletics representative will be key to ensuring athletic excellence does not come at the expense of academic standards or ethical responsibilities,” Monsma says of the role.