Names Named, Heads Should Roll

Not good enough.  The should be flogged on the 50 yard line.  It is obvious that the internal structure of the football team, became complacent, and had a large sense of entitlement.  Great job Brian, flushing these characters out.

incompetence is incompetence.

It is incredible that eventually, Van Horn actually had to remind Draper and Labadie why CARA exists...

"A section later it notes that "having student-athletes provide written verification of the time they spend in CARA activities protects the head coach and institution from unfounded allegations."

It seems to me this should have been communicated during an exit interview.

Brian you're always dead on, but a bit short sighted to desire immediate firings.  What do employees typically do when fired?  Hate on their firing employer do they not?  You yourself write:

"Maybe there are things yet unrevealed by 100 pages of emails. Maybe there were behind-the-scenes reasons Labadie could not put the documents together."

Wel, with a frothing, bruised Freep salivating for data to justify it's hack job, what'd be action item #1if Labadie and Draper got the shit can? An interview for each, arming said Lansing, er Columbus, er Detroit Free Press with new potentially undesirable ammunition to back Rosenturd up.  The ex-employees would very likely choose the path of vindicating themselves by deflecting the blame to others including possibly RR, who knows, doing way, way more damage.  Cutting these two inept employees loose now would possibly open a whole new can of media worms that Brandon is wisely going to skirt for the time being. 

I should feign surprise but I've worked at the U a long time.  I could cite dozens of examples where people within the U don't act in the mutual interest of the University, and refused to cooperate with colleagues even when their requests are reasonable or relate to things that are compulsory.

Of course, the examples I know about don't bring the NCAA down on your heads.

I've casually interviewed with Judy Van Horn about a career in NCAA compliance, and I was thoroughly impressed by her. Smart as a whip I tell ya. I met Ann too and she did seem like a nice sweet woman, with a lot of stuff on her desk.

So thank you to Brian for restoring my faith in the compliance department, which I thought was top of the line, and apparently still might be. And Judy, I'll still listen to any job offers you might have. Ya know. Just in case you need someone to do some yelling.

All I know is that Rachel Strassner and Judy Van Horn are instantly beatified as saints for their calm demeanor throughout this whole process. For weeks and months Rachel attempted to get brad to file the missing information, and for weeks and months Brad never attempted to respond. It would have taken me about 3 weeks to get to the point where I am sending an email with some seriously nasty undertones about what im going to do to your balls if you dont get me the info im asking for. The fact that these women managed to maintain a professional demeanor throughout is unbelievable.

I just cant believe the level of incompitence displayed by Draper and Labadie in doing the job that they where hired to do. I have never worked a job where I could get away with being this stupid, they emailed back and ofrth for 5 months with no progress whatsoever yet no one was fired or made accountable!

I had a work-study job at the Michigan School of Music throughout my undergrad (2006-2010).  My department's responsibilities included:  getting music out to two bands, bowing/copying music for two orchestras, getting music out to three choirs, as well as helping random people who stopped in to the Ensembles Library asking for parts to specific pieces.  As well as bailing out non-music-major ensembles when they needed help getting music out to their players on time.  And loaning out utility instruments (i.e. English horns, bass clarinets etc.) to people who needed them.

I can assure you that my boss would have canned my ass if I showed this level of unresponsiveness to a STUDENT, let alone the freaking COMPLIANCE DEPARTMENT.

Unbelievable. Seriously, unbelievable. I am certain that Scott Draper has many responsibilities. However, my take on this is that his head must roll. This is absurd! What kind of business would let something like that-- him ignoring repeated requests, protecting his underling, etc- which resulted in a huge, huge fiasco- go unpunished severely? That guy must have some SERIOUS pull to still have his job. You fucked up; you were the guy in charge of this/had direct responsibility; you didn't get the guy below you to DO what he was supposed to do...instead, you seemed to be protecting him; it resulted in a complete shitshow. Do the honorable thing and resign. How could you not if you were him? You're an assistant AD, and you have a lot of responsibility. You failed in a key area of that responsibility, resulting in very bad things for your organization. If this were me, I'd sink to a level of self-loathing that could only be rectified by offering my resignation and months of booze and hanging out in a dark room.

Think about it: the result was/is your University's football program's image being tarnished. If he tendered his resignation and it was not accepted by the AD, then fine. But, in all honesty, the only honorable thing to do, in my opinion, is offer your resignation if you are him.

Oh, and clearly Labadie should be fired. What these two did, and really, especially Labadie, is so egregious to me, I can't even explain it. I actually agree: firing them isn't enough. As an attorney, I'm trying to wrack my brain to think of if you could actually sue Labadie, and what for. . . I honestly believe his conduct rose above mere negligence and showed a "willful and wanton" disregard for his actual duties, etc. Yeah, I know- you can't sue him, really. There's not a claim that I can come up with, but good lord, just firing him does NOT seem like enough of a punishment. I cannot wrap my head around the level of suck that Labadie and his boss, Draper, displayed in the execution of their duties. If these guys have any pride, they have to be deeply, deeply ashamed, at the very least.

Hanlon's razor:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor

Does it apply here, or not?

Brian never ceases to amaze me with his ability to deliver more in depth reporting than all of the other major media outlets. 

me...........

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bsmileart/3050354749/

An excellent bit of research and reporting and I also appreciate the fine back and forth in the comments that is not hellfire and brimstone, but reasonable and measured.

My question is this: I've played Tropico, I thought it was a good game, but it clearly holds special meaning for you (The Age of Miracles).  Is this an unprompted declaration of affection for the game, or some secret engineering code word that I am missing out on?

I mean seriously, how does this guy even have a job. He is the sole reason we have had to deal with all this crap.

"not once did Strassner threaten to mail Labadie's pets to Albania, or shave his head in his sleep,"

Clearly, Strassner shaved Labadie's head in his sleep.

people would die and i would be convicted of felonious negligence.

These horses' asses sit around (probably looking at porn) and make excuses why they don't do their jobs and why they lied to people who DEPEND on them to do their jobs?

Wow.

may not be as blameless in this whole mess as has been suggested.  From Rodriguez's response:

"Several weeks later Barwis and assistant strength coach Dennis Murray spoke to assistant athletic director for compliance Ann Vollano about the same subject. Barwis and Murray understood Vollano to confirm that warm-up/stretch, cool-down/stretch and injury prevention do not count. On June 23 and June 25, 2009, Murray sent emails with weekly calendars of workout activities to Vollano. Rodriguez was not copied on the emails. Vollano responded to Murray with a voice message which seems to confirm that warm-up and stretching activities do not count…

"Barwis and Murray said Vollano also observed some summer workouts in 2009. Murray said he and Barwis offered to take Vollano through a workout so she would know exactly what they did and could tell them what counted and what did not count. Murray said Vollano declined to go through a workout but confirmed that the warm-up, cool-down and injury prevention components would not count. Barwis said Vollano also told the entire football staff and team at the start of the 2009 season that warm-up, stretching and cool-down do not count toward the CARA limits.

"Vollano confirmed that she spoke to Barwis and Murray about whether certain workout activities counted toward the limits, but she said she understood the strength staff was only monitoring those activities, not conducting them. In other words, Vollano said she understood the activities in question were done individually and not as a coordinated group activity. Vollano also said she never observed a summer workout. Vollano said Barwis and Murray did offer to take her through a workout, but she thought they were offering to do that for her own personal interest in physical conditioning but not to ensure they were counting activities correctly for compliance with NCAA legislation."

Is really pretty amazing stuff.

and I have a doctoral degree and teach at at Mid-Atlantic university and make a good salary. I would give all of this up in a heart beat to relocate to A2 to work for the University of Michigan in any capacity in academics or compliance. I have about ten years left in my career. Come on Dave Brandon...make my day.

This is like UFR for the real world.

This is what happened to Strassner:

http://www.wmubroncos.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=4600&ATCLID=1553927

Rachel Strassner was named the director of compliance for the Western Michigan University athletic department in June of 2008.  Prior to joining WMU, Strassner was a compliance assistant at the University of Michigan.

I agree that the two deserve to be fired, but in the current situation, it might be better to wait or do something else more quietly.  As for possible mitigating factors, name a party involved and I can think of a scenario damning to that party while making everyone else seem innocent.  In particular, the theory that Labadie and Draper were getting hit from both sides might have merit, but it's still not enough to excuse the facts we have in front of us.  After all, they hardly needed s-a input (perhaps a little from the coaches) to compile the job descriptions.  This is especially true for the first version (Exhibit 3, which, probably unfortunately, is short enough for everyone to read).  

Great job, Brian, on leafing through all of this.

From Brian's digging, it does look like things were starting to go off the rails before Rodriguez was hired. 

When was Labadie hired, and was he always in the same role?

And didn't Draper take on a new role when Rodriguez came in?  I seem to recall he transitioned from Director of Football Operations to an Associate Athletic Director for football, or something like that. 

Anybody know this stuff?

Thanks, Brian, for going through all that.

And for some reason I was really amused by the intermission pics.

Van Horn should be fired as well...failure to escalate...she owns the archiving and presentation of these forms should they ever be needed...it's not enough to send weekly/monthly emails...she should have taken this to Martin after any forms were delinquent for more than a month.  That is going to happen from now on.

In the end I think everyone including Labadie and Draper are better for this (though clearly they are overpaid).  Brandon came just in time.  As screwed up as all this is - it's a relatively easy fix from a management perspective - for a competent executive. 

Penitent employees can be loyal and vicious advocates for change if given the right leadership - so I'm not going to take him to task for keeping people on.  He set the bar low to retain your job - tell the truth.  In his position as a new AD - I think he is team building big time.   

The real work is being done by the players – returning the level of play to historic levels.  The QC and admin tasks are simple – there is a reason Draper had little respect for the job description requirement. 

This sort of paperwork can be easily automated.  It sounds like from comments Brandon has made this is in the works.  Michigan Football needs to get in the automation swing.   Playbooks, CARA forms, recruiting expenses, phone records...all this stuff should be at the fingertips of players, coaches and admins as needed.  CARA forms should gate access to any football activities when late.  That is not new - but given the IT available now - it's inexcusable not to punch this bullet. 

Ultimately this is a loss of focus on Martin's part - especially in light of the previous probation.  The important thing is that the learning is real.  I'm very pleased Brandon is giving his time to Michigan.  We are lucky.

Poor, sweet Ann G. Vallano was perhaps too reticent in cc'ing superiors (including Martin).  But she no doubt expected these infractions to be reported by the auditors when they found the empty folders in March 2008.  Brian's entry for that month notes that "the rogue November CARA forms" turned up during the audit.  But Ms. Vallano no doubt expected their initial lack to be reported, along with the lack of any reports past January 6 of 2008.

Every audit should at least take a look at current adherence to procedure in addition to a more in-depth review of prior year adherence.

She probably figured, "If it's not important to them (the audit's recipients, i.e., Martin et al), why should I break my back?  All I can do is keep asking."

Reading through this reminded me ust how dysfunctional a given workplace can be, even at professional institutions like UM with highly qualified people. at these positions.  There's always some wisenheimer in certain organizations who thinks there shit doesn't stink and considers it OK to blow off important duties and requests.

I cringed reading those e-mails. I wish I could say I have not encountered and dealt with a lot  of Scott Drapers and Brad Labadies in my  own work career. 

Sometimes people are afraid to raise holy hell.  They want to be liked and want to keep their jobs.  They don't want to throw others under the bus.  But there are times when it must be done.  There were many missed opportunities.

Lastly: How can I send Ann Vollano some flowers to cheer her up?

Reading through this reminded me ust how dysfunctional a given workplace can be, even at professional institutions like UM with highly qualified people. at these positions.  There's always some wisenheimer in certain organizations who thinks there shit doesn't stink and considers it OK to blow off important duties and requests.

I cringed reading those e-mails. I wish I could say I have not encountered and dealt with a lot  of Scott Drapers and Brad Labadies in my  own work career. 

Sometimes people are afraid to raise holy hell.  They want to be liked and want to keep their jobs.  They don't want to throw others under the bus.  But there are times when it must be done.  There were many missed opportunities.

Lastly: How can I send Ann Vollano some flowers to cheer her up?

they can live with that infamous World Series Chicago Cubs fan.  This is absolutely unacceptable.   The ramifications of their ineptitude are GFIT (Grounds For Immediate Termination).  Go Blue !!!

There is a great deal of information to make sense of with all of this and Kudos to Brian for this Blog & his highlighting of a Department rife with complacency where, seemingly, 'Roundoits' were the currency of the Realm. 

It would be interesting as well as informative if someone would be able to provide that portion of the Organizational chart for the Athletic Dept relevant to these individuals under reprimand to notice if any future restructuring is implemented to elevate Compliance as a priority resulting from this Boondoggle.

Great post Brian - and all I want to know is why Brandon is keeping these 2 guys?  This seems extremely clear that this is their fault.  I'm surprised they are still employed and this is the only time I've wanted a "local 4 undercover" piece on what Labadie has been doing?  How can you avoid doing your job for so long?  Compliance was all over this and Labadie flat out ignored them.  Seems he thinks he's too cool for school or something and should be gone....

My other question - will the newspapers actually dive this deep into this and exonerate Coach Rod in any way?....hell no

Reason 120829 I read this blog and ignore the d@mn Freep...even Angelique
 is getting on my nerves with stories the last few months... today "U-M could be seen as repeat offenders"..yeah yeah and I could lose my job because I'm on a blog...not likely..but thanks for the headline

Great CSI-Ann Arbor type reporting.

This goes to my central theme all along: instead of the thousands of posts on this site bashing the [newspaper NAME REDACTED] deservedly, we finally have one that places a proper focus on compliance and assigns responsibility accordingly.

As I said yesterday, there's a new sheriff in town, and his name is David Brandon.  He will clean this up; any CEO who had to labor under Sarbanes-Oxley and the SEC (no, NOT the conference) can do this in a few months.

My fundamental precept is: we are Michigan, we are better than this, we can follow rules and not make excuses when we don't.

And all the [newspaper NAME REDACTED] focus on not linking or not giving interviews is passive-aggressive lame-ass bullshit that befits the school with criminals in their midst, not us.

Peace out. 

Reading these responses, they overlook the central legal and factual issue faced by the NCAA:  Was there "lack of institutional control [LOIC] ?"   And the NCAA appears to have overlooked this issue, since they have not asked that the [still employed] AD Bill Martin to appear at the August hearing

So far, all we know about what Martin did or knew is some VERY vague suggestions that "I had no idea."  This posture ought to make the NCAA very curious, if they are really interested in the LOIC issue.  And they should be interested, particularly bec they apparently will slot UM into the "repeat offender" status, which ITSELF is evidence of LOIC.   And a determination as to whether there was LOIC necessarily involves looking at process AND oversight, with questions to the the Top Dog [Martin] like: 

1. Is Compliance a top priority for you?

2. Show us your monthly calendar, to demonstrate that [ie, meetings with top Compliance Officers, to review any pending issues; what and when are periodic summaries required to flow to you; what kind of spot-random audits are done?; review of docs, etc etc.]

3. Did you see any of this long train of emails from your Compliance people to AD staff, when they were sent?  If not, why not?  If you didn't, let's look at them all now, we'll go through each one, because we want to ask YOU if these are evidence of LOIC?

4.  Shouldn't there by a Compliance "release valve" person, in the office of the President [MSC] to allow people like Van Horn, etc to report when some Compliance issue becomes chronic, then acute?

My Point:  UM has shuffled B. Martin out the back door, in the dark of night, because its lawyers know that his oversight is EXCELLENT evidence of LOIC.

Finally, I think many of the posts above miss the point, because they all focus on what we have learned (in the past 15 years) to love: the "email trail."  But don't forget, these people work together. They run into each other (or, in some cases, probably, avoid each other.)  Martin meets with Labadie and Draper.  RR meets with Labadie and Draper.   Put the whole context together, and it's like the old AG John Mitchell (I think) line:   "Hey, don't kid a kidder" -- these guys Labadie and Draper aren't just lazy; they are DOING WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO, WHICH IS BURY IT.