Time's up!
As we head into the first full week of 2015, the time has run out on the grace period I was willing to extend to the administration for keeping us all in the dark about the search process for the new athletic director and head football coach.
This is the week for the alumni, fans, and current student-athletes to be updated on the situation.
This is the week we need to hear something supportive and substantive about athletics from President Bollinger or Board of Trustees Chairman Schiller.
Actually it's well PAST time, and if anyone doubts that I invite you to examine how one of our fellow Ivy schools conducted its search for its new A.D. the RIGHT way.
Here is the blow-by-blow account of how Princeton routinely informed the public as it replaced Gary Walters over the course of 2013-2014.
As you read the timeline below, ask yourselves: did Columbia do any of these things in the past six months?
(D1) PRINCETON UNIVERSITY· September, 4th 2013–Gary D. Walters, who in a five-decade career as a student-athlete, coach, administrator and NCAA leader has established his voice as one of the most respected in college athletics, is in his 20th year as Director of Athletics at Princeton University. Walters has announced that he will be stepping down at the conclusion of the 2013-14 academic year.
· September, 2013–List of Committee members.· October-November 2013–Princeton held Open forums with the Athletic Director Search Committee Monday, October 14, 2013 for students, Tuesday, October 15, 2013 for faculty and staff, and Saturday, November 16, 2013 for Alumni· March 10th, 2014–Princeton announces it will hire a new Director of Athletics before the end of the academic year.· April 15th, 2014—School president, Christopher L. Eisgruber announced this afternoon that Mollie Marcoux will become Princeton’s next Athletics Director. A 1991 graduate, she will be replacing Gary Walters, who announced back in September that he planned to step down after twenty years in the position. She was previously the executive director of Chelsea Piers, a management organization which includes athletic and entertainment complexes in New York City and Connecticut.
And look what the folks at Portland State recently did.
They pared the candidates for A.D. down to two and let the campus community provide feedback about both of them.
It's amazing that Columbia fans and alumni are so battered by the treatment we've received by this administration and cabal of favored donors and officials who run athletics that we don't even know what to demand and expect.
But the above examples from Princeton and Portland State are how real schools who really care about athletics and their alumni get it done.
And at Columbia, I believe this disdain extends to ALL alumni whether athletics are involved or not.
This is the same disdain we see when the Columbia College Today magazine and Columbia Magazine continue to lionize the alumni who participated in the violent and destructive 1968 riots and more recent students who have made attacking the university their calling card. Of course these people don't donate a cent to Columbia, and yet they are venerated as heroes while those who support athletics and the reputation of the university as a whole are denigrated.
It's also amazing that Columbia sports fans and fans of the other Ivies can continue to be so confused as to why we keep losing.
Take a look at how we hire our people, keep the processes secret, and conduct everything we do in athletics with dishonor.
Garbage in, garbage out.
Maybe it's not too late to fix this situation, but the culture needs to change at the top.
And for those of you who still don't get it, let me spell it out for you very briefly:
President Bollinger, Bill Campbell and the rest of the powers in the Columbia administration are spitting in your faces regularly. They despise you and especially despise me for daring to give you a voice.
Do something about it.
14 comments:
Jake, I have to say you are making great points and really getting me thinking.
I have been holding out hope that the hiring of Taylor as a consultant was the beginning of a change in how we viewed sports at CU, but here we are a month later and we have heard nothing.
How did Bollinger operate at Michigan? Was it cloak and dagger there, too?
Also, it just amazes me that we don't have someone in the administration that knows how to handle public relations. There should be someone there advising Bollinger on how to handle situations like this.
It really does amaze me how these people have jobs but then again I guess that is why a lot of us would have never had successful careers in academia.
Ditto.
The Princeton comp is an embarrassment to Columbia.
We don't hear anything because they probably are interviewing a bunch of dogs for the AD job.
Looks like the Jets are about to do a Mangurian move with Marrone.
Not that I care, but here's a guy with minimal credentials being touted for a critical coaching slot. Why? Woody's "advisor" is Marrone's butt buddy.
So incredulous decisions are not solely restricted to Morningside.
Jake: I think Columbia will make a run for John Robinson
from Houston- you mentioned his name before-
Meanwhile, what is going on with our interim football staff and a program in limbo? Is there a strength program? Have we lost any more guys? Do we have any committed recruits, or has recruiting been brought to a halt? And have we decided to drop Fordham yet? There must be another Big Dawg trope out there to describe the present football miasma.
I wouldn't go so far as say the powers that be spit in anyone's faces or despise anyone or look down on them. They just pick their battles and prioritize. I have not been in NYC in many years but having grown up there I know that there is a form of chaos. You either manage that chaos or you get thrown around with it and can't function correctly. I think Columbia suffers from that chaos/NYC syndrome in many ways. Too many things happening at once and no real management except for what people decide is the most important to prioritize and deal with.
Personally, I deal with all kinds of elitist attitudes in my business world. I used to think they look down on everything and everyone not perceived to be on their level but I came to learn they just narrow their focus. There is only so much people can deal with and they choose to confront issues that matter most. Everything else is white noise.
The real failure is not hiring correctly. People simply failed at the jobs they were hired to perform. Without adequate oversight over the overseers this problem will persist. Unless they hire right and get this corrected long term we are looking at many years of futility ad nauseam.
It sure would be nice if we received another update on the status of things. How hard is that?
I think two schools in the country do not have a football coach- Bowdoin College and Columbia- only one school in the country has not even begun the search for a football coach-Columbia!
Several openings in the NFL. It will be interesting to see if Mangurian lands in an assistant role or if his connections have dried up. I am sure he has enough to retire on and lives in a low tax area (Georgia). I also wonder if he got a severance if he agreed to resign.
Sounds of crickets appear to be eminating from the area near the flat 'Possum on that Mississippi secondary.....
Jake,
I strongly agree that the processes of selecting an A.D. that were followed by Princeton and Portland State were outstanding; and I agree that that kind of respect for the alumni, current students (including athletes), families, and other fans is absolutely what we must have here at Columbia!
And I further agree that without this kind of openness and respect our situation will NOT change!!!
However, while I know that this is not the place to debate the merits (or not) of the demonstrations of 1968, I want it to be clear that I disagree with your perspective. I participated in those demos - with great conviction - and I was not then nor am I now either a violent or destructive person. In fact, I have devoted my adult life to trying to bring more peace and harmony to our nation and our world.
Also, to refer to Bill Campbell with a "spitting in your face" metaphor and accuse him of despising (at least the rest of) us is ludicrous. You may disagree with some of the things he has done or not done, but Billy Campbell is one of the most caring and generous people I've ever known!
Roger Dennis CC'66
And while I like, admire and respect my friend Roger, I am 180 opposite re '68, having been one of the organizers and leaders of the blockade around Low Library which countered the occupiers. But he has always spoken and acted his conscience and I credit him.
I also agree with Roger re Bill Campbell. Bill does not like me, because of my position over the past couple of years, but I have always made it plain that I think he deserves tremendous respect for all he's done. I don't care if he thinks ill of me.
This is not to say he hasn't been influenced over the past years by sycophants who may have induced him into certain stances. There are lots of folks who want a piece of his hem.
As the late, sometimes great Al Davis always said:
"JUST WIN, BABY!"
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