The AD Fiasco. Behind the scenes
- Thread starter T_Levine
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Actually it sure sounds like he quit because he didn't want to face the music. Like answer questions.
No one here knows what happened, despite fun "behind the scenes" claims. We know what suits were filed, who was named, the optics of said suits, and that's it. We know Polisky resigned for reasons only he is ultimately aware of. People need to stop showing their ass on everything else.
| The classic joke about how Corporations deal with a problem. Northwestern puts in place Sexual Harrassment Guidelines to show it is a model employer, and pats itself on the back for its enlightened process… Then an actual situation occurred. Then the normal bureaucratic process takes over. 1. Wild enthusiasm 2. Disillusionment 3. Confusion 4. Panic 5. Search for the guilty 6. Punishment of the innocent 7. Promotion of non-participants |
He was screwed and unfortunately everyone one listed on that supporters list released on Twitter will be too by the mob.
They were ill prepared back in 2001 when Wheeler passed away too
Did i miss his press conference , where he answered questions from all? Sorry.
I did not know that NU had a PR department. I though they just had a good US News ranking and Fitz.
It used to be you could sit on the photocopier. Now you have to do a webcam or acrobatic selfie.
I became disinterested in Morty's explanation when he said he knew the optics of the situation would be tough...and he proceeded anyway.
Welcome to 2021. Optics matter (but honestly, is this new?) Most of us do not aspire to serve in high profile, high scrutiny positions - but if you do, your performance and behavior has to be near perfection. When you have a long tail of service, it just becomes easier to get stepped on. In this particular instance, we aren't even talking about a Tweet from 2009 or a college party 20 years ago. The timing is an absolute killer.
I've said before and I will say again...no idea what Polisky's culpability was/is, or the merits of this lawsuit, but as we have seen here, it almost does not matter. I'm not giving Morty a gold medal for virtue or doing what's "right" in standing behind his man - I'm left to scratch my head how a very experienced university president underestimated the circumstances and did not see how this would end. To pick Polisky represents reckless disregard, tone deafness in the Ivory Tower, and a sign that yes - it's time for Morty to move on.
Obvious alternative: Appoint Blais...the person good enough to serve in the interim role, the AD in charge of compliance and STUDENT DEVELOPMENT...to reiterate NU's commitment to the student experience, and leave Mike in the #2 position where he could have continued to operate in a firm position of power. The transition to a new president creates at least some space to turn Janna over in 3-5 years if she isn't meeting expectations in any way, and would have created enough distance between the lawsuit to make Polisky a natural replacement. This becomes a case study in the perils of impatience.
Welcome to 2021. Optics matter (but honestly, is this new?) Most of us do not aspire to serve in high profile, high scrutiny positions - but if you do, your performance and behavior has to be near perfection. When you have a long tail of service, it just becomes easier to get stepped on. In this particular instance, we aren't even talking about a Tweet from 2009 or a college party 20 years ago. The timing is an absolute killer.
I've said before and I will say again...no idea what Polisky's culpability was/is, or the merits of this lawsuit, but as we have seen here, it almost does not matter. I'm not giving Morty a gold medal for virtue or doing what's "right" in standing behind his man - I'm left to scratch my head how a very experienced university president underestimated the circumstances and did not see how this would end. To pick Polisky represents reckless disregard, tone deafness in the Ivory Tower, and a sign that yes - it's time for Morty to move on.
Obvious alternative: Appoint Blais...the person good enough to serve in the interim role, the AD in charge of compliance and STUDENT DEVELOPMENT...to reiterate NU's commitment to the student experience, and leave Mike in the #2 position where he could have continued to operate in a firm position of power. The transition to a new president creates at least some space to turn Janna over in 3-5 years if she isn't meeting expectations in any way, and would have created enough distance between the lawsuit to make Polisky a natural replacement. This becomes a case study in the perils of impatience.
Why would someone think that leaking the names of diverse candidates to provide air cover that the process was fair when they went with the white guy anyway would ADD credibility to the hire? Yeesh.
Right. Same ridiculous idea as when someone leaks the names of all white, male candidates to provide air cover that the process was fair when they select a minority and/or female anyway. Yeesh.
So, am I to conclude from these two posts that all job selections are now made on the basis of gender and skin color?
Obviously getting into issues that extend far beyond message board fodder, but will say this: we are in an era where everyone is asking why well-qualified women/people of color get passed over at a statistically significant rate. For most of my lifetime this has been a blow-off question that's asked with no particular scrutiny or accountability. We've finally reached a tipping point where the public isn't content with "we went with the 'best' candidate" as a canned explanation. I totally get where some people feel/think is unfair to qualified white male candidates of the day, and I do think some take it too far sometimes. But we're long overdue, and we have some catching up to do...and I'd rather see some people be too overzealous and handle it badly sometimes as opposed to turning a blind, privileged eye as we have, basically forever.
In this particular case...we had a woman serving in the interim role, and three very well-qualified candidates (at least on paper) who are women of color...and instead of going with any of them, the white men picked the white male insider in the midst of a scandal (whether he did something or not, the other candidates DEFINITELY weren't implicated). It's like a worst case scenario in why we need to ask questions about executive searches. PS, one of those candidates (Nina King) was named the next AD at Duke earlier today.
I know the Cal and SMU sitting ADs were also considered here, and haven't gotten much mention, probably because they are boring white dudes. I imagine Morty and the search firm weren't expecting so many people to focus only on the female/minority candidates, but that's just the next in a series of blind spots they seemed to have in this whole process. I have to imagine Chun dropped out of the search early because he had enough eyes and ears in the Big Ten to know that they were going with Polisky the whole time (which is ANOTHER reason not to trust the process).
Chun was a homerun candidate on paper. That he didn’t make it to be a finalist is a huge red flag.
Agree 100%, he sure had all the right experiences and successes. I remember thinking, maybe NU felt he would bolt to OSU when that job became available and passed. I was wrong, very wrong. There is no chance in hell we get him now.
So, based on that, I guess my next question is will a boring white guy ever get another job at NU (or anywhere)? There a lot of highly qualified women and minority candidates out there. Seems like now there needs to be a selection committee for the selection committee. No easy answers here.
Serious question: do we actually know in clear terms who the "finalists" were? I know some names were hotter than others because of the media's focus on them, but I don't remember an official short list.
Also, in NU's defense I think Chun was not a finalist because he withdrew from consideration, which I speculate is because he realized the whole thing was a dog-and-pony show for the sake of theatre when they knew they wanted Polisky all along.
I don't mean to sound like a total lib who makes you roll your eyes when I say this (because honestly...I'm not), but I don't think white guys are in danger any time soon of not being the vast majority of hires to senior leadership positions in this country. The fact that it "seems" like they are under assault just shows how distorted the narrative is.
Kevin Warren, a Black man, got hired as Big Ten Commish. And then what?
Jim Phillips (white guy) hired by the ACC to replace a white guy, arguably over the Clemson President (spoiler alert: also a white guy). Sidebar: I just Googled seven random ACC university presidents - all white guys.
Next up: Pac-12 commish. I don't honestly remember his name, but it's a white guy, replacing another mediocre white guy. PS: The Wazzu president led the search. I'll give you one guess on the gender/race.
Agree that Chun seemed to be a really good candidate. But I don't think it is fair to assume NU told him he wasn't a finalist. It is just as likely that he withdrew after interviewing because he had used his candidacy at NU to leverage more money at WSU. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if the leak of his name, and the two others leaked at the same time, was from that side of the table to gain leverage. I wonder whether the three ADs at issue share representation.
Funny that this is a response to stpaulcat.
As long as he avoids the magic words, which rhyme with Aunt Gourd, we’re safe. Maybe…
Pretty sure there was an official shortlist of 4 candidates. Whether or not the school released those 4 names formally or it was leaked from the committee, I'm unclear on. But I don't think there's a dispute over who the 4 finalists were. Perhaps there would have been 5 finalists if Chun didn't withdraw, who knows.
And yes, I also think Chun withdrew due to his sense or knowledge that the process was rigged. That's why it was a red flag for me. Hearing at the time that Chun had withdrew was baffling, but it now makes total sense.
Eh, maybe. Before this whole fiasco it was fair to say that the NU AD job was one of the best in the country. High reward, low risk, but still high profile enough to launch the two previous ADs into some super lofty positions. The NU job is definitely better than the WSU job, I think most would agree with that.
In addition, Chun has roots in the midwest and no particular ties to WSU that I'm aware of. Considering Phillips was also one of the best paid ADs, I just don't see a reason for WSU to beat out NU on the merits for someone like Chun. Yes, he did get a raise from WSU after his name was leaked because the school realized he was in demand and wanted to make sure they kept him. But I don't think Chun went into the NU process thinking that that was the play. I think he realized midstream that the process was rigged and then made the best of the situation.
The leak was likely from inside committee members that were pissed that Polisky was the choice. It worked beautifully. They knew there would be outrage over taking the white guy on the inside. Especially when the other finalist were NOW known to be diverse candidates. There was and Morty was still blind enough not to be prepared with a response. Polisky did the only thing he could do when Morty and the other powers to be hung him out to dry.
Seems to be something that is happening all over the country. Apple's firing of Antonio Garcia Martinez is another example
1. Clueless execs want to make a hiring decision that is forseeably problematic.
2. Clueless execs ignore warning signs and make the hire anyway.
3. Completely forseeable backlash happens, within the institution and by outsiders.
4. Clueless and spineless execs throw the new hire under the bus.
It says it is very difficult for a selection committee to win. If Caucasian male, you know the drill relative to the criticism. If not, unspoken concerns about filling quotas, etc. You can set a clock to it and IMO the fixation and constant criticism is not productive. Change is happening anyway at a fast rate due to a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the athlete pools are very diverse and are the wellspring for athletic administrators. End of rant.
NU is Coyote, the Roadrunner is change. Somehow, NU has made great progress with their athletic programs since I was in school 200 years ago, but still, someone needs to take the gun away from whoever keeps shooting them in the foot.
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