Big news: Schlissel has been removed as president.
On Dec. 8, 2021, via an anonymous complaint, we learned that Dr. Schlissel may have been involved in an inappropriate relationship with a University employee. After an investigation, we learned that Dr. Schlissel, over a period of years, used his University email account to communicate with that subordinate in a manner inconsistent with the dignity and reputation of the University.
January 15th, 2022 at 6:39 PM ^
Mary Sue Coleman to serve as interim president.
January 15th, 2022 at 6:42 PM ^
Good thing Kirk Ferentz is no longer available!
January 15th, 2022 at 7:28 PM ^
Michael Barrett doesn't have enough on his plate yet...
January 15th, 2022 at 8:37 PM ^
Michael Barrett is the only choice. Any other hire is a disappointment.
January 15th, 2022 at 8:46 PM ^
I’m thinking Jim Harbaugh would be a good fit. Hire him at $12M/yr and let him stay as Head Coach for free. Other terms would include that only the President of the University would have the authority to remove the Head Coach.
January 15th, 2022 at 10:27 PM ^
"I'm just hoping that the coach doesn't dismiss me", University of Michigan President Jim Harbaugh said of J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Head Football Coach Jim Harbaugh.
January 15th, 2022 at 9:07 PM ^
We should seriously start a Michael Barrett for UM president campaign!
The funny thing is that I bet he would do a good job!
January 15th, 2022 at 11:17 PM ^
#MBFUMP
January 15th, 2022 at 7:10 PM ^
It’s Saturday night, hide your alcohol. Mary Sue about to get wasted and start babbling
January 15th, 2022 at 7:12 PM ^
I was at that Nebraska game - she was plowed - no way you can blame that on speaker feedback!
January 15th, 2022 at 7:38 PM ^
Higher than a Cootie Bug, as we used to say.
January 15th, 2022 at 11:44 PM ^
Higher than a stilt walkers dick
January 15th, 2022 at 7:58 PM ^
OMG Yes she was!!!
January 16th, 2022 at 12:41 PM ^
To be fair, we were all drunk at that game.
January 15th, 2022 at 9:44 PM ^
Too late, we’ve killed the last bottle. She needs to bring the next round…
January 15th, 2022 at 10:29 PM ^
Her burner account probably contributes to the weekly Friday drinking thread.
January 15th, 2022 at 7:21 PM ^
Lol, I mean with Coleman herself it's also not entirely clear why she left (her announcement wasn't fast but it was unexpected).
It doesn't even matter that there were obviously some pretty bad coverups during her time (there were), she slammed her foot on the corporatization pedal, accenture, admin salary explosion (NON-public compensation reports lmao...NON-public lmao), decreased student diversity (peak was mid-90s where UM earned its reputation), ~50% in-state tuition increase during her time, union-busting, etc. I could go on.
But she did the one thing that counts, she brokered the university to bring in a metric shit ton of money to the endowment, almost TRIPLING it, and when you bring in the money (Schlissel did as well), you'll only be let go once something comes out that can't be sqaushed.
January 15th, 2022 at 7:48 PM ^
The next capital campaign was about to start (at least the public phase). A president needs to be able to commit to stay for the rest of it, usually about four years. Therefore, it was time to leave.
January 15th, 2022 at 8:23 PM ^
She was also the one who was a huge Dave Brandon fan and got him the job of AD even though he was the least qualified (only qualification being the person who made Dominos take a turn for the worst both in pizza quality and financial health) vs. the other 3 candidates who were U-M alumni with actual AD experience at other FBS schools (Warde Manuel included). And then let him operate with zero oversight until Schlissel came in and was forced to do something after the Shane Morris debacle, “stop drinking and go to bed” emails, the protest at the President’s house, and the shitty 2014 season.
January 15th, 2022 at 9:05 PM ^
Unpopular opinion but Dave Brandon was a solid AD till he got himself over involved in everything. Dave Brandon did a lot of great things for the athletic department, esp fund raising. In some ways he was great about getting things done and past the university red tape as a former regrant knew the process well. Then again, got to involved about firing Borges to hire Nussmeier was dumb, holding weekly meetings with Brady Hoke about the game plan and play calling was overboard. He went overboard trying to schedule Alabama when clearly the program wasn’t ready for that yet. He was trying to get a better schedule but it wasn’t the 80’s or 90’s anymore, Bama and Nd in the same season isn’t fair to a head coach at all.
Dave Brandon wanted to be the face of the athletic department and football program and that became a problem. He injected himself into every part of everything. Yeah, in hindsight he wasn’t a good athletic director but at the same time he did do some great things at the time getting stadium finished, glick and more funding to complete athletic facilities renovations. He overscheduled and he did other things that were horrible for football. The fast food ticket thing was just embarrassing and by that point it was obvious he had to go, not just take a background job, he was legit being a db and had to go.
January 15th, 2022 at 9:10 PM ^
Brandon had nothing to do with getting the stadium finished, that was Martin.
January 15th, 2022 at 9:15 PM ^
Go read Endzone. Any fundraising or surplus he made was far outpaced by ridiculous spending like requesting flights up to Traverse City to speak at an alumni event instead of driving like every other AD before him and then declining his free hotel provided to him by the U-M TC alumni club and requesting an extra luxurious one. Or instead of taking taxis in NYC or Chicago like every AD before him, he needed a black car that continued to charge and waited for him while he was up in multiple hour meetings. Or spending millions on stadiums that are still mostly empty and never were needed (field hockey, lacrosse, tennis, etc). The football stadium was Bill Martin’s baby and he stayed until they were done. Only thing Brandon did was add an absolutely useless and hideous $2M marquee on Stadium Blvd. He tried charging a U-M engineering club a $100K+ bill for “additional fees” for a hackathon and the engineering school felt so bad about how their shitty AD was treating them that they footed the bill and bailed out the student club. Or he fired experienced loyal workers for incompetent flashy hires that were paid 3X. The AD was in worse financial health when he left it than when he took over. You can bring in more money, but if you increase your spending on stupid shit by more than that, it doesn’t matter. Finally, he broke the soul and feel of Michigan. Michigan isn’t a company and treating it like solely like one but what made Michigan special in danger. Don Canham was the ultimate capitalist and businessman but even he knew when and where to squeeze profit and what to leave alone.
Dominos was also in worse shape when he left it than when he took over. It was saved when he left when they went with a completely new recipe and then their quality, sales, and financial health took a dramatic turn for the best in what’s an all time business school case study. Michigan did very similarly after he left and hired the guy he refused to court or even interview in 2011. He took Toys R Us to bankruptcy after the Michigan failure. He’s an awful incompetent business leader. Fuck Dave Brandon. He was a POS.
January 15th, 2022 at 10:35 PM ^
Agree with all this except the non-revenue sport facilities which needed improvement and benefit those scholarship athletes/fans significantly. Having attended many events at these venues it makes the fan experience a lot better (particularly field hockey which also draws pretty well FWIW).
January 16th, 2022 at 10:21 AM ^
Brandon actually went hard after Harbaugh. I’m a 3rd hand source here but my source is a connection to Hackett and Harbaugh family.
apparently Brandon had made great headway with Harbaugh until Jack connected Jim with a high up Dominos employee. Harbaugh asked what it was like to work for Brandon. Per my source, Harbaugh began backtracking after that interaction and went to the Niners instead.
I otherwise agree with everything in your post and this is an equally bad or worse look for Brandon than to just say he didn’t pursue Harbaugh.
January 16th, 2022 at 12:46 PM ^
Buy two Cokes.
January 15th, 2022 at 9:50 PM ^
He's a dipshit of a venture capitalist that believes in the notion of "if it's not broken, break it." Those are the assholes that inexplicably fail upwards their entire lives.
January 16th, 2022 at 11:01 AM ^
I knew you were still lurking here Dave.
January 16th, 2022 at 10:54 PM ^
Quit drinking and go to bed
January 15th, 2022 at 9:07 PM ^
You'd think since one of the reasons he fired Brandon was for writing stupid emails that were made public he would be more careful with his emails. I guess Ivy League educated doesn't mean you have common sense.
January 15th, 2022 at 10:21 PM ^
Plus she was the Phi Kappa Bappa Keg Stand Champion three years running.
January 15th, 2022 at 7:30 PM ^
Harbaugh for President!
January 15th, 2022 at 8:34 PM ^
Fucking seriously? I thought we were done with her.
January 16th, 2022 at 8:16 AM ^
Don’t worry, she’s just interim. She’ll soon appoint a hand-picked replacement that turns everything to shit and will constantly embarrass the University until the students literally organize into a mob to replace the replacement.
January 15th, 2022 at 9:25 PM ^
Cool, as long as someone hides the vodka and pregame microphone.
Go Mary Sue and Go Blue.
January 15th, 2022 at 9:55 PM ^
Did anyone restock the the liquor cabinet after she left?
I volunteer to restock it it with her help…
?
January 15th, 2022 at 6:40 PM ^
Is this the posbang?
January 15th, 2022 at 6:52 PM ^
I would think that anything that could put the university in a poor light would not be a pos bang. Like him or not he was the University's president. Not a great look.
January 15th, 2022 at 6:55 PM ^
He was already a lame duck and had an end date as president. It’s pretty well known he didn’t care about sports and Harbaugh wasn’t a fan. This is good news.
January 15th, 2022 at 7:00 PM ^
It's ammunition for the enemy. You won't see those details in a headline. You'll see the university's president was a pervert.
January 15th, 2022 at 7:04 PM ^
Come on man...What recruit gives a crap about who the college president is or what they are doing? This will have zero effect on whether a football player comes to Michigan, much less an average student.
January 15th, 2022 at 7:14 PM ^
What enemy? OSU? We actually play skool here
January 15th, 2022 at 11:24 PM ^
There aren't going to be many headlines about this, he was just a University president. Those positions empty and fill with extreme frequency nationwide and noone really cares.
January 16th, 2022 at 10:48 AM ^
Gordon Gee gave OSU's "enemies" 10 times the material of Schlissel. Didn't hurt them any in football.
January 15th, 2022 at 6:59 PM ^
I never heard one single positive word about him and the students HATE him. POSBANG BABYYY
January 15th, 2022 at 7:59 PM ^
How many schools can you name where the students love their president?
January 15th, 2022 at 8:25 PM ^
GVSU students universally loved the recently retired president, Thomas Haas (AKA T-Haas).
January 15th, 2022 at 8:49 PM ^
Popular enough to have his own sandwich at Slow’s BBQ: The Haas Boss. And that shit is TASTY.
January 15th, 2022 at 8:59 PM ^
At UNC we liked our chancellor Carol Folt ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
She went to USC after I was there though. I feel like the vast majority of students at most colleges don’t particularly care about the position. At least in my experience, it would take some pretty big incompetence to get a student body to actively dislike them. From what I’ve read and seen, Schlissel seems to have accomplished that. So this is a pretty appropriate bow on his tenure.
January 15th, 2022 at 9:05 PM ^
Actually we loved Robben Fleming when I went to school there in 1976. After we beat Ohio State we marched right up to the president's house and he came out and spoke to us and it was awesome. I'll never forget that.
January 16th, 2022 at 1:01 AM ^
Yes, I remember that he was readily approachable, not imperious at all, in the mid 70s. I also liked Mary Sue when we chatted briefly in 2012.