RESOLUTION OF EXPRESSION
OF CONFIDENCE IN LEE FOWLER
Whereas: The Council on Athletics has expressed to the Chancellor that Lee Fowler “…is an outstanding Athletics Director and has the absolute support and confidence of the Council on Athletics,” andWhereas: Lee Fowler has maintained close contact with faculty through regular attendance at Faculty Senate meetings, andWhereas: Throughout his tenure as Athletics Director at NC State University he has consistently demonstrated his commitment to the integrity of the athletics program being of paramount importance, therefore be it
Resolved: The Faculty Senate of North Carolina State University endorses the position of the Council on Athletics and expresses its confidence in Lee Fowler.
43 Responses to “Fowler receives vote of confidence from Faculty Senate”
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Just goes to show what a mess the whole university is in when it can’t see poor (or worse) performance and act accordingly!
Ok … I should just insert my satirical post from the “State of State” thread here …
Animal Farm redux
At least they are consistent in putting all the focus on the “integrity” of the athletics dept, with no measure of success required.
WE ARE THE SOCCER MOM’S OF THE ACC! As long as everyone plays nice & gets a turn, all is well & we’ll go out for ice cream later.
Between this and the Pack Pride Q&A all I can do is laugh…
really? i mean really?
Does anyone else think it is odd that out of the blue they felt a need to show support. It sounds like the empty support a coach gets right before they get fired.
wuf: They did the same for “He That Shall Remain Un-named” and it was much more of a digging in strategy. They never intended to remove him.
Unfortunately, Lee is SO WOEFULLY UNATTRACTIVE on the open market that not even Ariz St would waste time interviewing him.
What a faculty senate thing to do. Ineffectual types who want to give the sense that what they think about the worst athletic program in the ACC really matters. As someone once said of academics, “the conflicts are so fierce because they stakes are so low.” In case you are wondering, yes I am a college professor.
Not surprised, not in the least.
I find it funny though.
Not funny HA HA!
Funny like a clown!
Funny in the the way they talk!
( Where’s Joe Pesci when ya need him?)
The system has set us up for failure peeps, and I for one am not laughing.
What even prompted these pompus sabatours to even feel the need for proclaimation?
The Faculty Senate has always thought that winning (or even really trying to win) is kind of icky. No surprise that Fowler is aces with them!
When I want to know about academics, they’ll be the first opinion I seek. They obviously have no clue that an athletics program can be competitve and still maintain integrity.
I was hoping at the bottom of this post, it would say something about this being a satire posted by SFN. Of course we cannot be so lucky.
Apparently the Senate failed to see the APR? We aren’t really tearing it up in the classroom either. Its not like you can say “well they aren’t winning, but we are doing it right in the classroom so we’ll look the other way on those records”. Obviously, the two aren’t mutually exclusive (as they seem to think) because many many schools are beating us in both areas….
Sorry for the double post but does anyone think maybe someone has seen the recent work here and they are actually afraid he might be fired and (oh no) someone like MAF who actually cared about athletics might come to raleigh and breed some success. I know its been posted at length here but don’t they ever see the stories about teams that are successful in sport and following that success see huge surges in enrollment, quality of students, etc? It is more positive publicity than they could ever buy any other way…
Obviously these people don’t have to be successful in the “real world” like those of us that graduated with our degrees…
Where do I return my sheepskin!
“Does anyone else think it is odd that out of the blue they felt a need to show support. It sounds like the empty support a coach gets right before they get fired.”
Perhaps you’re right. We can only hope. Seems kinda fishy to me that they’d make such a proclamation. And what timing. What would possess the faculty senate to a vote of confidence in this AD?
Some astute observer once remarked that if there’s something going on that makes no sense and you want to know why it’s happening, follow the money. So I’m wondering where is the money trail and where does it lead?
What a joke.
The resolution is dated 22 April - before the APR ratings were released. So this even further begs the question: What prompted the resolution?
Possibilities that I can imagine:
1. They knew how the APR was going to go and wanted to get out in front of the story if it got blown out of proportion (which is funny in a way - the APR story was a legitimate problem and got blown off by the media, but the same local media idiots went wild on the WPC’s student apartment non-story).
2. There was a sense of growing frustration with this seemingly incompetent fool and the senate felt a need to be on the record in support of him for some reason.
3. They are a bunch of egghead academics completely divorced from any actual world where people are judged by their accomplishments, rather than by their opinions and speeches.
4. Heavy drug use as graduate students in the 1970s.
That vote of confidence from the US, er, NC, er, FACULTY (!?!) Senate certainly changes my opinion. Like it changed my opinion on the smell of horse manure. As of right now, I, as a State alum and die-hard State fan, deserve every bit of criticism from other schools’ fans because my school can’t get their heads out of their asses long enough to see the damage they’re doing to what I once held with so much regard. My beloved university is now officially irrelevant in areas other than athletics. Special Thanks to Jim and Lee!!!
A vote of confidence is a sure sign of failure. Too bad we not like the Yankees and many other sports team where a vote of confidence meant a firing was sure to follow.
I’m reminded of the late, great Bill Hicks’ line: “Go back to sleep America, your government is in control.”
$ talks so thing about your donations to the university. Attaching strings to your donations might help but it may be so far gone that we never get back what was NC State Athletics.
sad and just plays into Oblingers own incompetent handling of the AD.
We are doomed. Send your kids to another school.
I would love to see a plot of our academic ranking and our athletic ranking since the mid 1960s. I suspect a significant downward and correlated trend for both.
Something like this is almost spiteful. It’s basically giving all the fans who have built Lee’s precious facilities the finger.
Pleas for the blogs to stay positive, award from O, interviews on radio and for print, vote of confidence from Senate,etc. means that the message/demands for improvement are generating much needed discussions. Hopefully the powers that be are begining to understand that the pursuit of excellence must return. Personally, I hope Lee can change his approach and succeed in his job. Lee needs to elevate his game so to speak. Several posters have wondered who could mentor SL (Larry Brown, etc.) Lee needs to think along the same lines. What the faculty, O. and Lee should consider in my opinion is whether successful coaches in their respective sports should be the public face of athletics at State or should it continue to be LF. Why should anyone besides TOB, SL, etc. be constantly making news about TOB’s,SL’s,etc. teams. Maybe Lee thinks he is “taking one for the team ” by drawing negative comments to himself instead of underachieving coaches. Come on Lee. Start demanding and exhibit excellence in your job “behind the scenes”. Do that and you’ll receive the positive press you crave and that really means something to all of us in the long term.
Is this for real?
One can only hope this is the dreaded ‘vote of confidence’ before the ax falls…
Anyone who could possibly have “undying faith in Fowler” needs to be shown the door with him! It’s no wonder that the earnings potential of an academic really isn’t very high. I think the free market figured out how little they contribute!
you know… if Lee did his job- I would not hate him. I know hate is a strong word, but I honestly get sick every time I hear his name. He might actually be a good guy. Unfortunately, he does not do what is required and expected of him by the people who REALLY pay him… not the person who signs his checks.
The Peter Principle at its finest. Methinks that Lee is really starting to whistle through the graveyard.
I have my second kid in a row in college now, and based om my experience this is just another example of academia out of touch with the real world. My kids and I laugh at some of the assertions, opinions, discussions, etc that have taken place in their classes with their profs. Many if not most are totally divorced from reality - just like State’s faculty senate. A sad, sad joke.
Here’s my theory. Lee is on his way out. The senate knows something about this and as a result gave him this vote of confidence. They do this so that if Lee’s replacement tanks, they can stand up and say, “You should have listened to us, we knew he was right for the job.” However, if Lee’s replacement does well, you’ll never hear a peep out of them, and no one will care because we’ll all be too excited about our success.
Lets see wasn’t the Faculty Senate supporting the ouster of Coach V many years back? Looks more like a case of the scholastics versus the athletics.
The Faculty does not care about sports. Why shoud they? The fact that coaches get fat salaries and more recognition than Mr. PHD English professor just sticks in their craw.
I’m not saying that the salary differences are fair but the market decides the value of a good coach and staff. Maybe the professors need to write better books and papers that get people excited, sell better, or get made into movies to earn some bigger bucks.
The last book made into a movie that I can recall writtten by a professor at State was Guy Owen who wrote the Flim Flam man and George C. Scott starred in that movie.
An endorsement by the Senate is about as significant as President Bshe getting a vote of confidence from the Locke Foundation.
“Something like this is almost spiteful. It’s basically giving all the fans who have built Lee’s precious facilities the finger.”
This sums it up for me.
There is nothing so damning as a group of people (that know nothing about what you do) proclaimng your greatness.
Never mind,nothing really matters ,well Sid and his crack staff can go back to sleep
I worked for the university for 4 years after graduation, and first hand, the whole administration is screwed up…..It got a little better when MAF was chancellor, but every department I dealt with from the Bookstore to Student Development to Housing, etc was a NIGHTMARE!!! Therefore to me it’s not suprising that Jed got that vote of confidence
The faculty senate’s only concern is academics. I guess Lee is making sure athletes are in class and are graduating.
Just sent Oblinger e mail that i sent a request for money back with no money and note that when ncsu started requiring excellence from his office and all other departments then i would resume donations—the senate vote was the straw.
Just sent Oblinger e mail that i sent a request for money back with no money and note that when ncsu started requiring excellence from his office and all other departments then i would resume donations—the senate vote was the straw.
Let me get this straight, you are wanting a donation back that you gave to the university (not athletics) because you are unhappy with athletics.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to call the Wolfpack Club and get your money back or cancel your season tickets?
i sent a request back w/o money.i am not happy with athletics and the school as a whole.it as become a second rate school in many ways other than sports.
I’ve been wavering on renewing my WPC membership since I got the notice in March. This pretty well cuts it for me. I’m going to send in the renewal with 0$ filled in with some statistical info provided from this site and a note that says “the WPC will not get another dime from me until I see change at the top.” I won’t fall for their flim flam any longer (great movie - no wonder NCSU is so good at raising funds ^^^.)
I’m not advocating anything, but if you’re going to send it back without renewing, at least send in a simple donation check for a couple dollars so they will have to process it. Be sure to get creative in the For/Memo:_____________________ section of the check, so that even the tellers who deposit it for the WPC will get the message.
66Pack,
NC State is a second rate school in many areas outside of sports?
Please explain? Everything I read shows State doing incredible well outside of sports. I’m sure there are problems and areas that can be improved but I’m 100% confident in saying NC State academic programs are far ahead of any other time in the university’s history.
t-t-t, got any stats or data to back up all of that confidence? I have my doubts about it, but maybe so. Many factors like additional, and possibly less demanding, fields of study have to figure into the equation before it can be said that NCSU is doing better than ever. I’d like to see some proof of what you’re saying though.