OT: Oregon State mess regarding Les Miles at LSU

[upstater]

The President of OSU has been taken to task for his handling of the Les Miles saga at LSU.

Oregon St. president resigns over Miles saga

Oregon State president F. King Alexander has resigned after his role in the Les Miles saga at LSU came to light.

www.espn.com

The president has now resigned. But I'm only writing this because the president -- in resigning -- has unloaded on LSU and what went on there (remember, Mark Emmert is also a former SU Pres.).

I'm taking some of this from the Chronicle of Higher Ed. which is behind a paywall. This is a little bit (less than 10%) of what he said:

"An outside investigation, described in a law firm’s 2013 report that was recently made public by USA Today, recounted allegations that Miles had, among other transgressions, kissed a student and suggested they go to a hotel."

Given the timing, Alexander said, “It would have been very difficult to override the board, who has already heard from their investigation.”

[Alexander had been hired during the investigation and in his first week was told the board had already made the decision to retain Miles].

During the following year, as money had been raised for a new campus research building, Miles went ballistic because...
"Miles objected to the university’s constructing the building near athletics practice fields. “Les Miles went nuts and said, ‘How can you dare build this on my side of campus?’” Alexander said.

Oh, and not only was the board the people who made all decisions related to athletics over the president's head, but athletics seemed to answer directly to the board:

“A couple of them [title IX sex assault reports],” he said, “for some reason were handled differently by athletics.”

Alexander estimated that “they were siloing maybe 6 or 7 percent — and that’s just a guess.”

“We had to further clarify in athletics over and over again,” Alexander said, “that you need to report to the Title IX office and not to anybody in athletics.”

Athletics was taking directions from the board as to how to report complaints.

Other decisions made by the President had nothing to do with athletics but lead to the board turning against him:

Alexander referenced “the pressure I caught from temporarily shutting down the Greek system.” The president said the step cost the university “millions in donations” from alumni of the Greek system. “They thought we overstepped our bounds, and [that] we took drastic action when we shouldn’t have.”

Alexander referenced “rampant problems” inside fraternities during his tenure at LSU, including “drugging drinks” and other things “flying under the radar.” Alexander said said that these instances were enough to — when paired with the student hazing deaths — to justify the temporary shuttering of the Greek system.

Ultimately though it's the President's fault. He should have called them out and bore the brunt of the ramifications. If it meant his career as a President was over, so be it. That's called ethics. Instead, his actions long after the situation have lead to this:

College presidents seldom speak in detail about board members controlling a football coach’s fate, even though board influence is often assumed to be a factor. Alexander’s decision to describe bluntly the LSU board’s approach has invited scrutiny from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, the university’s regional accrediting agency.

“We will investigate this,” Belle S. Wheelan, president of the agency, said in an email to The Chronicle on Thursday.

LSU is right now looking for a new President. Good luck I say.

One wonders how B1G institutions can continue to compete with the SEC once we go to a pay for play model.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Can’t make this up: Current NCAA President and ex-LSU Chancellor hired current LSU AD Scott Woodward originally as LSU’s Dir of External Affairs. Woodward was also Emmert’s liaison to LSU’s athletic department.

A few years later, UDub hired Emmert as its’ President. Who followed? Woodward as UDub’s / Emmert’s VP of External Affairs and then UDub AD after the ex-UConn administrator Emmert pushed ex-UConn AD Todd Turner out in Seattle as the left coast Huskies’ AD.

Woodward’s connection with Emmert goes further. 2 of their respective children are a married couple (Emmert daughter, Woodward step-son).