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Steven Leath Out As AU President.


jared52

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Looking at this from the OUTSIDE, the view of potential president candidates, Leath comes out of this smelling like a parade of roses, Auburn comes out smelling like a steaming pile.

Leath had a record of tangible accomplishments that were pretty impressive for less than 2 years on the job:
1. New medical school
2. New performing arts center
3. Expanded engineering/tech programs
4. Plan for increasing tenure track faculty positions

Did he ruffle feathers along the way? Leaders with a vision of growth and advancement often do.

Auburn, on the other hand:
1. He didn't kiss BOT fannies the way they like? By a BOT with a history of micro-management.
2. He threatened to fire a popular coach with a lifelong history of trouble, now again in the trouble spotlight
3. Some of the faculty and alumni didn't like him
4. Funding per student, underachieving faculty, poor state funding

Unless there is something else that prompted this ouster by the BOT, no outstanding candidate from a top tier land grant university will step into that.

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9 minutes ago, AURex said:

Looking at this from the OUTSIDE, the view of potential president candidates, Leath comes out of this smelling like a parade of roses, Auburn comes out smelling like a steaming pile.

Leath had a record of tangible accomplishments that were pretty impressive for less than 2 years on the job:
1. New medical school
2. New performing arts center
3. Expanded engineering/tech programs
4. Plan for increasing tenure track faculty positions

Did he ruffle feathers along the way? Leaders with a vision of growth and advancement often do.

Auburn, on the other hand:
1. He didn't kiss BOT fannies the way they like? By a BOT with a history of micro-management.
2. He threatened to fire a popular coach with a lifelong history of trouble, now again in the trouble spotlight
3. Some of the faculty and alumni didn't like him
4. Funding per student, underachieving faculty, poor state funding

Unless there is something else that prompted this ouster by the BOT, no outstanding candidate from a top tier land grant university will step into that.

life long history of trouble, LMFAO. had a couple of recruits at a bbq equals this.  JFC

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You do knw that he had jobs before Tenn, and that he had a trail of issues at previous stops - right? Well, apparently you didn't know that.

 

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19 minutes ago, AURex said:

Looking at this from the OUTSIDE, the view of potential president candidates, Leath comes out of this smelling like a parade of roses, Auburn comes out smelling like a steaming pile.

Leath had a record of tangible accomplishments that were pretty impressive for less than 2 years on the job:
1. New medical school
2. New performing arts center
3. Expanded engineering/tech programs
4. Plan for increasing tenure track faculty positions

Did he ruffle feathers along the way? Leaders with a vision of growth and advancement often do.

Auburn, on the other hand:
1. He didn't kiss BOT fannies the way they like? By a BOT with a history of micro-management.
2. He threatened to fire a popular coach with a lifelong history of trouble, now again in the trouble spotlight
3. Some of the faculty and alumni didn't like him
4. Funding per student, underachieving faculty, poor state funding

Unless there is something else that prompted this ouster by the BOT, no outstanding candidate from a top tier land grant university will step into that.

You definitely ARE thinking OUTSIDE. If you were INSIDE you would know he simply was not a good fit, a good communicator as our highest ranking administrator, and regardless if he didn't KISS the right fannies, he ALSO didn't do the basics such as be friendly to even the most common Auburn supports and employees.

I don't think anyone believes we stepped into that pile you referenced....

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13 minutes ago, AURex said:

You do knw that he had jobs before Tenn, and that he had a trail of issues at previous stops - right? Well, apparently you didn't know that.

 

Holy crap are u serious?  I thought Tennessee was his first coaching job ever.  One minor violation at UWM makes a trail for some I guess.  Self reported by UWM.  Nothing at S Indiana and nothing as an assistant coach at Iowa, but was accused by Illinois with no evidence after he reported them for cheating.   Yep you nailed it 

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59 minutes ago, AURex said:

You do knw that he had jobs before Tenn, and that he had a trail of issues at previous stops - right? Well, apparently you didn't know that.

Please expound.

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52 minutes ago, steeleagle said:

You definitely ARE thinking OUTSIDE. If you were INSIDE you would know he simply was not a good fit, a good communicator as our highest ranking administrator, and regardless if he didn't KISS the right fannies, he ALSO didn't do the basics such as be friendly to even the most common Auburn supports and employees.

I don't think anyone believes we stepped into that pile you referenced....

I don't want a board who has to have their fanny kissed anyway. I'd actually like Leath in that respect if that is true. 

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2 hours ago, AURex said:

Looking at this from the OUTSIDE, the view of potential president candidates, Leath comes out of this smelling like a parade of roses, Auburn comes out smelling like a steaming pile.

Leath had a record of tangible accomplishments that were pretty impressive for less than 2 years on the job:
1. New medical school
2. New performing arts center
3. Expanded engineering/tech programs
4. Plan for increasing tenure track faculty positions

Did he ruffle feathers along the way? Leaders with a vision of growth and advancement often do.

Auburn, on the other hand:
1. He didn't kiss BOT fannies the way they like? By a BOT with a history of micro-management.
2. He threatened to fire a popular coach with a lifelong history of trouble, now again in the trouble spotlight
3. Some of the faculty and alumni didn't like him
4. Funding per student, underachieving faculty, poor state funding

Unless there is something else that prompted this ouster by the BOT, no outstanding candidate from a top tier land grant university will step into that.

You don’t just build a medical school or performing arts center overnight. Funding for those was in the works before he ever took over. The same can be said for taking the school the R1 status. The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Learning is only released every 5 years. AU got RL1 in 2018. To get RL1 status you have to have a minimum of 20 Doctoral degrees of research. awarded in the previous year. Last time I checked a PHD in research takes several years. Leath gets a lot of credit for stuff that was going to happen anyways. Gouge should be one who gets credit for Leaths accomplishments.

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3 minutes ago, AlaskanFAN said:

Leath gets a lot of credit for stuff that was going to happen anyways. 

Hardly anything just "happens anyway"     He got it done......no matter that some of the planning was underway when he arrived.....and JMO but "closing the deal" is hard part.....And just at AU for 2 years.....so how much more could be expected in the slow moving bureaucracy that is college administration?   Rex had a pretty good list and if the handling of BP or GM was an issue, I be embarrassed for Auburn and the BOT. 

  I'm guessing that it was more about relationships than what he wanted to get done....or got done during his time at AU.  If he could not get along with the BOT...that's on him in my opinion....he's a big boy and AU was not his first rodeo and he should have known that getting along with the boss(es) is RULE ONE. 

As Rex suggested...any good and qualified candidate is gonna want to know where Leath failed to meet expectations.  

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Just to give credit where credit is due Auburn was honored with a Carnegie R1 designation, which placed the school among the top 100 research universities in the country. It also credited Leath with starting the Presidential Awards for Interdisciplinary Research and the Presidential Graduate Research Fellowships.  

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In the end Leath will not get enough credit for the good things he accomplished while the bad things will be remembered for years. Everybody screws up, makes poor decisions and pays for them in one way or another. Thank God my screw ups aren't known by thousands of people. Y'all wouldn't want me around either. I'm looking at this whole thing as a win for our athletics dept because I think Leath was a detractor from moving onward and upward. A leader has to know when to lead and when to get the heck out of the way. 

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On 6/24/2019 at 1:45 PM, AU64 said:

Thanks.....some folks have been promoting that view who apparently know nothing about it....maybe just looking for something negative to cast on the pile.  Gouge , like any president, had his faults...but he did a great job of creating the outstanding campus that is Auburn University today.   And if we are paying him anything …. some kind of pension or deferred income.....IMO,  it's because he earned it.  Some people might not have like Gouge because they didn't like JJ which in my view, shows a real shallow view of what a university president should do.  

As for Greene.....can't imagine why he would be at risk....apparently has done nothing to be at odds with the BOT and seems to be running a "drama-free" athletic department for the moment....unless something were to turn up with the basketball program that reflects on him.

Is it true that we have been paying Gouge’s remaining Salary each month while he enjoys his retirement?   

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On 6/23/2019 at 4:45 PM, bigbird said:

Sure wish they would wave that for legacies.

Waiving out-of-state fees for legacies was a policy for a time in the past. My two nieces were out-of-state Legacy students, and they benefitted from that policy, meaning that they ended up paying the in-state tuition rate. They graduated somewhere around 1998-2000.

By the time my son started at Auburn in 2005 (he was also an out-of-state Legacy student), that policy was no longer in place. Instead, they had Legacy Scholarships, which were competitive and only available to a few select legacy students. I do not know if that scholarship still exists. However, They did have another different policy that helped us greatly — but I do not know if this is still the situation. If an out-of-state student was awarded scholarships FROM WITHIN THE UNIVERSITY that totaled an amount at least as much as in-state tuition, then 1/3 of the total out-of-state tuition was waived. Since out-of-state was 3X in-state, then that meant that he would not pay more than the in-state rate if he earned sufficient scholarships. Combining his University scholarships, College scholarships, and Band scholarships, he received the waiver and never paid more than in-state tuition. Of course, those types of scholarships are announced on an annual basis. So there was never a guarantee of a fee waiver from year to year. He graduated in 2009 — things may be different now.

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23 hours ago, WalkingCarpet said:

Just listened to the new 247 podcast with Marcello and Phillip Marshall. They stated that Allen Greene's job coulc be at risk since the president that hired him flamed out spectacularly. That seems... asinine right? Unless I'm missing something none of this crap going on is Allen Greene's fault. Would be throwing out the baby with the bathwater.  

Let Greene be Greene!

 

#FreeAllenGreene

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On 6/24/2019 at 8:40 PM, AlaskanFAN said:

You don’t just build a medical school or performing arts center overnight. Funding for those was in the works before he ever took over. The same can be said for taking the school the R1 status. The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Learning is only released every 5 years. AU got RL1 in 2018. To get RL1 status you have to have a minimum of 20 Doctoral degrees of research. awarded in the previous year. Last time I checked a PHD in research takes several years. Leath gets a lot of credit for stuff that was going to happen anyways. Gouge should be one who gets credit for Leaths accomplishments.

 

But they all happened on his watch. They go on his resume. People at other institutions looking to fill a top admin position will see the bullet points. Just the way Auburn saw the bullet point achievements when they hired Leath from Iowa State. And when he was hired, those positive bullet points were the things highlighted in the news. You are still looking from the inside. Step back from AU and put yourself in the position of another institution.

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On 6/24/2019 at 7:02 PM, dyehardfanAU said:

Please expound.

 

Iowa -- he got embroiled in a recruiting issue. He got fired and **blackballed** from Div I basketball. Ended up at Southern Indiana. Nine Years Later, he finally got a Div I job at Wisconsin Milwaukee. They did great. He IS a great coach and I admire him as a great coach. Offered a job at Tenn. Took off. Wisconsin-Milwaukee promptly put on probation! He got out just in time! Got to UT and immediately began violating NCAA regulations, not just a BBQ for a recruit -- many similar infractions, then tried to lie and cover them up.

He admits he violated NCAA rules, knowingly, repeatedly. He admits he lied to NCAA.

I have a good friend who graduated from Auburn who is now at Virginia. I asked him who he'd be pulling for in the FF game. He said, and I quote, "If the Auburn coach wasn't such a sleazebag ......"

Fact is, outside Auburn, BP is perceived as sleaze right up there with Rick Pitino.

I love Auburn. I was thrilled when Auburn advanced in the NCAA tourney. I really hope to high h3ll that the NCAA lets CBP slide this time, because he is a truly great BB coach. But as far as *history*, that's not on his side and he has ground to make up.

./ ,

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Lol,  UWM was on probation.  Somebody should let them know that.  UWM has been banned from post season play once in 2014 for failed academic progress.  Since I have lived within an hour from Milwaukee my entire life besides while at Auburn I am unaware of such probation.  Apparently so are all the local papers when I archived searched them.

Somebody should inform Rex that universities report secondary violations every year in sports, like Gus and his staff does every year for the rules they break.  Or simply put everyone cheats because they push the limits of the rules.

Iowa never fired Bruce, he left for Southern Indiana job.  NCAA ruled on Illinois case in 1990, Bruce left in 1992.  Iowa turned the info into the NCAA not Bruce.

Dr. Davis has said that Bruce waited for the right opportunity and turned down several offers while at Southern Indiana to continue to work on his craft. First d1 offer came after his 2nd season at Southern Indiana.

when someone calls someone out for lying about things they really shouldn’t make up lies themself.

The vast majority of people in WI like Bruce, but I guess one guy in Virginia, ya know that time at band camp.

everyone always thinks the entire country hates Auburn, but in reality most everyone does not give a crap.  I call it the bama bubble syndrome.

 

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I'm hearing now that Leath was caught in a lie at a board meeting. It was decided at that time that they had made a mistake hiring him. He resigned immediately.

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1 hour ago, auburnphan said:

Lol,  UWM was on probation.  Somebody should let them know that.  UWM has been banned from post season play once in 2014 for failed academic progress.  Since I have lived within an hour from Milwaukee my entire life besides while at Auburn I am unaware of such probation.  Apparently so are all the local papers when I archived searched them.

Somebody should inform Rex that universities report secondary violations every year in sports, like Gus and his staff does every year for the rules they break.  Or simply put everyone cheats because they push the limits of the rules.

Iowa never fired Bruce, he left for Southern Indiana job.  NCAA ruled on Illinois case in 1990, Bruce left in 1992.  Iowa turned the info into the NCAA not Bruce.

Dr. Davis has said that Bruce waited for the right opportunity and turned down several offers while at Southern Indiana to continue to work on his craft. First d1 offer came after his 2nd season at Southern Indiana.

when someone calls someone out for lying about things they really shouldn’t make up lies themself.

The vast majority of people in WI like Bruce, but I guess one guy in Virginia, ya know that time at band camp.

everyone always thinks the entire country hates Auburn, but in reality most everyone does not give a crap.  I call it the bama bubble syndrome.

 

You know from my posting on the basketball forum I love Bruce right?  And I love the team.  Having said that he has been in a lot of trouble since arriving at Auburn.  We may be about to get another hammer dropped on us although we may not with our self imposed probation on Wiley and Purifoy.  It is starting to get to the point where I am starting to say, "Come on Bruce get it together."  All of these assistants getting in trouble, players getting paid, etc.  I hope we have seen the last of it though.

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1 hour ago, AURex said:

I'm hearing now that Leath was caught in a lie at a board meeting. It was decided at that time that they had made a mistake hiring him. He resigned immediately.

Oof. That explains a lot.

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2 hours ago, auburnphan said:

everyone always thinks the entire country hates Auburn, but in reality most everyone does not give a crap.  I call it the bama bubble syndrome.

bBS is a fascinating phenomenon to me.

Have some New Glarus beers for me. Like, lots of them. 

 

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1 hour ago, AURex said:

I'm hearing now that Leath was caught in a lie at a board meeting.

Wouldn't be the 1st time.

1 hour ago, AURex said:

It was decided at that time that they had made a mistake hiring him. He resigned immediately.

It was in the works for a good while, likely a good ways before that meeting.

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7 minutes ago, ellitor said:

Wouldn't be the 1st time.

It was in the works for a good while, likely a good ways before that meeting.

Perhaps the straw that broke the camel's back/the excuse the board was looking for to make a move?

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35 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

Perhaps the straw that broke the camel's back/the excuse the board was looking for to make a move?

Given the odd timing it's possible.

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