Does “this latest one” rise to the level of Rewarding Roy for his Sgt Schultz impression? Probably not since well Roy is Roy……. and Lissa Broome is “who”.
In her latest Edict From On-High, UNC-CH’s Chancellor Carol “Chihuahua” Folt announced the reappointment of Lissa Broome as UNC’s Faculty Athletics Representative a/k/a “Watchdog”. “It was MY decision” declared the diminutive Madame Folt. Yet another Foltian decision that ooooozes controversy from its every pore.
After five years of more stumbles than Gerald Ford and more pratfalls than Chevy Chase…. UNC continues to defy the Blind Hog Rule. They NEVER manage to “find an acorn”. Aren’t the odds “sooner or later they HAVE to get something right”…? Apparently not.
The average UNC loyalist (who continually misspells Doherty and Guthridge) likely has never heard of Lissa Broome. Is she:
• A mah jong partner of Deb Crowder and Burgess McSwain? Nope.
• One of those gals that is transferring out of Sylvia’s program? Nope.
• That BOT gal that asked Butch “is it hurting recruiting? Nope.
• One of Bill Dooley’s “Sweet Carolines”? Not that we know of.
• A member of Zackie Murphy’s hot yoga class? Again, not that we know of.
Lissa Broome IS ….. a UNC Law Professor who has been UNC’s Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) since 2010. As UNC’s FAR, Prof Broome replaced Jack Evans who was (maybe still is) known as “Dickie Baddour’s BFF”. How would you like THAT as your “known as”. OUCH!
As FAR, ‘twas Professor Broome who – in a Pre-Wainstein Report interview with WRAL – announced
“We’ve looked in all the nooks and crannies and I don’t think we will find anything else lurking….” Ergo, we shall refer to her as “Nook & Cranny” Lissa. ….. Not exactly a quote one expects from “a watchdog”.
She was right of course….. UNC’s internal investigation found NADA. Ken Wainstein apparently found a few nook and crannies that Lissa’s exhaustive search musta missed….. “just a few”. Wonder if, unlike Governor Martin, Lissa’s investigation “spoke with Coach Williams”?
I called a few of my UNC “insiders” about FAR “Nook & Cranny”. One described her as “married to some really rich guy who has his own airplane”. ???? Another said “she and her (really rich) husband are HUGE Carolina fans and fly his plane to all the away games.” ….. I’m not sure rich husbands and private planes are valid reasons for Chancy Chihuahua to NOT reappoint her….. but the “HUGE Carolina fan” thingy might bring into question her objectivity…. or remove ANY question.
As the article below notes, our pal – John Shelton Reed (JSR) – ain’t no fan of “Nook & Cranny” AT ALL. So you know 58WofKennel is going to take this latest news “unwell” as he (58WK) trusts JSR…. as well he should.
NOTE: I e-spoke with JSR this morning before writing this. He is “across the pond” in Merry Olde England where one of his assignments from moi is getting a selfie with Pippa. JSR confirms that the Herald-Sun quotes him correctly.
As you read this news report, and sharpen your pitchfork and fuel your torch….. ask yourself – (1) Does this surprise you? …… (2) Does it really matter? If Madame Folt had appointed “My Buddy” Art Chansky as FAR, would it matter? No. Art is, of course, not eligible as he is not on the UNC Faculty. I’m using absurdity to illustrate absurdity. It’s a trick we Internet smart-alecks often employ in our insightful commentaries.
I intended to avoid any cheap jokes about “Broome” but if I do one, it might keep you guys from doing them. This “Broome” will NOT be sweeping clean but rather “stuff under the rug”. There!
This latest announcement simply confirms that (1) Carol Folt remains a Clueless Twit and (2) UNC’s Vice Chancellor of Spin & Obfuscation Joel Curran isn’t getting a lot for UNC’s million dollars worth of PR expertise.
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Folt retains UNC faculty athletics watchdog
Jul. 23, 2015 @ 06:59 PM
Ray Gronberg
CHAPEL HILL —
Chancellor Carol Folt has opted to extend the term of UNC’s current faculty athletics representative, a law professor who’s held numerous athletics-related advisory and oversight posts for much of the so-called “paper classes” scandal.
The retention of Lissa Broome followed a review by a special committee that included four people affiliated with UNC’s athletic department, two administrators, a radiology professor and an English professor.
Though the panel favored keeping Broome, the decision was ultimately Folt’s.
And in answering a question about it Thursday, the chancellor signaled that she values experience in a job that makes Broome one of UNC’s point persons in dealing with the NCAA and the Atlantic Coast Conference.
At other universities, faculty members who hold similar posts often serve for 15 to 20 years because of the legal complexities inherent in regulating sport programs, she said.
Broome also is a “leader” in advocating faculty governance of athletics programs, she said.
“All of that was extremely important to me,” Folt said. “And Lissa was quite willing to do whatever I asked.” ( OUCH … Not exactly what “a watchdog” does there Carol!
The decision, however, drew criticism from a prominent retired professor, sociologist John Shelton Reed, who’s been a vocal critic of UNC’s handling of the paper-classes scandal.
Reed emailed “friends” on Thursday to say the move suggests that “Folt and her advisers are either clueless or shameless” about what it will take to repair the damage the scandal’s done to the university.
(NOTE: BobLee is proud to be among JSR’s “friends” who received his email.)
He appended to the message a letter he and 1977 alumnus John Powell — a venture capitalist who’s served on the board of the College of Arts and Sciences’ fundraising arm — sent officials earlier this year opposing an extension for Broome.
The pair argued that UNC needs “new faces” in key oversight roles, and that Broome decidedly isn’t one.
Given all that’s happened, “the most charitable hypothesis is that professor Broome trusted some people who didn’t deserve it, and if that was the case she was by no means alone,” Reed and Powell said in the letter. “Even so, we find it inappropriate that she be given the [extension] she is seeking. In fact, the honorable course would be for her to step down voluntarily.”
A Harvard-trained lawyer expert in banking regulation, Broome has been UNC’s faculty athletics representative since 2010. She’s also been a member of the university’s in-house Faculty Athletics Committee for all but five years since 1991, chairing the panel from 2003 to 2008.
Her tenure as the committee’s chairwoman coincided with a potential missed opportunity in late 2006 and early 2007 to uncover the scandal, amid reports of a similar one at Auburn University where athletes were padding their grades in directed-reading courses that didn’t require attendance.
The panel was curious about whether UNC might have a similar problem, particularly with “single-assignment courses” that involved a reading and one graded paper.
Three officials from the Athletic Department later claimed the panel was told UNC’s then-Department of African and Afro-American Studies was substituting independent-studies work for courses formally advertised as lecture courses.
But panel members told investigators they didn’t remember any discussion “specifically about irregular courses” in African-American Studies, or any “reference to the irregular practice of teaching lecture-designated courses for student-athletes in an independent-study format,” UNC-hired investigator Ken Wainstein said last year.
Given the lack of a paper trail on the point, there’s no way to establish the real truth, but “circumstantial evidence indicates” the athletic department didn’t give the committee “notice about the irregularity” of the classes, Wainstein’s report said.
He added that “nobody on either side” suggested the panel heard “about the more egregious problem” with the AFAM courses, namely that a department secretary was running them and grading papers.
Folt acknowledged arguments that UNC’s failure to uncover the scandal until 2011 must’ve involved errors of omission, at the least. But she said the school has to size up and act on the evidence
“We’ve got issues going on, but I’m not going to mistakenly attribute the cause to the wrong people,” she said.
Reed and Powell’s letter also faulted the evaluation process for relying on a special committee with but a single faculty member on it from the College of Arts and Sciences, “where nearly all athletes are enrolled.”
The position of faculty athletics representative is an NCAA mandate, but the organization leaves it to its member schools to spell out the job’s duties.
At UNC, they include helping “ensure academic integrity and compliance with ACC and NCAA rules,” Broome said, quoting the job description she wrote after taking over in 2010 from Jack Evans, a former business-school dean and interim chancellor.
The university is facing possible sanctions from the NCAA in connection with the paper-classes scandal. Its answer to the allegations is due next month.
The faculty athletics representative serves for an “indefinite term,” subject to review every five years. The call for a five-year review has only been in place since the spring of 2010. Broome is the first person to go through it.
Follow Ray Gronberg on Twitter @rcgronberg
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“The Fat Cat Shuffle”: Oh…. in case you’re wondering “do I know”…. Yes, I do know that: Current UNC BOT Chair Lawry Caudill is switching places with current Rams Club Chair Dwight Stone (Not the Olympic high jumper). Dwight will now chair the BOT and Lawry chair The Rams Club. Both will undoubtedly be vigilant “watchdogs” ….. Yeee Haaaa!
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