Dave in Green

For those who want to feel optimistic about Dr. Scarborough leading UA in the right direction, positive interpretations can be made of some of the documented scenarios in which he's been involved. For example, his surprise suspension and abrupt departure from DePaul University may have been over a personal matter and not a business matter that would be directly related to his ability to lead UA. The only specific mentioned at the time by a DePaul spokesperson was that there was no indication of financial impropriety, which has to be considered a positive. Another example would be to consider that most of the animosity UT faculty has for administration is directed at President Lloyd Jacobs. That contentious relationship has been well-documented over the years by credible news sources such as the Toledo Blade. When Dr. Jacobs (MD) nominated Dr. Scarborough to be UT Provost and Executive VP for Academic Affairs, it created more tension. Faculty was upset that Dr. Jacobs had not consulted with them and concerned that Dr. Scarborough was primarily a financial guy with inadequate background in the traditional provost strengths of teaching and research. But this story also brings out a positive point from a UA perspective: We all hope that Dr. Scarborough's CFO experience has prepared him to be the kind of UA President needed right now to steer the school through difficult financial times. It's not so much a question of whether or not he has the financial experience to do it but how will he go about trying to accomplish things? Will he take the consensus approach of getting administration, faculty and students on the same page or will he push through edicts without consultation in the imperial manner for which the Jacobs administration has been criticized at UT? It will take time to learn the answer to this question. Hints will come along the way as he starts making small changes in the way UA operates. Those changes can be compared to what's been reported about past administrations where he's worked to see if there's a pattern. If there's a pattern in the small things it could also apply to the big things. That's why it's important to be aware of all aspects of Dr. Scarborough's professional career.

Balsy, I'm very careful about drawing conclusions from what I hear from single sources and am always looking for multiple reliable sources. I never present anything as fact as long as I have any doubt, and I haven't drawn any conclusions yet. I'm only asking questions. There is no doubt that the problems at UT over the last few years are not imagined but are well documented. There was virtual open warfare between the academic side and the administration side at UT. Here's a link to yet another article that vividly documents details some of that conflict between UT professors and administration, and it's not pretty. Dr. Scarborough was part of the administration at UT during all of this. Prior to that he was suspended from the administration at DePaul and within days left that university. If it's fair to question Jim Tressel's background it's certainly fair to question Dr. Scarborough's. You've made it clear over the past few weeks that you were against Jim Tressel and in favor of Dr. Scarborough. You may be 100% convinced that Dr. Scarborough's problem at DePaul was inconsequential and that he was not part of the problem at Toledo. But not everyone else is. If you have any factual information to share, I'm sure I'm not the only one who would welcome seeing it.

This is an update to my last post where I quoted accusations from The Arts & Sciences College Forum that there was an increased sensitivity to criticism and efforts to stifle it by UT's administration during Dr. Scarborough's tenure. By chance I happened to have a conversation with someone with firsthand knowledge about some of the things that have been happening on the UT campus, and what they told me is not inconsistent with the observations above. I was told that the offices of the top administrative executives at UT are located on the third floor of the administration building. Prior to Dr. Scarborough's arrival at UT, a number of students (including graduate students) worked on that floor. After he moved in, a new policy was instituted that students were no longer allowed to work on the third floor and students already working there were moved out. Apparently there was no formal reason given for this change, which led to much speculation among students. Some said they noticed a change in attitude on the third floor, with students being challenged for even setting foot there as if they were no longer trusted. So far I haven't been able to find any written references to either this policy change or to any similar situation that may have occurred at DePaul University during Dr. Scarborough's tenure there. But it could tie in with The Arts & Sciences College Forum item about an effort to plug suspected information leaks from within UT administration and the comment that "The gossip network has it they are even monitoring emails now of people whom they suspect." If anyone knows anyone at UT, please feel free to ask them if they know anything about this. If it should turn out that this change at UT was influenced by Dr. Scarborough's arrival there, then it's not unreasonable to think that similar things could happen at UA. I don't know UA's current policy regarding students working on the same floor as top administration executives. Maybe Balsy, ZachTheZip or someone else can help out on this. My understanding is that there's currently a fair amount of openness and transparency between students and administration at UA. If this should start to change after Dr. Scarborough's arrival, it would be verification that he was also involved in the change noticed by students at UT.

I'm all in favor of performing an objective analysis of university administration and applying the same screws to them that they apply to professors and teaching staff. I'm all for reducing any administration that's not value-added to the university's mission. That's different from arbitrarily eliminating a position just because someone you don't happen to like once held it.

False alarm. I had inadvertently changed a View New Content option that changed what I was being shown as new. After a reset all is fine. The new options in the new forum software are really nice to have as long as you don't press buttons at random.

Just to be clear, most major universities have both a Dean of Students and a VP for Student Affairs (or Student Success or similar title). Picking an example at random, at Duke University the Dean of Students is also Assistant VP for Student Affairs and reports to the VP for Student Affairs. Big universities that deal with tens of thousands of people have different staffing requirements than a mom and pop operation.

I mentioned earlier The Arts & Sciences College Forum, "UT's officially disapproved information source" where "criticisms of administrators are commonplace." It's a pretty rough place in terms of criticizing UT's administration, with disgruntled professors, students and other assorted citizens participating. One of the criticisms they leveled against UT during Dr. Scarborough's time there was an increased sensitivity from UT toward any criticism of UT's administration and attempts to stifle it. The person who runs the forum (Bloggie) wrote about one such attempt: Things really got heated when charges of nepotism at UT were made on the forum. In a piece called UT AAUP Brings Home the Bacon; Family Pigs at the Public Trough, the following was published: That brought a quick response from legal counsel and an update entitled UT AAUP Stands Corrected: It's Not Bacon, Only Pork: At the end of the above piece, a forum member summed it up this way: It's obvious that there's been a contentious relationship between UT administration and certain elements within the university who pull no punches in tossing charges around on that forum. Dr. Scarborough will undoubtedly be making some decisions at UA that will make some unhappy, and it's not unreasonable to think at least some criticism of UA administration will arise. Let's all hope it doesn't reach the proportions it has at UT.

Right, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech and all the other universities with VPs of Student Success are just waiting for UA to eliminate the position so they can follow suit. Then there are all the other universities who call it VP of Student Affairs who are looking to UA for leadership in eliminating this position. Why on earth should any university have a VP devoted to student interests?

While it seems as if the slow server issue may now be corrected (thank you!), I'm now having a problem with the View New Content option. When I click on that button, it shows that I'm up to date on everything. But when I go to individual forums, it shows that there are unread posts. Anyone else having this problem?

Dr Z, I get exactly what you mean about Jim Tressel belonging in Youngstown. Despite the fact that he got his master's degree at UA, despite the fact that he was a graduate assistant at UA and despite the fact that he devoted the last two years of his life working for the success of UA students, there were always going to be a number of people associated with UA who thought he's not one of us, he's one of them.

GP1, although we don't always agree on everything (who does?), we do agree on this. The one thing I never question about you is your concern for and support of UA. Although I never attended UA, I share your concern and support. I went to a different university, but have settled near UA and will probably be here the rest of my life. I don't contribute to the university I attended, but I do support UA. It's my adopted home university, and I really want it to do well. I want American education to do well because it's the key to America doing well. Whoever was going to be the next UA President, I wanted to hold them to a high standard. I do not want to see UA turned into a cheap internet degree mill churning out tens of thousands of graduates and making more millions for some Texas multimillionaire supersalesman. I sincerely hope that this is not the vision of Dr. Scarborough, and it concerns me when my historical research keeps leading me back to that model. It's disturbing to me that Wright State University spent a fortune with the Texas multimillionaire getting their internet degree program up and running and only enrolled 100 students in the first 13 months. So I will continue to research Dr. Scarborough's background and report here what I find in the public records. I sincerely want him to make me forget that I ever considered Jim Tressel to be a viable option for UA. But no one gets a free pass from me. Respect has to be earned.

I hope you find the background information as interesting and informative as I have. Dr. Scarborough is a bit of a mystery man around here, and no one is really sure of what to expect from him. I think it's helpful to understanding what he might do at UA to look at his past track record. Obviously there's much less published material about Dr. Scarborough than about Jim Tressel, so it's not nearly as easy to track his past actions. But I keep finding bits and pieces, and will share them with everyone here so we can all have a better understanding of the man who's going to be leading UA.

Quickzips, I have to agree with Hilltopper about Kwan. He's a 3-point shooting wing who suddenly sprouted up to 6-9 and whose body now looks more like a 4/5. But he still plays like a 2/3. On the other hand the Zips have two true centers who've played nothing but the 5 all the way back through HS, where they both excelled. Neither has been brilliant yet at the college level. But it's commonly thought that big men tend to develop later than smaller players. The only way Kwan becomes the starting center is if both Big Dog and Pat fail to develop and Kwan has a total personality change. I think the odds of that happening are pretty small. I could see Kwan playing some 5 in specific situations where the Zips want to go small. In that case, the Zips would have an advantage in having a small lineup with a quick and mobile 6-9 guy on the floor.

If you check Nick's Twitter, a few days ago he posted the following sequence of tweets. If you look at the instagram photo in the second tweet below, it appears to be of him sitting on a hospital gurney. Adding it all up, it's possible that he was in for some kind of surgery. If true, it could help explain his spotty performance this past season:

I underestimated Shayne Whittington before his performance at the Q, which made me think he just might have a chance to represent the MAC in the NBA draft. But that just took a big blow: Shayne Whittington Suffers Major Leg Injury, Likely Out Long Term

Dr Z, thanks for the link to the ESPN story, which had a link to this story.

Interesting read on how UA recruited Noah:

Turning over one rock at a time, it turns out that Dr. Scarborough was instrumental in Randy Best's first move into higher education. In 2005, after making millions off of No Child Left Behind programs, Best sold his Voyager company for $361 million and started looking for an entry point into the college ranks. The opportunity came in the form of Barat College, at the time part of DePaul University. Following is from a story in Inside Higher Ed: A description of what Best did with Barat College after he bought it was in the second story I linked to in my previous post: Best's vision for the new American College of Education and his opinion on college accreditation boards is summed up in a Mother Jones story entitled Hooked On Phonies: So what does all this have to do with UA? When new UA President Dr. Scarborough was questioned at UT about his connection to Randy Best's operation, the Inside Higher Ed story linked above stated the following: If Dr. Scarborough admires the quaiity of the work of Randy Best's operation, there's a good chance that he will either try to develop a relationship between UA and Best's company or try to institute some of that philosophy. Anyone who works for or attends or has any interest in UA owes it to themselves to become more familiar with the company and philosophy that the new UA President so admires.

As a true freshman, Alex played in all 36 games, averaging 19.7 minutes per game. He began as a backup to Steve McNees and worked his way into the starting PG for 15 games. I think we'd all agree that the Zips currently do not have a PG of McNees' caliber to bump out of the starting role. Dru Joyce played in all 28 games as a true freshman, averaging 23.8 minutes per game. He began as a backup to Johnny Hollingsworth and took over as starting PG for 10 games. I don't recall much about Hollingsworth.

Ada Zip, found a story that said this event is closed to the public. The story also gives an idea of the odds Zeke is facing: I recall a coach saying he thought Zeke needed about two years of development after college to be NBA ready, and this is the end of Zeke's first year of pro development.

Hustle Belt's Brandon Hickey really likes what Noah could do for the Zips. One caution:

More congratulations to Zeke for taking yet another step forward in his quest to play in the NBA: Link to full story.

Definitely a scholarship traffic jam with one graduating and three incoming freshmen. We'll have to see how that works out. I really like Noah from watching the videos. Most player videos feature scoring, and Noah can do that. But a large percentage of Noah's videos are devoted to long, pinpoint passes, where he really excels. He's a true PG in every sense of the word. I'm not sure how the Gatorade HS POY in the state of Nevada doesn't get more interest from the bigger schools. But I'm really glad that he chose UA. I like that Noah played for a high-level HS team that played against national HS competition in out-of-state tournaments and won three straight state championships. He looks as if he may be able to step in and contribute at the D-I college level as a true freshman. I also like a lot of what I've seen of Antino Jackson, but think he may be more likely to benefit from a redshirt. However it works out, the Zips definitely have more options at PG now.

Homework time. History tells us that one of the things to look for with Dr. Scarborough is the introduction of UA to Academic Partnerships (aka Higher Ed Holdings), the Texas-based for-profit company on whose board of directors Dr. Scarborough once served. He was still on that board when he introduced DePaul University to Academic Partnerships. He did the same with UT after he landed in Toledo. Neither school still has a relationship with the company. Academic Partnerships is the brainchild of Texas multi-millionare Randy Best, a big financial supporter of George W. Bush who made millions of dollars in profit from deals he got through the Bush administration related to the No Child Left Behind program. Having made all those millions on grade school programs, Best decided to go after higher education money with Academic Partnerships. There are many national stories out there on this subject, so don't expect to get a full handle on it from a little casual reading. It would take some pretty serious research to understand all the nuances. But here are a few starter stories to get the ball rolling on becoming more familiar with at least a portion of Dr. Scarborough's philosophy on higher education: ABC News story on how Randy Best made his first millions: U.S. Reading Program Benefits Bush Friend Texas Observer story on Higher Ed Holdings (with reference to Dr. Scarborough): Randy Best Is Going to Save Texas’ Public Universities, Or Get Rich Trying Forbes article on Randy Best (with reference to how Academic Partnerships is failing at Wright State University in Ohio): No College Left Behind: Randy Best's Money-Making Mission To Save Higher Education

As I said earlier, people need to be where they're appreciated. Regardless of what the UA Trustees may have thought of Jim Tressel, apparently the professors and students prefer Dr. Scarborough. At YSU, JT apparently has support from the professors, students and management. He was really smart to withdraw his name at UA and take the job at YSU, where he can do his job without having to waste time on internal conflict.