Mark Schlissel OUT
October 5th, 2021 at 4:22 PM ^
Non Alum checking in. Does this make the AD happy? Was Schlissel seen as a friend to the department? Or will this be welcomed?
I ask because I am fairly ignorant to the internal politics and relationships at that level.
October 5th, 2021 at 4:26 PM ^
AD really isn't what this is about and rarely gets to his level (except for firing Brandon, which he did). To some extent this might be a statement on how some of the regents feel about the Anderson case and the university's handling of it.
This is Philbert and Covid stuff, probably like 95%.
October 5th, 2021 at 4:49 PM ^
Yeah, but couldn’t a new president make a difference with say the admissions department?
October 5th, 2021 at 5:24 PM ^
The new president will personally reach out to Xavier Worthy.
October 5th, 2021 at 6:52 PM ^
I believe he's tearing it up at Texas.
Sad!
October 6th, 2021 at 9:47 PM ^
Right on, thanks for the clarification.
October 5th, 2021 at 4:26 PM ^
I believe he thought of the AD as a pretty low priority. “He wanted to turn Michigan into Princeton” was something I’ve seen posted here a few times.
So I guess… fuck em?
October 5th, 2021 at 4:40 PM ^
Barring major scandals or financial issues, I don't think most regents or university shot-callers judge the president based on the football program. Nor should they. Too many posters seem to think otherwise. It's really weird. Yes, it's a great part of the university. Yes, it helps the school's profile. No, it doesn't matter that much in the overall scheme of things at a world-class university.
October 5th, 2021 at 5:15 PM ^
I don’t know the specifics of his anti-football legislature (there may be nothing legitimate) but if our president tried to eliminate football, or relegate it to the Ivy League/FCS, I would immediately join the protest to call for his resignation.
I have a BSAE from UM and I agree academics are the top priority but athletics are a major part of the culture.
October 5th, 2021 at 5:30 PM ^
Question is can you be a world class university and elite CFB program at the same time.l? Lots of people want both. I'm not sure they can have both.
October 5th, 2021 at 5:31 PM ^
Question is can you be a world class university and elite CFB program at the same time? Lots of people want both. I'm not sure they can have both.
October 5th, 2021 at 5:50 PM ^
Perhaps not Alabama-football elite, but Michigan, Stanford, UCLA, Notre Dame, USC, Texas, UNC, et al show it can indeed be done.
As a parent of high school aged kids going through the admissions process, I can attest that these are all highly selective elite academic institutions.
October 5th, 2021 at 6:02 PM ^
Maybe not Stanford or UCLA anymore.
October 5th, 2021 at 8:36 PM ^
None of them have been elite for 15 years. There's been Bama, Clemson, and OSU the past decade plus. That's it. No one else has been in multiple NC games. This is what I mean by elite and in today's CFB world. There is no parity for the past decade plus and none are world class universities by the definition you have.
October 5th, 2021 at 4:40 PM ^
Correct. He's the sort of douche that would say "sportsball" when referring to athletic pursuits.
He was never a good fit for us.
October 5th, 2021 at 5:04 PM ^
I Lettered in Sportsball
October 5th, 2021 at 4:43 PM ^
Double post 3 mins apart. Might be time to buy a new phone.
October 5th, 2021 at 6:17 PM ^
What’s wrong with aiming high and trying to emulate the best? As long as Michigan maintains a commitment to accessibility in cost and admissions then striving for excellence should be commended not frowned upon.
October 5th, 2021 at 5:05 PM ^
The athletic department barely registers among the reasons Schlissel was simply not a good fit at Michigan. It was almost everything else from the Anderson and Philbert scandals onwards that really stuck out as a point of contention, and he had managed, over time, to alienate almost every workgroup / student group / you-name-it group on campus, which is incredibly difficult to do, even in a very opinionated place like Ann Arbor.
October 5th, 2021 at 5:58 PM ^
Gonna go out on a limb and predict the next Prexy here will be an academic but non-egghead from a major research institution with a prominent athletic program and this person will have substantial people skills and established expertise in fund-raising and general schmoozing.
October 5th, 2021 at 7:25 PM ^
You're making me reminisce about Mary Sue.
October 5th, 2021 at 6:08 PM ^
has he been getting advice from Dave - macaroni noodle - Brandon?
October 5th, 2021 at 4:22 PM ^
Don't let this distract you from the fact that in 1966, Al Bundy scored four touchdowns in a single game while playing for the Polk High School Panthers in the 1966 city championship game versus Andrew Johnson High School, including the game-winning touchdown in the final seconds against his old nemesis, "Spare Tire" Dixon.
October 5th, 2021 at 4:26 PM ^
Anyone that’s read my posts in the past knows how I feel about Schlissel. This is a long time coming— and no my dislike for him has absolutely zero to do with athletics.
October 5th, 2021 at 4:36 PM ^
I’d be curious to hear your reasons, if you wouldn’t mind posting them. I also am not a fan of the man. I want Michigan to be Michigan, not aim to be Princeton or Harvard. I have other issues with his as well as I think that he lets his strong political leanings influence the direction of the university far more than is appropriate.
October 5th, 2021 at 4:42 PM ^
The athletics piece is separate for me and you can go back through my posts on that to learn more… but while the guy is obviously brilliant he has the personality of your weird Uncle. Smart but aloof and standoffish.
I was at a fundraising thing for UM right after he got hired and the folks there were less than impressed. I thought maybe it was a bad night, but met him again later on in a different environment and found him dour, aloof, and completely unapproachable. Just a strange guy to be the head of an accomplished, public university.
October 5th, 2021 at 4:54 PM ^
All this. I was in the same room with him once shortly after he was hired, and he was just a weird guy to be around. Not friendly or personable in any way. Almost a caricature of an elitist Ivy league snob.
And I like snobs. Just not that kind.
October 5th, 2021 at 5:13 PM ^
Talking to people who are way more important than me and they said it was like he wanted everyone to know that he didn’t want to be there and had better things to do. Felt as if he thought the job was going to be hanging around a bunch of academics and scientists and not begging alums for $$.
If the people he’s asking for millions of dollars from think that about you, you’re not in a good spot… you gotta at least pretend!
October 5th, 2021 at 5:24 PM ^
The main job of a college president is fundraising. That is the reality.
They have surprisingly little actual power.
October 5th, 2021 at 5:26 PM ^
One of the primary jobs of presidents at major research institutions like U-M is schmoozing and gladhanding in order to bring in money. Yes, they have plenty of official matters to deal with every day, but presidents don't run major universities unilaterally anyhow—there are many layers of administration in a place like U-M that deal with running the institution and a president can't afford to get down into the weeds of management anyhow. They have to deal with big picture stuff, and it's a fact that a president of a place like Michigan is the primary institutional figure that the outside academic and political world deal with.
Doing that aspect of the job requires substantial people skills, and it sounds like Schlissel was severely lacking there. I know that she wasn't beyond criticism for some of her decisions, but Mary Sue Coleman didn't seem to have any problems in that department.
October 5th, 2021 at 5:15 PM ^
Funny you mention this. During Harbaugh's first (or second?) year, I went to the MSU govt relations shindig they have before the MSU/UM football game in the MSU practice facility. The Governor and both University Presidents spoke, both ADs attend, and a variety of other "important" people go.
During Schlissel's speech he ended it with a loud "Who's got it better than us?!?!?!?" It was super cringe at the time especially in light of a huge MSU crowd lol.
I also held the door open for him leaving the bathroom and realized how tall he is...
October 5th, 2021 at 4:55 PM ^
Because I am not a UM alum, I have to say I am very out of the loop. I am not trying to start an mgoblog flamewar, but could you touch on his strong political leanings and how they are impacting the direction of UM?
October 5th, 2021 at 5:26 PM ^
I heard he was an anti-dentite.
October 5th, 2021 at 5:55 PM ^
Honestly I don’t even know if it was his political leanings as much as him not taking a stand on anything and just not doing anything he said. He managed to piss off hard left, center left, centrist, center right, and hard right students. He managed to piss off students with Pro-Israel beliefs and he managed to piss off students with Pro-Palestine beliefs. He managed to piss off students who dislike the importance placed on athletics and those who thought he deprioritized athletics. Pissed of the AD too. And then to top it off he pissed off faculty, the admin, and the Board. It’s honestly an accomplishment that he alienated every single group he possibly could have.
October 5th, 2021 at 4:37 PM ^
Mine does.
October 5th, 2021 at 4:33 PM ^
OK, so let's hear it. Why is he out OR what are the complaints/criticisms?
-- COVID issues: not the greatest/most nimble response to the pandemic from what I've heard
-- the pedo-doc investigation? Not sure there is much to say about this even at his level- I mean, the regents aren't doing too much at the moment since it's in legal limbo ATM.
-- nothing re:sports that I've heard of.
-- anything else at the dept level that ppl have heard about?
October 5th, 2021 at 4:42 PM ^
I think that’s the rub, though. He just sat on everything.
October 5th, 2021 at 4:52 PM ^
I think you meant this for one of the Urban Meyer threads.
October 5th, 2021 at 5:28 PM ^
No. This is very much about Schlissel.
But we don’t know for a fact that he didn’t also sit on Meyer’s lap.
October 5th, 2021 at 5:44 PM ^
logged into upvote.
Well played Sir
October 5th, 2021 at 4:53 PM ^
should resist but can't - I don't think that was him sitting on Urban's lap the other day!
October 5th, 2021 at 4:34 PM ^
Note to whomever follows him: Big time athletics are part of the very DNA of the University of Michigan. Enjoyed by students, faculty, alum's, and the community for 150 years.
And at no time has that affected the actual academic quality of the institution, which is as strong as ever.
So if Michigan athletics disturb you . . . do not apply.
October 5th, 2021 at 4:39 PM ^
I don't think that any Michigan president has thought otherwise.
We can point at a lot of things in Schlissel's tenure that haven't been handled well, but under a lot of accounts, the athletic department has hummed along just fine.*
(*That includes the [what I'd consider] fairly quick dismissal of Dave Brandon. It didn't took a very drawn out time for him to get canned after some boneheaded decisions).
October 5th, 2021 at 4:47 PM ^
In addition to his other missteps, I think Schlissel has handled the athletic department poorly. He apparently viewed it as a distraction or sideshow unworthy of his attention.
October 5th, 2021 at 8:09 PM ^
It is unworthy of his attention. If the AD is working like it is supposed to, then the University President should not be handling anything sports-related.
So, if your complaint is that he was handling the athletic department poorly because he kept his hands off of it, I think that you are exactly 180 degrees from the truth.
October 6th, 2021 at 10:49 AM ^
I, admittedly, did not explain myself well. Schlissel should have understood and encouraged the symbiosis between a successful athletic department and a successful university. For many alumni, athletics is their largest and most consistent connection with Michigan. And a high profile athletic success can drive student enrollment. Alabama has raised its academic profile because of its football team.
Schlissel should have used athletics to the advantage of the greater Michigan. He did not need to pull an E. Gordon Gee and insert himself in the operations of the athletic department. But being openly enthusiastic about Michigan's successes and providing a high level direction for the athletic department should not be too much to ask. Treating the athletic department as unworthy of his attention meant that he ignored something that would help him do his job and promote Michigan.
October 5th, 2021 at 4:48 PM ^
He had a hard time with Michigan athletics when he was first hired. He said so. He was bewildered by all the attention to them.
As if he had done no research on how Michigan is not Brown.
He can best be described as having an uneasy truce with Michigan athletics. If he had a choice (and he realized quickly he didn't) he would have diminished them.
October 5th, 2021 at 5:11 PM ^
How the hell was he hired then? Athletics does not drive the academic mission, the focus on research, etc., but it is, like it or not (I Like!), an integral part of the University.
October 5th, 2021 at 5:29 PM ^
Was always a strange hire.
But you have to judge a hire by who came before them. He probably looked like a fresh new serious direction when he was hired . . . the way Hoke looked like a fresh new direction after RR.
In retrospect, the hire did not stand up well on its own merits.
October 5th, 2021 at 7:45 PM ^
Athletics are integral to the university culture, but from a bottom line perspective, it’s pennies on the dollar. In 2019, university revenue was 8 billion dollars. The athletic department revenue that year was 200 million. That’s 2.5%. I would argue the impact is greater than that, but I can understand why the university President would hire a good AD and let them run the department.