Marquette University Vice President / Director of Athletics Larry Williams spent the lunch hour on Thursday holding an open forum in conjunction with MU Law School's On the Issues series.

Williams, a former practicing attorney with Indianapolis-based firm Baker & Daniels and a 1992 graduate of the University of San Diego School of Law, spoke for an hour and answered questions from members of the audience.

Addressing topics ranging from his NFL playing career to his legal career, Williams also touched on the current landscape of collegiate athletics and the recent declaration by Marquette to depart the BIG EAST Conference.

"We're trying to use elite-level competition to grow young men and women," Williams said to the audience. "If we focus on that growth, collegiate athletics is a worthy pursuit. But the times we get uncomfortable is when we lose focus of that [growth] as the sole purpose of college athletics."

See On the Issues in its entirety: http://law-media.marquette.edu/Mediasite/Play/f8cf4705779b4f08a91227b4161591341d