It's a snow day at SIU, John A. Logan and the local schools. A good day to catch up with some old newspapers. JALC Board member, John Sanders, had a letter published in the Southern Illinoisan, last week. Mr. Sanders points out that the Board could have handled the proposed abolition of the golf program a little better.
He also responds to the Southern's opinion that the Board must "demand" a comprehensive plan from the administration. That reminds us that, at the last BOT meeting (when it became obvious that the golf cut was turning into a fiasco), a member (not Sanders) complained that the Board needed better leadership from the administration. Is that a fair complaint?
The complaint that the board needed better leadership from the administration is partially true when it comes to the golf cutting. Committees are set up by the board for different departments and those committees work with the department chairperson directly. The athletic committee would be working with the athletic director. I am quite sure this committee took the recommendation of the athletic director on cuts to be made to the department and they made a decision. The athletic director and his boss a vice president would definitely be responsible for the lack of communication with the coaches who were not aware of the cuts until 3 hours after the presentation of the Hall of Fame announcement at the basketball game. Why would the coaches have not known prior to that time when the athletic director himself knew of the cuts as well as his boss. Very sad leadership on both individuals part. So yes, it is a very fair complaint and based on what I have heard that committee took the recommendation from the Athletic Director that Golf be cut from the athletic department.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the John Sanders letter--it is about time we had a veteran board member speak up and state his/her hones opinion in an open session. Need Sanders back on that board!
Athletic Committee consists of two board members- outgoing Mike Hopkins who has served 8 years on the board and said it was time for new blood on the board. The other member on the committee is Don Brewer. I definitely think some of the veteran board members should be taking the Hopkins approach and NOT run for election- a la Jake Rendleman. He has been on the board long enough and he is partially responsible for that 2 million dollar debt that Logan was assessed in the money they received through the building of business in the Health-Rec center. Wonder why he hasn't spoke openly about that? It is certainly not Dr Dreiths position to have to take the blame for that serious misjudgement.
ReplyDeletei see that golf had to be reinstated by the president of the college due to the timing of the tabling the decision by the board. Scholarships had to be signed by the president prior to the deadline which was before the next time the board met. So eventually on the surface-President Dreith saved the golf program by making an executive decision. On the surface that is.. Behind the scenes of course is how this ever got to be a mess like it is with the poor publicity it reflects on the college athletic department and the athletic committee . close sources to the problem stated the board got criticized for the cuts but it really came from the recommendation of the athletic director Jerry Halstead. if this is true-and he is conferring with brewer and hopkins on athletic cuts--why weren't his coaches told about this prior to the Hall of Fame presentation and Halsteads praise of the golf program. Pres. Dreith announced that recommendations were made for suggestive cuts to every department and they were reviewed. Ironically the golf program was first on the list to be cut and due to the lack of communication by the athletic director and his VP boss...caused an embarassment to the Board and school. With cutbacks necessary-real soon-to fix the budget..Maybe we should look at the overhead in the adminstrative capacities and cut back some of those positions that are not necessary. We could not believe some of the assistants . to the dean, etc and the salaries connected to the positions. Tenured faculty with many years of experience at Logan could be offered early retirement at this time to save some money by hiring younger instructors. You could even extend that thought by ELIMINATING some administrative positions with their high salaries until the funds are built back up. Top heavy ceo's etc. are very common...start at the top and work your way down and it doesn't take away from the education to the students- Too many chiefs and not enough indians is a good way to look at MOST financial problems in a business.It takes the indians to run the programs -the chiefs are usually in MEETINGS mircomanaging the indians. Cannot wait to see the recommendations of the overall cuts that are going to be made to meet the deficit
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Agree with above comments. A vp is about to retire, if it actually happens this time. Spread those duties out among the existing admins pulling down healthy salaries. They shared the raises in the good times (and some years far exceeded the raises other groups on campus got), so now they should share the sacrifices. How many new "executive" positions in the last 10 years, vs how many new teachers? Then they wonder why enrollment is down?
ReplyDeleteThe golf team was saved. But word is they have let go three new-hire full timers. As in just hired this year. Education IS being impacted. BOT meeting tonight should be interesting.
ReplyDeletePresidents, Vice Presidents, and BOTs have come and gone at Logan, but the two constants have been Rendleman and Brewer and more recently their side-kick Kilquist. Their micromanaging has contributed to this macro-mess. It's a sad time for JALC. But at least they might finally quit referencing the 2004 Rolling Stone article.
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