Wayne State University Athletics

Since his arrival, Fournier[apos]s plan to invigorate the WSU athletic department has centered on three goals - academic achievement, community outreach and competitive success. To that end, the record has been telling.

In 2008, he was honored by NACDA as the Athletics Director of the Year in the Central Region.

The Warriors eight best finishes ever in the NACDA Cup standings, which measures the overall performance of athletic programs around the country, have occurred in the last eight years. WSU has jumped 100 places in the standings since Fournier[apos]s arrival. In those nine years, 28 WSU coaches have been honored as conference Coach-of-the-Year while three have been distinguished as National Coach of the Year.

Also in 2008-09, the athletic department celebrated the naming of 37 All-Americans, the most in school history. Not surprisingly, the 104 All-Americans that have been honored nationally in the past three years are the most in any like period and coincidently exceed any 10 year period in the 92 years of WSU athletics.

Last year was also a record-setting year academically and in the community. The Fall (2008) term[apos]s cumulative grade-point average for all student-athletes was 3.048 while the Winter term[apos]s mark was 3.035. Thirteen (13) of WSU[apos]s sixteen (16) athletic programs had cumulative grade-point averages above 3.00.

In addition, in only nine months, WSU student-athletes contributed an exemplary 5,529 community service hours volunteering at a variety of Detroit initiatives. The rise in both academic average and community outreach has been dramatic, consistent and unprecedented. In addition, in the latest federally-mandated graduation rate report, WSU student-athletes received an undergraduate degree at a rate 17 percent higher than the comparable campus population. These, and other academic achievements, are recognized at the annual academic banquet, which he started in 2001.

Fournier[apos]s ability to generate corporate support has vastly improved the physical setting of the athletic campus and the competitive balance of the Warrior teams. In his nine years, he has raised over six million dollars from a variety of sources. That total has helped complete the following facility initiatives: football locker room; baseball[apos]s replica Fenway Park stadium; men[apos]s and women[apos]s basketball locker rooms; softball grandstand, walkway and press box; a Boston Garden-like parquet floor for basketball; Hall of Fame foyer; swimming video board and pool improvements; football ticket booths and stadium entrance; outdoor marquee; FieldTurf and a new track; scoreboards for baseball and football with a video display; trainer[apos]s treatment area; new USTA tennis courts; and a design charette for a new arena. The physical transformation has been both noticeable and imaginative and boasts a number of cosmetic infrastructure changes as well.

In the past five years alone, student-athletes have committed nearly 20,000 community service hours with such programs as St. Leo[apos]s and St. Aloysius soup kitchens, Motor City Makeover, Make-A-Wish, Relay for Life, canned food drives, Boys and Girls Club, Toys-for-Tots, Skate for the Cure, Genesis House, Focus Hope and Big Brothers/Big Sisters.

In particular, the Think Detroit/PAL initiative pairs WSU student-athletes and coaches with over 13,000 Detroit school children in a variety of program and outreach activities. All this is accomplished under the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program, one of the first in the conference. Fournier has also initiated an outreach effort for coaches and staff to volunteer one day a month to a charitable cause in a program labeled WIN -- Warriors in the Neighborhood.

Fournier served three years as a member of the NCAA regional-ranking football committee whose responsibilities include selecting the top teams in the region each week and the teams that advance to the postseason. This year will be his second on the NCAA softball regional ranking committee. He currently serves as the chair of the GLIAC officiating committee and is past President of the Conference Executive Committee. In women[apos]s hockey, he served as the chair of the Structure Committee and a member of the Executive Committee.

Prior to joining Wayne State, Fournier served as the Senior Associate Commissioner and general counsel for the Mid-American Conference. While serving as the acting Commissioner of the Conference (1999), he moved the league office from Toledo to Cleveland, wrote and secured a long-term contract for the men[apos]s basketball tournament at the Gund Arena (now Quicken Loans Arena) and secured the three largest corporate gifts in the history of the MAC including First Energy as the tournament sponsor for the men[apos]s postseason basketball tournament.

He also wrote and negotiated the Motor City Bowl football contract that is the MAC[apos]s longest post-season Bowl alignment. As the chief compliance officer for the league, Fournier investigated and reported on over 350 infraction cases that insured fairness in case resolution and corrective action. At the request of institutions, he has appeared before the NCAA Committee on Infractions and conducted campus reviews of compliance effectiveness in financial aid, rules education, eligibility and institutional control. He has served as liaison to various NCAA committees for which the conference held cabinet positions. The MAC presidents recognized Fournier[apos]s achievements when they unanimously conferred a Certificate of Commendation and a mark of esteem for his efforts in 1999.

A licensed attorney, he received his bachelor[apos]s degree summa cum laude and his master[apos]s with honors from the University of Akron. He was a national forensics champion and qualified for the national finals in six events. Fournier received his law degree from Akron in 1986 and was admitted to the Ohio bar that same year where he is still licensed to practice. He and his wife Pam, a Vice President at ACS, reside in Walled Lake.