(12-05-2014 03:24 PM)mixduptransistor Wrote: Note that the "shared governance" part is the thing to focus on. Even faculty who agree that football should have been closed are upset at the process and being shut out. If you plan to contact any members of the Senate or show up, please hammer that point home when discussing actions (IE: a "reinstate football" vs. "no confidence" resolution)
THIS.
To sell the idea of change to intellectuals and educators that don't care one way or the other about athletics, we need to be able to show how Watts has failed as an educator, an administrator, and a leader.
1) He has made a massive decision without consulting all stakeholders.
2) He has made a critical decision ostensibly based on flawed logic (Carr report).
3) He has ignored the response of his undergraduate students.
4) He has tacitly lowered the bar for research standards by "relying" on the Carr study. If a student turned in a research paper, thesis, or dissertation with that level of inadequacy, it would be an automatic failure. Somehow, it's perfectly acceptable to make a supposedly $49M decision. If it's good enough for the university president, a student could argue it's adequate for his Bio 201 research paper.
5) He has employed faulty logic that finance and accounting faculty should find abhorrent - every financial prospectus includes the phrase "Past performance is no guarantee of future returns". By assuming that past performance with an inadequate product (last 5-6 years of Blazer athletics) is indicative of the return he could expect in a strong market with a good product, he has undermined a solid investment and thereby left a monstrous opportunity cost on the table.
6) He has "solved" a problem without identifying the cause. By stating that athletics would incur a loss, he merely decided to lop off the largest single expense without regard to the associated revenue. Would you go to a doctor with a broken finger and accept a treatment method of amputation of the arm?
7) He has flatly refused the most common sense approach to decision making - seeking a way to improve his options. By using faulty data and assuming only two choices, he effectively made it impossible to make an informed decision.
8) He has declined contributions that would have resolved a sizable portion of the supposed increase in expenses (also based on poor logic - see statements above).
9) He has jeopardized the position and public perception of the University of Alabama at Birmingham by his embarrassing reactions ("we don't know what we don't know") to the public outcry this week.
10) He has failed as a leader by excluding stakeholders, including faculty, staff, students, and the community. Had he involved these stakeholders, it is entirely likely that a solution could have been identified to bring the athletics department onto more solid financial footing. See the article released today about a small increase in student fees coupled with the contributions of the Football Foundation for additional details.
11) HE HAS LIED TO THE FACULTY SENATE AND TO THE COMMUNITY ABOUT HIS INTENTIONS REGARDING ATHLETICS. Why would anyone trust his statement of commitment to any component of the university? A leader who cannot be trusted is not fit to be a leader. He has lost the faith and trust of the student body, the faculty, the alumni, and the Blazer nation.
These are just the things I can think of off the top of my head...I suspect someone more eloquent than I (58-56) could probably identify even more, and possibly turn it into a Declaration of Independence style treatise on the wrongs inflicted by a sadistic overlord wannabe.
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