Big news: Schlissel has been removed as president.

Submitted by Cousin Larry on January 15th, 2022 at 6:38 PM

Turns out, he’s a bit pervy.

On Dec. 8, 2021, via an anonymous complaint, we learned that Dr. Schlissel may have been involved in an inappropriate relationship with a University employee. After an investigation, we learned that Dr. Schlissel, over a period of years, used his University email account to communicate with that subordinate in a manner inconsistent with the dignity and reputation of the University.

 

DairyQueen

January 15th, 2022 at 7:21 PM ^

Lol, I mean with Coleman herself it's also not entirely clear why she left (her announcement wasn't fast but it was unexpected).

It doesn't even matter that there were obviously some pretty bad coverups during her time (there were), she slammed her foot on the corporatization pedal, accenture, admin salary explosion (NON-public compensation reports lmao...NON-public lmao), decreased student diversity (peak was mid-90s where UM earned its reputation), ~50% in-state tuition increase during her time, union-busting, etc. I could go on.

But she did the one thing that counts, she brokered the university to bring in a metric shit ton of money to the endowment, almost TRIPLING it, and when you bring in the money (Schlissel did as well), you'll only be let go once something comes out that can't be sqaushed.

Joined: 04/20/2014

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BTB grad

January 15th, 2022 at 8:23 PM ^

She was also the one who was a huge Dave Brandon fan and got him the job of AD even though he was the least qualified (only qualification being the person who made Dominos take a turn for the worst both in pizza quality and financial health) vs. the other 3 candidates who were U-M alumni with actual AD experience at other FBS schools (Warde Manuel included). And then let him operate with zero oversight until Schlissel came in and was forced to do something after the Shane Morris debacle, “stop drinking and go to bed” emails, the protest at the President’s house, and the shitty 2014 season.

Joined: 12/01/2015

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energyblue1

January 15th, 2022 at 9:05 PM ^

Unpopular opinion but Dave Brandon was a solid AD till he got himself over involved in everything.  Dave Brandon did a lot of great things for the athletic department, esp fund raising.  In some ways he was great about getting things done and past the university red tape as a former regrant knew the process well.  Then again, got to involved about firing Borges to hire Nussmeier was dumb, holding weekly meetings with Brady Hoke about the game plan and play calling was overboard.  He went overboard trying to schedule Alabama when clearly the program wasn’t ready for that yet.  He was trying to get a better schedule but it wasn’t the 80’s or 90’s anymore, Bama and Nd in the same season isn’t fair to a head coach at all.  

Dave Brandon wanted to be the face of the athletic department and football program and that became a problem.  He injected himself into every part of everything.  Yeah, in hindsight he wasn’t a good athletic director but at the same time he did do some great things at the time getting stadium finished, glick and more funding to complete athletic facilities renovations.  He overscheduled and he did other things that were horrible for football.  The fast food ticket thing was just embarrassing and by that point it was obvious he had to go, not just take a background job, he was legit being a db and had to go.  

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BTB grad

January 15th, 2022 at 9:15 PM ^

Go read Endzone. Any fundraising or surplus he made was far outpaced by ridiculous spending like requesting flights up to Traverse City to speak at an alumni event instead of driving like every other AD before him and then declining his free hotel provided to him by the U-M TC alumni club and requesting an extra luxurious one. Or instead of taking taxis in NYC or Chicago like every AD before him, he needed a black car that continued to charge and waited for him while he was up in multiple hour meetings. Or spending millions on stadiums that are still mostly empty and never were needed (field hockey, lacrosse, tennis, etc). The football stadium was Bill Martin’s baby and he stayed until they were done. Only thing Brandon did was add an absolutely useless and hideous $2M marquee on Stadium Blvd. He tried charging a U-M engineering club a $100K+ bill for “additional fees” for a hackathon and the engineering school felt so bad about how their shitty AD was treating them that they footed the bill and bailed out the student club. Or he fired experienced loyal workers for incompetent flashy hires that were paid 3X. The AD was in worse financial health when he left it than when he took over. You can bring in more money, but if you increase your spending on stupid shit by more than that, it doesn’t matter. Finally, he broke the soul and feel of Michigan. Michigan isn’t a company and treating it like solely like one but what made Michigan special in danger. Don Canham was the ultimate capitalist and businessman but even he knew when and where to squeeze profit and what to leave alone.

Dominos was also in worse shape when he left it than when he took over. It was saved when he left when they went with a completely new recipe and then their quality, sales, and financial health took a dramatic turn for the best in what’s an all time business school case study. Michigan did very similarly after he left and hired the guy he refused to court or even interview in 2011. He took Toys R Us to bankruptcy after the Michigan failure. He’s an awful incompetent business leader. Fuck Dave Brandon. He was a POS. 

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clarkiefromcanada

January 15th, 2022 at 10:35 PM ^

Agree with all this except the non-revenue sport facilities which needed improvement and benefit those scholarship athletes/fans significantly. Having attended many events at these venues it makes the fan experience a lot better (particularly field hockey which also draws pretty well FWIW). 

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Vote_Crisler_1937

January 16th, 2022 at 10:21 AM ^

Brandon actually went hard after Harbaugh. I’m a 3rd hand source here but my source is a connection to Hackett and Harbaugh family. 
 

apparently Brandon had made great headway with Harbaugh until Jack connected Jim with a high up Dominos employee. Harbaugh asked what it was like to work for Brandon. Per my source, Harbaugh began backtracking after that interaction and went to the Niners instead. 
 

I otherwise agree with everything in your post and this is an equally bad or worse look for Brandon than to just say he didn’t pursue Harbaugh. 

Joined: 11/07/2011

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Wolverheel

January 15th, 2022 at 8:59 PM ^

At UNC we liked our chancellor Carol Folt ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

She went to USC after I was there though. I feel like the vast majority of students at most colleges don’t particularly care about the position. At least in my experience, it would take some pretty big incompetence to get a student body to actively dislike them. From what I’ve read and seen, Schlissel seems to have accomplished that. So this is a pretty appropriate bow on his tenure.

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