Donna Shalala

[dookie blaylock]

Who does the athletic director work for? Who hires/fires athletic directors?

Who does the AD go to for his annual performance review? Who sets his budget? Who sets the tone and direction, and who provides the vision of where she wants the university to go?

Paul Dee was a failure. He inherited one of the finest athletic programs in the country, and it withered on the vine during his tenure.

The worst of the Shapiro allegations are said to have happened under his watch.

His two football hires, Coker and Shannon, were fired due to a lack of results.

Football attendance dropped under his tenure.

The Orange Bowl was one of his biggest failures. I am simply not buying that there was nothing either Dee or Shalala could have done to save the stadium.

Neither Dee nor Shalala showed any leadership on the issue. They simply caved to the Marlins and to the city, and never put up a fight.

I will grant you this: you seem to have more inside knowledge than I do regarding the inner workings of the situation, but I am telling you how it appears to me.

I'm an alumnus. My phone never rang asking for a donation for any Orange Bowl renovation fund. Nobody called to remind me to contact my local representatives regarding the stadium.

In fact, the only communication I got from Shalala and company was a sales pitch on how great Sun Life was going to be for us. There was simply no leadership, and no apparent interest on her part in saving the stadium.

I can't understand how she's so dismissive of our athletic traditions. We alumni who attended the U during our football heyday take a lot of pride in the football team. It's part of who we are as a university.

I see the loss of the Orange Bowl as a HUGE blunder that happened under her watch. That building meant a lot to so many, and I'm sure nobody on here would disagree with that. The city should have declared it a historic site. There must have been a way to save it. So many great memories were created in that building, and to see it torn down was a travesty reflective of neglectful and asinine leadership.

Where is our vaunted football program today? We play in a stadium despised by fans. We have had countless dolts line up as athletic directors. We have paid bottom dollar for coaching, and have seen the results on the field.

Now, we have embarrassing NCAA sanctions looming overhead.

Most pundits and talking heads expect us to be charged with "loss of institutional control." Well, who was supposed to be in charge of the institution? Say what you will, but the buck stops with Donna Shalala.

That's my 2 cents.

Yes she has done a great job getting our university more national recognition for our academics. She has had some success as a fundraiser.

This is one alumni that thinks she deserves an "F" for her job managing athletics, and I am not willing to let her off the hook.

Athletics do matter to this university.

i'm not sure how such a small amount of people here realize that the university of miami is, in fact, a university. the science building that is currently on campus is obsolete and the department is in desperate need of a new facility. she was hired to make the academics at the university better, first and foremost, and has done an unbelievable job doing so.

yes, it is true that the football team WAS (yes, i said it "WAS") responsible for bringing in a lot of attention and new students, but it ceased to be a predominant reason for enrollment when the program when down the crapper in the mid-late 2000s. i'll be the first to admit that football was a huge reason to come to miami when i enrolled in 06, but that sentiment has been severely reduced among the rest of the student body when we started to suck. football games are just an excuse to get drunk on saturdays now for a lot of students and you can tell by the student section emptying out at halftime at about every game. shalala is far more supportive of athletics than foote ever was and anyone who says she destroys programs conveniently don't count wisconsin's success academically and athletically during her time there.

i completely understand the frustration from the fanbase about the lack of performance and the decline of the program (i'm just as upset as anyone else here), but aside from going to a few games and buying some merchandise, most fans don't have a vested interest in the university. if the school were to close tomorrow, the most a lot of people would miss is the football team, and maybe baseball and basketball. for me, i would lose the value of my degrees and the school i call home, along with the team that i love more than anything. shalala's work in improving the school's academics mean far more to the students and alums and cannot be appreciated if you never benefited from them first-hand. her work in fundraising afforded me and countless others the opportunity to attend on scholarship (because there was no way i could afford paying full tuition) and get a quality education from a top-50 university.

oh and for everyone who thinks that highsmith is spiting her about the stadium? they're actually pretty good friends. View attachment 15945
that's them two together stopping by my table at homecoming. the stadium decision is not in her hands.

first off, managing athletics is not her job. that's the athletic director's job. i discussed the orange bowl with paul dee about 2 weeks before he died and as much as he loved the orange bowl, there was nothing he could do to keep it. the stadium was literally falling apart at the seams and the city wanted us to pay for renovations entirely. we had already been sued for concrete falling on a spectator and a lack of safety measures that allowed another person to fall from the upper deck ramps after a game.

do you know what our lease details were for the ob? we got nothing but ticket revenue. the city of miami took all of the parking revenue, concession revenue, and the lease money. the lease at sunlife (and yes, i HATE sunlife with a passion) was the only thing that made any sense financially for the university because we make concession revenue along with ticket revenue and premium seating. the city already knew that it was going to put marlins park over the ob site thanks to some very ethically questionable moves by both city leadership and the marlins organization. the university had no shot at playing there ever again. that's not a blunder by shalala or dee. it was a methodically planned move by the city and the marlins that gave us zero chances to keep it.

as for impending ncaa sanctions? loss of institutional control would be ludicrous given the situations at penn state and unc and how they were handled. furthermore, the actions of a booster are in no way, shape, or form her responsibility. that's for the compliance office and athletics to look into.

not sure if you kept up with off the field matters with the school, but to call eichorst a dolt is pretty ignorant. not only did he get jim larranaga to come here and coach a second-rate basketball team, he managed to keep golden here after allegations and even extend him to the end of the decade. most importantly, under his watch the ncaa singled us out as a model for compliance and cooperation with investigators.

if she spent all of her time looking at what a booster and her athletes are doing, she's not doing her job. if she sat and micromanaged how to get the football program up and running again, she's not doing her job. you're more than entitled to your opinion, but the fact of the matter is that she is doing what she was hired to do as a university president.

the athletic budget is made entirely with athletic revenue and donations. the department is actually set up as it's own corporation and is not allowed to take general university funds, nor is the university allowed to take funds from it for general activities. as a matter of fact, the athletic department receives the student athletic fee from the university, which is essentially $125-ish for access to all events for students. we have 4 revenue-generating sports: football, men's basketball, women's basketball, and baseball. we struggle to sell tickets to all events (the baseball stadium's "fullness" is because students can literally walk right in and tickets are often given away in front of the stadium). we have a fixed cost with each of those events and no matter how many tickets are sold, the cost to operate and staff each event stays the same. for every unsold seat, we dig into our budget. we have a large affluent alumni base that is, for the most part, not willing to make 6 to 7-figure donations to watch a team lose. that is why athletics is grossly underfunded.

the orange bowl lease lost us money because we couldn't sell tickets. that's it. it made no financial sense because the city was dead set on getting us out. renovation was never a realistic option because on top of completely renovating the structure, the pressbox was obsolete and needed a complete overhaul, the sound system was antiquated and needed full replacement, and the cost of a jumbotron would have been prohibitively expensive. not to mention, the top generator of revenue in any modern sports structure, premium box and club seats, did not exist in the stadium and would have to be added to offset renovation costs.

paul dee was far from a failure. he got the job and had the pell grant scandal literally fall into his lap shortly after taking over, just like golden and the shapiro scandal. he takes the job and all of a sudden, the football program was crippled by sanctions that we wouldn't recover from until 1999. of course attendance dropped. we struggled to fill the orange bowl just as much as we struggle to fill sunlife. our numbers are remarkably similar between the two. coker and shannon were both considered smart hires at the time, shannon especially. the players lobbied for both coaches and the university listened.

and of course shalala made the pitch that sunlife was great. it stopped the lease that the city of miami held us hostage with and gave the university an opportunity to make more money. the loss of the orange bowl was terrible, and i miss that place more than anything, but we never had a realistic shot at having it back.

 

[DeadPoets]

Good post. I wouldn't worry about explaining yourself to some of the dolts on here who have neither a degree from UM nor the pleasure of ever stepping foot on its campus. They are literally too stupid to reason with.

I took Shalala's class when I was in undergrad and promise everyone that she is 100% for athletics. She made that clear a million of times, in various ways, throughout the semester.

took the same healthcare crisis class in spring of 10. great class smart woman and yes he is right she is at the sporting events and does love sports and wants us to do well. she stated it a million times.

I also took that class in the spring of 2010.

Wow - 3 victims to the liberal brainwashing that takes place all across the US in Universities just like Miami. "Healthcare Crisis?" This is really a class?

gtfoh - this is why education is in the ****ter. OP even mentioned how the science dept is obsolete.

Go figure

 

[dookie blaylock]

Good post. I wouldn't worry about explaining yourself to some of the dolts on here who have neither a degree from UM nor the pleasure of ever stepping foot on its campus. They are literally too stupid to reason with.

I took Shalala's class when I was in undergrad and promise everyone that she is 100% for athletics. She made that clear a million of times, in various ways, throughout the semester.

took the same healthcare crisis class in spring of 10. great class smart woman and yes he is right she is at the sporting events and does love sports and wants us to do well. she stated it a million times.

I also took that class in the spring of 2010.

Wow - 3 victims to the liberal brainwashing that takes place all across the US in Universities just like Miami. "Healthcare Crisis?" This is really a class?

gtfoh - this is why education is in the ****ter. OP even mentioned how the science dept is obsolete.

Go figure

science dept isn't obsolete. the building that houses the dept is. science dept is actually quite good despite what it operates out of.

and healthcare crisis is a class based on global health problems. not really a liberal issue as much as it is an issue in developing countries and some developed countries.

 

[DeadPoets]

Good post. I wouldn't worry about explaining yourself to some of the dolts on here who have neither a degree from UM nor the pleasure of ever stepping foot on its campus. They are literally too stupid to reason with.

I took Shalala's class when I was in undergrad and promise everyone that she is 100% for athletics. She made that clear a million of times, in various ways, throughout the semester.

took the same healthcare crisis class in spring of 10. great class smart woman and yes he is right she is at the sporting events and does love sports and wants us to do well. she stated it a million times.

I also took that class in the spring of 2010.

Wow - 3 victims to the liberal brainwashing that takes place all across the US in Universities just like Miami. "Healthcare Crisis?" This is really a class?

gtfoh - this is why education is in the ****ter. OP even mentioned how the science dept is obsolete.

Go figure

science dept isn't obsolete. the building that houses the dept is. science dept is actually quite good despite what it operates out of.

and healthcare crisis is a class based on global health problems. not really a liberal issue as much as it is an issue in developing countries and some developed countries.

An absolute worthless class. Just another way for them to gauge you of your dollar and turn your brain inside out.

 

[dookie blaylock]

took the same healthcare crisis class in spring of 10. great class smart woman and yes he is right she is at the sporting events and does love sports and wants us to do well. she stated it a million times.

I also took that class in the spring of 2010.

Wow - 3 victims to the liberal brainwashing that takes place all across the US in Universities just like Miami. "Healthcare Crisis?" This is really a class?

gtfoh - this is why education is in the ****ter. OP even mentioned how the science dept is obsolete.

Go figure

science dept isn't obsolete. the building that houses the dept is. science dept is actually quite good despite what it operates out of.

and healthcare crisis is a class based on global health problems. not really a liberal issue as much as it is an issue in developing countries and some developed countries.

An absolute worthless class. Just another way for them to gauge you of your dollar and turn your brain inside out.

i think the word you're looking for is "gouge." and worthless how? i didn't take it because it wasn't relevant to my major, but it's a relevant topic to anyone living in a world where disease can spread like wildfire. modern healthcare crises: aids epidemic of the 80s, salmonella and e-coli in the 90s, sars and swine/avian flu in the 2000s. same reason it's good to know history, the class teaches you how things happened and how they were handled. it applies to modern life.

 

[CaneSuger]

Donna Shalala was the Secretary of Health and Human Services under Bill Clinton. I'm sure she has a lot of worthwhile things to say about healthcare. As far as I know, the course is an elective. That is to say, if a student doesn't want to take the class, they don't have to.

Good post. I wouldn't worry about explaining yourself to some of the dolts on here who have neither a degree from UM nor the pleasure of ever stepping foot on its campus. They are literally too stupid to reason with.

I took Shalala's class when I was in undergrad and promise everyone that she is 100% for athletics. She made that clear a million of times, in various ways, throughout the semester.

took the same healthcare crisis class in spring of 10. great class smart woman and yes he is right she is at the sporting events and does love sports and wants us to do well. she stated it a million times.

I also took that class in the spring of 2010.

Wow - 3 victims to the liberal brainwashing that takes place all across the US in Universities just like Miami. "Healthcare Crisis?" This is really a class?

gtfoh - this is why education is in the ****ter. OP even mentioned how the science dept is obsolete.

Go figure

 

[DeadPoets]

I also took that class in the spring of 2010.

Wow - 3 victims to the liberal brainwashing that takes place all across the US in Universities just like Miami. "Healthcare Crisis?" This is really a class?

gtfoh - this is why education is in the ****ter. OP even mentioned how the science dept is obsolete.

Go figure

science dept isn't obsolete. the building that houses the dept is. science dept is actually quite good despite what it operates out of.

and healthcare crisis is a class based on global health problems. not really a liberal issue as much as it is an issue in developing countries and some developed countries.

An absolute worthless class. Just another way for them to gauge you of your dollar and turn your brain inside out.

i think the word you're looking for is "gouge." and worthless how? i didn't take it because it wasn't relevant to my major, but it's a relevant topic to anyone living in a world where disease can spread like wildfire. modern healthcare crises: aids epidemic of the 80s, salmonella and e-coli in the 90s, sars and swine/avian flu in the 2000s. same reason it's good to know history, the class teaches you how things happened and how they were handled. it applies to modern life.

Yes, gouge... sorry a little past my bedtime.

 

[DeadPoets]

$ 400 + books to find out

Donna Shalala was the Secretary of Health and Human Services under Bill Clinton. I'm sure she has a lot of worthwhile things to say about healthcare. As far as I know, the course is an elective. That is to say, if a student doesn't want to take the class, they don't have to.

Good post. I wouldn't worry about explaining yourself to some of the dolts on here who have neither a degree from UM nor the pleasure of ever stepping foot on its campus. They are literally too stupid to reason with.

I took Shalala's class when I was in undergrad and promise everyone that she is 100% for athletics. She made that clear a million of times, in various ways, throughout the semester.

took the same healthcare crisis class in spring of 10. great class smart woman and yes he is right she is at the sporting events and does love sports and wants us to do well. she stated it a million times.

I also took that class in the spring of 2010.

Wow - 3 victims to the liberal brainwashing that takes place all across the US in Universities just like Miami. "Healthcare Crisis?" This is really a class?

gtfoh - this is why education is in the ****ter. OP even mentioned how the science dept is obsolete.

Go figure

 

[CaneSuger]

I'm familiar with similarly run corporations.

I suspect UM Athletics is set up as a separate LLC, Jackson Memorial is set up as a separate company, the academic institution is set up as a separate company, but all are owned by a parent holding company. The profits from all operations filter up to the holding company.

The AD still reports to President Shalala. If I am wrong about this then my criticism of her is misplaced, and I'll be the first to admit my mistake.

However, this structure is not unique to the University of Miami. I believe if you ask the question, you'll find that Paul Dee was hired by Shalala, reported to Shalala, and that, from the perspective of the board, Shalala is ultimately responsible for the performance of the athletic department.

I think Shalala has performed well in many areas, however the athletic department's performance has progressively worsened since 2001, for which she bears ultimate responsibility.

Perhaps the future AD should report directly to the board of directors going forward, if Shalala's strengths and interests lie elsewhere.

Who does the athletic director work for? Who hires/fires athletic directors?

Who does the AD go to for his annual performance review? Who sets his budget? Who sets the tone and direction, and who provides the vision of where she wants the university to go?

Paul Dee was a failure. He inherited one of the finest athletic programs in the country, and it withered on the vine during his tenure.

The worst of the Shapiro allegations are said to have happened under his watch.

His two football hires, Coker and Shannon, were fired due to a lack of results.

Football attendance dropped under his tenure.

The Orange Bowl was one of his biggest failures. I am simply not buying that there was nothing either Dee or Shalala could have done to save the stadium.

Neither Dee nor Shalala showed any leadership on the issue. They simply caved to the Marlins and to the city, and never put up a fight.

I will grant you this: you seem to have more inside knowledge than I do regarding the inner workings of the situation, but I am telling you how it appears to me.

I'm an alumnus. My phone never rang asking for a donation for any Orange Bowl renovation fund. Nobody called to remind me to contact my local representatives regarding the stadium.

In fact, the only communication I got from Shalala and company was a sales pitch on how great Sun Life was going to be for us. There was simply no leadership, and no apparent interest on her part in saving the stadium.

I can't understand how she's so dismissive of our athletic traditions. We alumni who attended the U during our football heyday take a lot of pride in the football team. It's part of who we are as a university.

I see the loss of the Orange Bowl as a HUGE blunder that happened under her watch. That building meant a lot to so many, and I'm sure nobody on here would disagree with that. The city should have declared it a historic site. There must have been a way to save it. So many great memories were created in that building, and to see it torn down was a travesty reflective of neglectful and asinine leadership.

Where is our vaunted football program today? We play in a stadium despised by fans. We have had countless dolts line up as athletic directors. We have paid bottom dollar for coaching, and have seen the results on the field.

Now, we have embarrassing NCAA sanctions looming overhead.

Most pundits and talking heads expect us to be charged with "loss of institutional control." Well, who was supposed to be in charge of the institution? Say what you will, but the buck stops with Donna Shalala.

That's my 2 cents.

Yes she has done a great job getting our university more national recognition for our academics. She has had some success as a fundraiser.

This is one alumni that thinks she deserves an "F" for her job managing athletics, and I am not willing to let her off the hook.

Athletics do matter to this university.

i'm not sure how such a small amount of people here realize that the university of miami is, in fact, a university. the science building that is currently on campus is obsolete and the department is in desperate need of a new facility. she was hired to make the academics at the university better, first and foremost, and has done an unbelievable job doing so.

yes, it is true that the football team WAS (yes, i said it "WAS") responsible for bringing in a lot of attention and new students, but it ceased to be a predominant reason for enrollment when the program when down the crapper in the mid-late 2000s. i'll be the first to admit that football was a huge reason to come to miami when i enrolled in 06, but that sentiment has been severely reduced among the rest of the student body when we started to suck. football games are just an excuse to get drunk on saturdays now for a lot of students and you can tell by the student section emptying out at halftime at about every game. shalala is far more supportive of athletics than foote ever was and anyone who says she destroys programs conveniently don't count wisconsin's success academically and athletically during her time there.

i completely understand the frustration from the fanbase about the lack of performance and the decline of the program (i'm just as upset as anyone else here), but aside from going to a few games and buying some merchandise, most fans don't have a vested interest in the university. if the school were to close tomorrow, the most a lot of people would miss is the football team, and maybe baseball and basketball. for me, i would lose the value of my degrees and the school i call home, along with the team that i love more than anything. shalala's work in improving the school's academics mean far more to the students and alums and cannot be appreciated if you never benefited from them first-hand. her work in fundraising afforded me and countless others the opportunity to attend on scholarship (because there was no way i could afford paying full tuition) and get a quality education from a top-50 university.

oh and for everyone who thinks that highsmith is spiting her about the stadium? they're actually pretty good friends. View attachment 15945
that's them two together stopping by my table at homecoming. the stadium decision is not in her hands.

first off, managing athletics is not her job. that's the athletic director's job. i discussed the orange bowl with paul dee about 2 weeks before he died and as much as he loved the orange bowl, there was nothing he could do to keep it. the stadium was literally falling apart at the seams and the city wanted us to pay for renovations entirely. we had already been sued for concrete falling on a spectator and a lack of safety measures that allowed another person to fall from the upper deck ramps after a game.

do you know what our lease details were for the ob? we got nothing but ticket revenue. the city of miami took all of the parking revenue, concession revenue, and the lease money. the lease at sunlife (and yes, i HATE sunlife with a passion) was the only thing that made any sense financially for the university because we make concession revenue along with ticket revenue and premium seating. the city already knew that it was going to put marlins park over the ob site thanks to some very ethically questionable moves by both city leadership and the marlins organization. the university had no shot at playing there ever again. that's not a blunder by shalala or dee. it was a methodically planned move by the city and the marlins that gave us zero chances to keep it.

as for impending ncaa sanctions? loss of institutional control would be ludicrous given the situations at penn state and unc and how they were handled. furthermore, the actions of a booster are in no way, shape, or form her responsibility. that's for the compliance office and athletics to look into.

not sure if you kept up with off the field matters with the school, but to call eichorst a dolt is pretty ignorant. not only did he get jim larranaga to come here and coach a second-rate basketball team, he managed to keep golden here after allegations and even extend him to the end of the decade. most importantly, under his watch the ncaa singled us out as a model for compliance and cooperation with investigators.

if she spent all of her time looking at what a booster and her athletes are doing, she's not doing her job. if she sat and micromanaged how to get the football program up and running again, she's not doing her job. you're more than entitled to your opinion, but the fact of the matter is that she is doing what she was hired to do as a university president.

the athletic budget is made entirely with athletic revenue and donations. the department is actually set up as it's own corporation and is not allowed to take general university funds, nor is the university allowed to take funds from it for general activities. as a matter of fact, the athletic department receives the student athletic fee from the university, which is essentially $125-ish for access to all events for students. we have 4 revenue-generating sports: football, men's basketball, women's basketball, and baseball. we struggle to sell tickets to all events (the baseball stadium's "fullness" is because students can literally walk right in and tickets are often given away in front of the stadium). we have a fixed cost with each of those events and no matter how many tickets are sold, the cost to operate and staff each event stays the same. for every unsold seat, we dig into our budget. we have a large affluent alumni base that is, for the most part, not willing to make 6 to 7-figure donations to watch a team lose. that is why athletics is grossly underfunded.

the orange bowl lease lost us money because we couldn't sell tickets. that's it. it made no financial sense because the city was dead set on getting us out. renovation was never a realistic option because on top of completely renovating the structure, the pressbox was obsolete and needed a complete overhaul, the sound system was antiquated and needed full replacement, and the cost of a jumbotron would have been prohibitively expensive. not to mention, the top generator of revenue in any modern sports structure, premium box and club seats, did not exist in the stadium and would have to be added to offset renovation costs.

paul dee was far from a failure. he got the job and had the pell grant scandal literally fall into his lap shortly after taking over, just like golden and the shapiro scandal. he takes the job and all of a sudden, the football program was crippled by sanctions that we wouldn't recover from until 1999. of course attendance dropped. we struggled to fill the orange bowl just as much as we struggle to fill sunlife. our numbers are remarkably similar between the two. coker and shannon were both considered smart hires at the time, shannon especially. the players lobbied for both coaches and the university listened.

and of course shalala made the pitch that sunlife was great. it stopped the lease that the city of miami held us hostage with and gave the university an opportunity to make more money. the loss of the orange bowl was terrible, and i miss that place more than anything, but we never had a realistic shot at having it back.

 

[dookie blaylock]

I'm familiar with similarly run corporations. The way I suspect it works is that UM Athletics is set up as a separate LLC, Jackson Memorial is set up as a separate company, the academic institution is set up as a separate company, but all are owned by a parent holding company. The profits from all operations filter up to the holding company, and the holding company can allocate funds for major investments such as stadiums and science buildings using profits gained from all three.

The AD still reports to President Shalala. If I am wrong about this, all my criticism of her is misplaced and I'll be the first to admit my mistake.

However, this structure is not unique to the University of Miami and I am 99% certain that if you ask the question, you'll find that I am correct in saying that Paul Dee was hired by Shalala, reported to Shalala, and that from the perspective of the board, Shalala is ultimately responsible for the performance of the athletic department.

I think Shalala has done many things well, however the athletic department's performance has been progressively worse since 2001, for which she bears ultimate responsibility.

Perhaps the future AD should report directly to the board going forward, if Shalala's strength and interests lie elsewhere.

Who does the athletic director work for? Who hires/fires athletic directors?

Who does the AD go to for his annual performance review? Who sets his budget? Who sets the tone and direction, and who provides the vision of where she wants the university to go?

Paul Dee was a failure. He inherited one of the finest athletic programs in the country, and it withered on the vine during his tenure.

The worst of the Shapiro allegations are said to have happened under his watch.

His two football hires, Coker and Shannon, were fired due to a lack of results.

Football attendance dropped under his tenure.

The Orange Bowl was one of his biggest failures. I am simply not buying that there was nothing either Dee or Shalala could have done to save the stadium.

Neither Dee nor Shalala showed any leadership on the issue. They simply caved to the Marlins and to the city, and never put up a fight.

I will grant you this: you seem to have more inside knowledge than I do regarding the inner workings of the situation, but I am telling you how it appears to me.

I'm an alumnus. My phone never rang asking for a donation for any Orange Bowl renovation fund. Nobody called to remind me to contact my local representatives regarding the stadium.

In fact, the only communication I got from Shalala and company was a sales pitch on how great Sun Life was going to be for us. There was simply no leadership, and no apparent interest on her part in saving the stadium.

I can't understand how she's so dismissive of our athletic traditions. We alumni who attended the U during our football heyday take a lot of pride in the football team. It's part of who we are as a university.

I see the loss of the Orange Bowl as a HUGE blunder that happened under her watch. That building meant a lot to so many, and I'm sure nobody on here would disagree with that. The city should have declared it a historic site. There must have been a way to save it. So many great memories were created in that building, and to see it torn down was a travesty reflective of neglectful and asinine leadership.

Where is our vaunted football program today? We play in a stadium despised by fans. We have had countless dolts line up as athletic directors. We have paid bottom dollar for coaching, and have seen the results on the field.

Now, we have embarrassing NCAA sanctions looming overhead.

Most pundits and talking heads expect us to be charged with "loss of institutional control." Well, who was supposed to be in charge of the institution? Say what you will, but the buck stops with Donna Shalala.

That's my 2 cents.

Yes she has done a great job getting our university more national recognition for our academics. She has had some success as a fundraiser.

This is one alumni that thinks she deserves an "F" for her job managing athletics, and I am not willing to let her off the hook.

Athletics do matter to this university.

first off, managing athletics is not her job. that's the athletic director's job. i discussed the orange bowl with paul dee about 2 weeks before he died and as much as he loved the orange bowl, there was nothing he could do to keep it. the stadium was literally falling apart at the seams and the city wanted us to pay for renovations entirely. we had already been sued for concrete falling on a spectator and a lack of safety measures that allowed another person to fall from the upper deck ramps after a game.

do you know what our lease details were for the ob? we got nothing but ticket revenue. the city of miami took all of the parking revenue, concession revenue, and the lease money. the lease at sunlife (and yes, i HATE sunlife with a passion) was the only thing that made any sense financially for the university because we make concession revenue along with ticket revenue and premium seating. the city already knew that it was going to put marlins park over the ob site thanks to some very ethically questionable moves by both city leadership and the marlins organization. the university had no shot at playing there ever again. that's not a blunder by shalala or dee. it was a methodically planned move by the city and the marlins that gave us zero chances to keep it.

as for impending ncaa sanctions? loss of institutional control would be ludicrous given the situations at penn state and unc and how they were handled. furthermore, the actions of a booster are in no way, shape, or form her responsibility. that's for the compliance office and athletics to look into.

not sure if you kept up with off the field matters with the school, but to call eichorst a dolt is pretty ignorant. not only did he get jim larranaga to come here and coach a second-rate basketball team, he managed to keep golden here after allegations and even extend him to the end of the decade. most importantly, under his watch the ncaa singled us out as a model for compliance and cooperation with investigators.

if she spent all of her time looking at what a booster and her athletes are doing, she's not doing her job. if she sat and micromanaged how to get the football program up and running again, she's not doing her job. you're more than entitled to your opinion, but the fact of the matter is that she is doing what she was hired to do as a university president.

the athletic budget is made entirely with athletic revenue and donations. the department is actually set up as it's own corporation and is not allowed to take general university funds, nor is the university allowed to take funds from it for general activities. as a matter of fact, the athletic department receives the student athletic fee from the university, which is essentially $125-ish for access to all events for students. we have 4 revenue-generating sports: football, men's basketball, women's basketball, and baseball. we struggle to sell tickets to all events (the baseball stadium's "fullness" is because students can literally walk right in and tickets are often given away in front of the stadium). we have a fixed cost with each of those events and no matter how many tickets are sold, the cost to operate and staff each event stays the same. for every unsold seat, we dig into our budget. we have a large affluent alumni base that is, for the most part, not willing to make 6 to 7-figure donations to watch a team lose. that is why athletics is grossly underfunded.

the orange bowl lease lost us money because we couldn't sell tickets. that's it. it made no financial sense because the city was dead set on getting us out. renovation was never a realistic option because on top of completely renovating the structure, the pressbox was obsolete and needed a complete overhaul, the sound system was antiquated and needed full replacement, and the cost of a jumbotron would have been prohibitively expensive. not to mention, the top generator of revenue in any modern sports structure, premium box and club seats, did not exist in the stadium and would have to be added to offset renovation costs.

paul dee was far from a failure. he got the job and had the pell grant scandal literally fall into his lap shortly after taking over, just like golden and the shapiro scandal. he takes the job and all of a sudden, the football program was crippled by sanctions that we wouldn't recover from until 1999. of course attendance dropped. we struggled to fill the orange bowl just as much as we struggle to fill sunlife. our numbers are remarkably similar between the two. coker and shannon were both considered smart hires at the time, shannon especially. the players lobbied for both coaches and the university listened.

and of course shalala made the pitch that sunlife was great. it stopped the lease that the city of miami held us hostage with and gave the university an opportunity to make more money. the loss of the orange bowl was terrible, and i miss that place more than anything, but we never had a realistic shot at having it back.

you're 99% incorrect. dee was hired in 1995 when foote was president. shalala became president of the university in 2001. as far as the pecking order goes, yes, the ad reports to the president. however, the board is still responsible for approving the hire of the ad.

and trust me, the board is full of academics. they are far more focused on the university's programming over athletics.

 

[CaneSuger]

Well then she is not responsible for Paul Dee. The board should care about academics first and foremost, but that doesn't mean they should neglect athletics.

It may be that the overall direction to neglect the athletics department does come from the board, and Donna Shalala is just towing the line. If that is the case, Miami fans are in trouble.

I'm familiar with similarly run corporations. The way I suspect it works is that UM Athletics is set up as a separate LLC, Jackson Memorial is set up as a separate company, the academic institution is set up as a separate company, but all are owned by a parent holding company. The profits from all operations filter up to the holding company, and the holding company can allocate funds for major investments such as stadiums and science buildings using profits gained from all three.

The AD still reports to President Shalala. If I am wrong about this, all my criticism of her is misplaced and I'll be the first to admit my mistake.

However, this structure is not unique to the University of Miami and I am 99% certain that if you ask the question, you'll find that I am correct in saying that Paul Dee was hired by Shalala, reported to Shalala, and that from the perspective of the board, Shalala is ultimately responsible for the performance of the athletic department.

I think Shalala has done many things well, however the athletic department's performance has been progressively worse since 2001, for which she bears ultimate responsibility.

Perhaps the future AD should report directly to the board going forward, if Shalala's strength and interests lie elsewhere.

Who does the athletic director work for? Who hires/fires athletic directors?

Who does the AD go to for his annual performance review? Who sets his budget? Who sets the tone and direction, and who provides the vision of where she wants the university to go?

Paul Dee was a failure. He inherited one of the finest athletic programs in the country, and it withered on the vine during his tenure.

The worst of the Shapiro allegations are said to have happened under his watch.

His two football hires, Coker and Shannon, were fired due to a lack of results.

Football attendance dropped under his tenure.

The Orange Bowl was one of his biggest failures. I am simply not buying that there was nothing either Dee or Shalala could have done to save the stadium.

Neither Dee nor Shalala showed any leadership on the issue. They simply caved to the Marlins and to the city, and never put up a fight.

I will grant you this: you seem to have more inside knowledge than I do regarding the inner workings of the situation, but I am telling you how it appears to me.

I'm an alumnus. My phone never rang asking for a donation for any Orange Bowl renovation fund. Nobody called to remind me to contact my local representatives regarding the stadium.

In fact, the only communication I got from Shalala and company was a sales pitch on how great Sun Life was going to be for us. There was simply no leadership, and no apparent interest on her part in saving the stadium.

first off, managing athletics is not her job. that's the athletic director's job. i discussed the orange bowl with paul dee about 2 weeks before he died and as much as he loved the orange bowl, there was nothing he could do to keep it. the stadium was literally falling apart at the seams and the city wanted us to pay for renovations entirely. we had already been sued for concrete falling on a spectator and a lack of safety measures that allowed another person to fall from the upper deck ramps after a game.

do you know what our lease details were for the ob? we got nothing but ticket revenue. the city of miami took all of the parking revenue, concession revenue, and the lease money. the lease at sunlife (and yes, i HATE sunlife with a passion) was the only thing that made any sense financially for the university because we make concession revenue along with ticket revenue and premium seating. the city already knew that it was going to put marlins park over the ob site thanks to some very ethically questionable moves by both city leadership and the marlins organization. the university had no shot at playing there ever again. that's not a blunder by shalala or dee. it was a methodically planned move by the city and the marlins that gave us zero chances to keep it.

as for impending ncaa sanctions? loss of institutional control would be ludicrous given the situations at penn state and unc and how they were handled. furthermore, the actions of a booster are in no way, shape, or form her responsibility. that's for the compliance office and athletics to look into.

not sure if you kept up with off the field matters with the school, but to call eichorst a dolt is pretty ignorant. not only did he get jim larranaga to come here and coach a second-rate basketball team, he managed to keep golden here after allegations and even extend him to the end of the decade. most importantly, under his watch the ncaa singled us out as a model for compliance and cooperation with investigators.

if she spent all of her time looking at what a booster and her athletes are doing, she's not doing her job. if she sat and micromanaged how to get the football program up and running again, she's not doing her job. you're more than entitled to your opinion, but the fact of the matter is that she is doing what she was hired to do as a university president.

the athletic budget is made entirely with athletic revenue and donations. the department is actually set up as it's own corporation and is not allowed to take general university funds, nor is the university allowed to take funds from it for general activities. as a matter of fact, the athletic department receives the student athletic fee from the university, which is essentially $125-ish for access to all events for students. we have 4 revenue-generating sports: football, men's basketball, women's basketball, and baseball. we struggle to sell tickets to all events (the baseball stadium's "fullness" is because students can literally walk right in and tickets are often given away in front of the stadium). we have a fixed cost with each of those events and no matter how many tickets are sold, the cost to operate and staff each event stays the same. for every unsold seat, we dig into our budget. we have a large affluent alumni base that is, for the most part, not willing to make 6 to 7-figure donations to watch a team lose. that is why athletics is grossly underfunded.

the orange bowl lease lost us money because we couldn't sell tickets. that's it. it made no financial sense because the city was dead set on getting us out. renovation was never a realistic option because on top of completely renovating the structure, the pressbox was obsolete and needed a complete overhaul, the sound system was antiquated and needed full replacement, and the cost of a jumbotron would have been prohibitively expensive. not to mention, the top generator of revenue in any modern sports structure, premium box and club seats, did not exist in the stadium and would have to be added to offset renovation costs.

paul dee was far from a failure. he got the job and had the pell grant scandal literally fall into his lap shortly after taking over, just like golden and the shapiro scandal. he takes the job and all of a sudden, the football program was crippled by sanctions that we wouldn't recover from until 1999. of course attendance dropped. we struggled to fill the orange bowl just as much as we struggle to fill sunlife. our numbers are remarkably similar between the two. coker and shannon were both considered smart hires at the time, shannon especially. the players lobbied for both coaches and the university listened.

and of course shalala made the pitch that sunlife was great. it stopped the lease that the city of miami held us hostage with and gave the university an opportunity to make more money. the loss of the orange bowl was terrible, and i miss that place more than anything, but we never had a realistic shot at having it back.

you're 99% incorrect. dee was hired in 1995 when foote was president. shalala became president of the university in 2001. as far as the pecking order goes, yes, the ad reports to the president. however, the board is still responsible for approving the hire of the ad.

and trust me, the board is full of academics. they are far more focused on the university's programming over athletics.

 

[Crazy4thecanes]

Each move that has been made in the interest of finances (Sun Life, ACC, etc) has in actuality resulted in our death by a 1000 cuts.

The next time the U insists that a new move is in our financial interests - I will oppose it vigorously (unless it is an effort to build a new stadium.)

As an alumnus I can appreciate what DS has done for the U academically but I do see blood all over hands when it comes to the football program. Whether it's been done on purpose or has been epic ineptness ....... matters not very much to me.

GO CANES

 

[strauzer]

FYI, to say "the stadium decision is not in her hands" is naive, it is absolutely in her hands. I have heard from several prominent donors that the Trustees have warmed to the idea while Donna plays "dumb" about the wants/needs of the alumni/boosters/fans for a stadium.

Alonzo has gotten very influential people to listen to the idea and lets just say he hasn't been discouraged in his quest.

Sign the petition

http://www.change.org/petitions/hurricanes-fans-for-a-hurricanes-stadium

 

[Consigliere]

FYI, to say "the stadium decision is not in her hands" is naive, it is absolutely in her hands. I have heard from several prominent donors that the Trustees have warmed to the idea while Donna plays "dumb" about the wants/needs of the alumni/boosters/fans for a stadium.

Alonzo has gotten very influential people to listen to the idea and lets just say he hasn't been discouraged in his quest.

Sign the petition

http://www.change.org/petitions/hurricanes-fans-for-a-hurricanes-stadium

Agreed. Also, what you do is amazing...keep up the great ******* work!

 

[Consigliere]

Each move that has been made in the interest of finances (Sun Life, ACC, etc) has in actuality resulted in our death by a 1000 cuts.

ACC had no effect on our death...COACHING DID...that is all. Letting two _____ (insert word here) coaches come in after what Butch built our program into, that is what did us in.

If we also stopped wasting money on stupid hires in the past (Coker, Shannon, Haith, Clark), we would save millions in buyouts.

 

[3FW]

The bucks stops with DS. A stadium at TP is a bit of a hail mary. Need a Boone Pickens type to get behind it with $$. IMO the University deserves some blame for failing to craft an upgrade at the OB. Sun Life is definitely hurting us.

 

[VinnDogg]

Allow me to chime in with my .02. It is well known that I am not a Shalala fan and have said it to her face on more than one occasion. A little background. My wife is UM grad and my daughter is curently a senior there. I work for UM at the Tissue Bank in the Life Science Park on the medical campus. This building and all the expansion with the med-school has her troll like fingerprints all over it. And guess what, it is broken, corrupt, poorly run and reeks of cronyism and incompetence. Sound familiar? How about fraud, waste, poor morale, over worked and underpaid except for the Duke contingent that she hustled in and gave carte blanche to rule over.

Aside from some borderline criminal activity going on there, I can only imagine how poorly run the rest of the university is. By the way all of my accusations have been widely reported in the Miami Herald over the past few months, so this isn't just a fan who is ****ed.

Now moving on the the football team(I really don't care about the rest of the sports teams to be honest),it is no coincidence that her arrival has seen a straight arc downward. Her refusal to pay top dollar for coaches have left us with not only 3rd and 4th tier head coaches,but Div.III caliber assitants along the way. I know for a fact that Bob Stoops was in town to "talk" with the higer ups and would have taken the job when Coker was fired but Donna balked at his price. She refused to meet with Mike Leach because she is more concerned with image and rankings than winning. She wants choir boys on the football team when it is pretty much known that all great teams have a few rough around the edges players.

The move to Sunwithnolife Stadium allows here to entertain in her luxury suite,which is what she cares more about. She is fake, she is a serpent, she is corrupt and she is a fraud.She'll openly grovel for a hundred Nevin Shapiros when they are writing checks and dismiss the concerns of fans about parking, access to away game tickets or any other concern. If your wallet ain't fat, Shalala ain't down with that.

Finally and most importantly, she is not to be trusted for she is a Troglodyke. A rare and dangerous species who prey on the blood of unsuspecting fans and won't stop sucking until every last shekel has been brought forth. Shame on her.

If you want a respected, unbiased and well informed opinion of her, just search what Norman Braman has to say about her. Or some of the other BOT's. She is disgusting and that is being kind.

 

[SFbayCane]

Thanks Vin!!!

I read thru this thread this morning and thought to myself, I wonder if VinnDogg is gonna weigh in. lol

For the record, I trust VinnDogg's opinion on this issue more than most.

 

[3FW]

The problems with the hospital and the football team have tarnished her star some. All in all though, only people with some bias would have the opinion Vinn does of her. I know football isn't the most important thing, but Shapiro happened 100% on her watch. When the NCAA lays down the hammer and gives us the LOIC and a massive penalty, she's going to have to answer to the board for that.

 

[Cuse2Miami26]

Been a fan since I was a little kid and went there for college. I started liking the team because of the mascot when i was a kid and i remember growing up in Syracuse my family was all SU fans so i would get it real bad during the McNabb years. Football was a huge reason in why I went to Miami instead of SU.

I love what Donna is doing for my degree but i have to say in every interview i have ever had (in Miami and i now live in NJ and work in NYC) they always ask "So you went to Miami?... was it a lot of fun?" lol no it wasnt fun at all man

Donna needs to look at a team like USC and copy what they do. #25 in academics and always in a bowl game. Lets stop being like Duke and act more like USC