Daily: Shlissel clarifies his Monday comments

Submitted by michgoblue on

On Monday, Pres. Schlissel made some comments that caused many of us to worry that he was trying to turn Michigan into a "mini-Ivy" by de-emphasizing sporting success.

Looks like the Schlis received a number of emails from concerned alum and fans, and quickly realized that he needed to issue some further statements to calm the masses. He did so via a Tuesday evening call to the Daily.

http://www.michigandaily.com//sports/mark-schlissel-speaks-brady-hoke-d…

To me, this is a good development. You can't fault Schlis for being unfamiliar with high stakes college athletics, given his background. The guy is a pure academic. But, it seems that he is willing to listen to the various Michigan constituents and be guided by those more familiar with the sporting side of things. That Schlis was willing to issue a clarification on his own regarding sports issues shows that while he may personally not be as interested in the athletic programs, he appreciates their importance to our university.

Once again, the Schlis continues to impress on this front. Say what you want about him, this guy handles himself about as well as any public figure I have seen.

MOD EDIT - here's the Record's take from umbig11's thread - LINK. We'll just have the one thread with both sources. - LSA

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MikeCohodes

November 12th, 2014 at 9:14 AM ^

considering that the OP here took the time to actually write a summary and some discussion points, as opposed to just linking to the link with no commentary whatsoever, maybe it took him long enough that in the time that he did that the other post went up? Kudos to the OP for actually writing a solid topic for the board, but yeah, you're unfortunately about 15 min too late.

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bluecrush

November 12th, 2014 at 10:17 AM ^

Did you actually read the entire post or stop after he wrote Schils?  He gave him the benefit of dought  "You can't fault Schlis for being unfamiliar with high stakes college athletics, given his background."  also "it seems that he is willing to listen to the various Michigan constituents and be guided by those more familiar with the sporting side of things." Then "it seems that he is willing to listen to the various Michigan constituents and be guided by those more familiar with the sporting side of things"  It looks to me like the OP is showing a lot of respect for Pres. Schlissel.

As for as using Schils instead of his sir name or his title then name, does not in its self show disrespect.  People do it all the time.  Were people showing disrespect for Doug Nussmeier when calling him Nuss. and not Coach Nussmeier.  Do people disrespect  President Abraham Lincoln  by calling him Abe Lincoln?

With in the context I see no disrespect.

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cbs650

November 12th, 2014 at 9:23 AM ^

I dont think this look good at all for him. As a academic, this "clarification" comes across as him cowering to the athletic side. This is something he's talked about not wanting to do. Plus he should have studied up more on the graduation Rate of Hoke before speaking on it.

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bluebyyou

November 12th, 2014 at 10:15 AM ^

I find it a good management style to not wait and let rumors run wild.  Schlissel cleared things up. I find his responsiveness refreshing and hope it continues.

Give the guy a little slack....he is an academic now heaing a university where sports are a huge deal.  He walked into a s**t storm with an AD that needed to go and an iconic football program falling flat on its face.  

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Njia

November 12th, 2014 at 9:46 PM ^

But to a fan base now accustomed to parsing each and every word of every University administrator, coach, player, former player, former coach, pundit, media personality, former AD's wife, and random guy, rumors would start on the basis of what Schlissel ate for breakfast.

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DarkWolverine

November 12th, 2014 at 10:23 AM ^

Clarify or Remove Foot From Mouth?
He should not say anything while all these issues percolate. To spin this as a positive suggests you have a future in politics. Despite multiple emails, the new president has not answered or even acknowledged the feedback from this alum. He has spoken with Hoke in person just once, so throwing the program under the bus is disgraceful. Everyone wants the new guy to succeed but let's not give him a free pass on these comments.


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991GT3

November 12th, 2014 at 11:24 AM ^

This all new to him. At Brown he would be questioned about ther next poetry professor and probably didn't give athletics a second thought.

I am sure when he was vetted for the Michigan job the importance of the athletic department was stressed by the Board of Regents. As I wrote before, he doesn't want to oversee the demise of the most winning football program in collegiate athletics.

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bronxblue

November 12th, 2014 at 2:03 PM ^

Based on my time working in academic capacities, I doubt these emails even scratched the surface of "petty bullshit" he received on a given day.  People care about the dumbest shit, and how the University interacts with its multi-million dollar athletics department is light years more relevant than, say, emails about how Michigan is going to handle landscaping design or if Michigan will be allowing staff to celebrate national dress-like-a-pirate day (actual things I know the president at another University I worked at had to deal with).

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