Report: MSU to appoint current deputy AD Greg Ianni as interim AD
Warning: Freep Link
It's incredible how tone deaf this leadership still is. To replace their ousted AD they are appointing the current deputy AD who is an alum and has 2 children alum, one a forner volleyball player and one a former basketball player.
Also MSU's faculty steering committee is planning to hold a vote of No Confidence in the BOT if Engler is named interim president. At least some people at MSU get it.
Relevant comment from MSU Associate Dean Rob Loduca:
"Should the Board indeed appoint ex-Governor Engler we will sadly be forced to bring a motion to hold a vote of No Confidence in the Board of Trustees to Academic Congress via electronic ballot. If this motion for a vote passes, a vote of No Confidence in the Board of Trustees will be held at the next Faculty Senate meeting. If that vote of No Confidence passes, we will call on the entire Board of Trustees to resign immediately."
Link to reddit comment with full letter from MSU steering committee
January 31st, 2018 at 3:56 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 3:59 PM ^
What an absolutely idiotic idea. Seems about right, given the rest of their complete and utter fuck-ups.
EDIT: Also, good for the faculty on the No Confidence vote. Run those miserable bastards out.
January 31st, 2018 at 5:27 PM ^
I don't understand how anyone--even a Spartan--could be this incompetent. All of these crony hires suggest there is much more covering up to do. At this point, there is so much smoke that there is likely a raging inferno to be found.
January 31st, 2018 at 7:57 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 3:57 PM ^
Yeah. Because hiring from within solves the problem.
Those stupid idiots (thanks, Chris Jericho) just don't get it. They're so desperate.
January 31st, 2018 at 4:05 PM ^
would definitely make "the list"
January 31st, 2018 at 4:10 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 4:32 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 3:58 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 5:05 PM ^
Hopefully, a couple of farmers with shotguns are on their way...
January 31st, 2018 at 4:01 PM ^
That's okay. The closer the wagons circle, the more likely they are to all burn down together.
January 31st, 2018 at 4:03 PM ^
Tone. Deaf.
January 31st, 2018 at 4:03 PM ^
This is an interim position. It remains to be seen what will become of the position later, or what the interim AD will do. Keep in mind that Michigan's response to firing a businessman AD was to hire... another businessman AD. But it worked out well because the guy got it.
January 31st, 2018 at 4:08 PM ^
However, this is an interim position at a time when MSU needs to move completely away from the horrible culture the athletic department has cultivated. They definitely should have gone outside of the University regardless of the length of tenure. Also, I will be very interested to see if Engler gets ousted by the faculty.
January 31st, 2018 at 4:25 PM ^
They may need to go outside the AD for the final hire. But the athletic department does not and cannot stop operating while they find the right person. Remember how Izzo was asked who he answered to after Hollis resigned, and he said his wife? He wasn't kidding. He has no boss.
It's possible that this interim position has a mandate only to keep things functioning and perform obvious adjustments (what happens if Izzo is forced out? The interim AD might not have anything to do with that but he sure has to decide who takes over if the team is still playing, etc) until they can get someone with a mandate to clean house.
Time will tell. But the reality is that you don't engage in a national search and vetting process for an interim. You get an interim to keep the lights on while you perform such a national search. They need someone to keep the department going. If that is all this is, fine. The proof will be in how MSU addresses its problems, not in its interim hires. If they decide to keep this guy on for two years and cover things up, nail them. If they get a man or woman from a national search in 6 months, this is clearly a different situation.
January 31st, 2018 at 4:29 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 4:48 PM ^
True. But Schlissel had an opportunity to identify a candidate and start softening the ground even before Brandon was gone, because everyone knew what was going to happen. Even if Hollis's resignation wasn't a surprise (though it could certainly be foreseen as a possibility) MSU's president was defenestrated just as things started moving. MSU had nobody in place that could even discern who the best candidate would be, much less hire them.
This position, being interim, does not have the ability to properly address the systematic problems that permeate the department. Better to find the right person with a proper search.
January 31st, 2018 at 5:05 PM ^
Schlissel clearly had an easier path after being hired than what's going on now, but it's still been about two weeks since the Nassar hearings and everyone started calling for MSU's administration to resign, including Hollis. The second that starts, it is the administration and BOT's responsibility to start prepping for the worst case, even if it doesn't come to fruition. You're right in saying that MSU had no one in place to discern who the best candidate would be, but the BOT's incompetence does not make this an excusable hire.
You're also right in saying that the interim AD does not have the ability to properly address MSU's systematic issues, and it's important to get the right hire now for the future hire. But you also need to hire someone who won't exacerbate these systematic usses. Hiring someone within the department who has played a key role in the administration while these systematic issues developed seems like exactly that, and is definitely not the the right hire now or long term.
January 31st, 2018 at 5:22 PM ^
Eventually, discovery is going to tell what Hollis knew. Hollis will be compelled to testify on Nasser and probably lawsuits related to Dantonio/football and Izzo/basketball. So in that sense it doesn't really matter if they circle the wagons etc. as some are indicating.
Keeping the interim in-house is a bad look given the current climate, however.
January 31st, 2018 at 5:44 PM ^
this is where I am: it's a stop-gap, obvsly a temp situation. Not a good sign, but could at least be a neutral sign? I hope?
January 31st, 2018 at 4:05 PM ^
#SpartansWill
January 31st, 2018 at 5:33 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 4:05 PM ^
They are probably laughing about it.
January 31st, 2018 at 4:10 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 4:11 PM ^
hubris.
January 31st, 2018 at 4:19 PM ^
This is their interim president. Laughing it up at an MSU basketball game with Dick DeVos (husband of Secretary of Education DeVos who gutted Title IX days after meeting with former MSU president Lou Anna Simon) and MSU athletics booster Peter Secchia who put blame on the Nassar victims' parents in a recent interview.
January 31st, 2018 at 4:36 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 5:24 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 5:36 PM ^
+1 for you
January 31st, 2018 at 5:25 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 5:36 PM ^
and another +1 for you!
January 31st, 2018 at 4:16 PM ^
Well makes sense should ensure that the rape culture cover-ups make a seamless transition.
Seriously, it's no wonder that administration is so diseased--it's just all inbreeding.
January 31st, 2018 at 4:18 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 4:34 PM ^
Do nothing about sexual assault.
February 1st, 2018 at 7:54 AM ^
Spartan Swill
January 31st, 2018 at 4:19 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 4:20 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 4:32 PM ^
Well played, my alum.
January 31st, 2018 at 4:23 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 4:26 PM ^
Just as a note, Ianni has been at MSU since before Hollis! He joined the Athletic Department back in 1993 IIRC.
Not to say he's a bad guy or anything, but that screams "status quo" to me.
January 31st, 2018 at 4:35 PM ^
Still consistent. Every move made is a wrong one.
January 31st, 2018 at 4:38 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 4:54 PM ^
So your telling me the blind guy that was the AD is getting replaced(temp) by the blind guy that was his right hand man. Yeah, that really changes things.
January 31st, 2018 at 4:57 PM ^
"Blind" may be charitable to Hollis.
January 31st, 2018 at 5:40 PM ^
Yeah, I'm not sure putting your hand in front of your eyes counts as "blind"
January 31st, 2018 at 5:04 PM ^
January 31st, 2018 at 4:57 PM ^
So now they're corruption has actually escaped the host and is now infesting the AG's office and a former governor. The only person in the state with the authority to stop them is Dan Snyder and he's a lame duck. Perhaps a Velvet Revolution staged by the faculty?
January 31st, 2018 at 6:22 PM ^