Email to Schlissel

Submitted by michgoblue on

Below is the email that I sent to Schlissel.  I urge everyone on this board to send a similar (if shorter) email to him at [email protected].  The national media coverage of this incident is starting to die down, and my fear is that Brandon will successfully ride out this storm.  We need to put as much pressure on the University to remove Brandon as possible.  Diag sit-ins are a good start, but many of us do not live in AA, so please contact Schlissel and the Regents to let them know how you feel.

 

President Schlissel,

First let me start out by introducing myself.  I am a proud graduate of the University of Michigan (1998 LSA).  Since graduation, I have remained connected to the University, primarily – but certainly not exclusively - through my passion for the school’s athletic teams.  During good times and bad, I have made my annual pilgrimage to Ann Arbor to take in a football game, enjoy campus, re-stock on Michigan branded paraphernalia and reconnect with all of the things that make Michigan truly different from any other university.  In recent years, I have enjoyed bringing my wife (who did not attend Michigan, but considers herself an honorary Wolverine, knows every word of the Victors, and loves Michigan as much as her own alma mater) and my two sons (both of whom want nothing more than to one day attend Michigan).  Simply said, I feel that my love, devotion and pride are second to none when it comes to all things Michigan.

Which brings me to the point of my email.  I am personally appalled at the manner in which the athletic department has conducted itself over the past few years, culminating in this weekend’s debacle involving a concussed football player and the national spectacle that has ensued.  Admittedly, the fact that Michigan football has had one good season (2011) since Coach Carr stepped down following the 2007 football season  contributes to my sense of dissatisfaction, however, the win / loss record of our football program is certainly not the reason for this email.  When we watched the Michigan coaching staff allow a player who was, at a minimum, potentially concussed, to remain in the football game and risk potentially fatal injury, my wife and I, watching from our living room, were horrified.  We, along with the game’s television commentators, were literally screaming for Coach Hoke to do something, anything, to get that kid out of the game.  When he did not – and, in fact, when he re-inserted that same players a few minutes later – for the first time in my entire life, I was embarrassed by the University of Michigan.  So embarrassed, in fact, that my wife and I decided not to allow our kids (who were planning to watch the game with us the next morning on DVR) to watch.  So embarrassed, in fact, that for the first Sunday following a Michigan football game, nobody in my family wore Michigan attire.

Watching the events of that game transpire, I believed that Michigan had sunk to its lowest possible point.  Sadly, I was wrong.  The events that transpired during the game, while horrible, can be somewhat explained by a coach’s incompetence and inability to handle / manage his team.  A fireable offense, certainly, but not necessarily malice that reflect upon the University as a whole, if dealt with properly and swiftly.  Regrettably, however, rather than act swiftly, the University sunk to a new low in the days that followed.  Coach Hoke’s statement at his Monday press conference – in which he claims to have not spoken to Mr. Brandon, are either an outright lie or, if true, emblematic of the lack of competence and dysfunction that has infected the entire department.  Even more, Coach Hoke’s claim that he did not know that his player had, in fact, suffered a concussion is, again, either an outright lie, or another example of a coach who is completely unable to handle all aspects of being the CEO of a major college football program.  Moreover, even if we take Coach Hoke at his word that he was unaware of the potential concussion (which has since been confirmed as an actual concussion) and believe that Morris staggered because of an ankle injury, it was absurd for Coach Hoke to leave Morris in the football game when it was obvious to all – including the announcers who noted, two players before the concussion-causing hit – that leaving an obviously-injured Morris in the game risked further injury to Morris.

Finally, and perhaps more appalling, Mr. Brandon’s statement on the incident – released conveniently at 1:00 a.m. Tuesday – demonstrates that he and his department are not only tone deaf, but attempting to sweep this incident under the rug.  Citing to protocols that were not followed, claiming that none of the coaches or doctors on the sideline recognized that Morris might have suffered a concussion (despite 100,000 in attendance, the announcers and millions of viewers recognizing the same) and talking about potential changes going forward is nothing more than an attempt to distract from the real issue here.  Coach Hoke and his staff either intentionally allowed a concussed player to risk his life and future by remaining in a football game (and, in fact, reinserted that players a few minutes later rather than call a time out), or they were so incompetent as to not realize that said player was either potentially concussed or too injured to remain in the game.  That Coach Hoke remains in charge of the football team for another day is an embarrassment to this great University.  That Mr. Brandon, who’s department has so alienated fans over the past few years that attendance is rapidly plunging and that fans are increasingly becoming disaffected, only exacerbates the problem.

It is my hope that you and the Board of Regents will recognize the damage that this incident has caused our team and University and take swift and decisive action by removing Mr. Brandon, removing Mr. Hoke and finding suitable replacements.

Thank you for taking the time to read this lengthy email.  If you would like to contact me, please feel free to do so at the number provided below.

Sincerely, and Go Blue,

 

LJ

September 30th, 2014 at 11:45 AM ^

I guarantee you he does give a rat's ass about what's going on, because he's smart enough to realize the football team is, in many ways, the public face of the University, and important to the University's academic mission.

What he probably doesn't give a rat's ass about, however, is one tl;dr letter from one fan.  Though a letter can't hurt, the national outrage is already pretty clear.

sFX

September 30th, 2014 at 11:59 AM ^

You'd be surprised at the power one email can have, even if it's TL;DR to you. Someone probably screens the emails and send to Schlissel, but still they have an impact.

A famous CEO that does this is Jeff Bezos. He's known for reading emails from customers and making action happen quick to fix things.

Don't forget, people in charge today grew up pre-internet, so reading letter style emails is what a lof ot them are comfortable with. As opposed to txt msging "OMG FIRE BRANDUMB #THANKSDB"

mjv

September 30th, 2014 at 12:51 PM ^

sFX is right. 

He isn't going to read every email, but the ones that are reasonably well composed are going to read by an underling of his.  Said underling will have a pile of all of the email/letters that effectively say the same thing, and Schlissel will probably be given the one or two that best represent the sentiment of the pile of emails/letters.

redsoxaa

September 30th, 2014 at 11:43 AM ^

Dear President Schlissel,

 
I have been a Michigan fan my entire life even though I grew up in Georgia.  No one in my family had any connection to UM, but I fell in love with the Michigan teams I grew up watching.  When I finished college I was ecstatic to receive a position here at the UM medical center in the Neurology department.  I've spent the last 4 years studying the effects of neurological disorders.  What Dave Brandon tried to accomplish yesterday is appalling.  A man who is supposed to be the head of Michigan athletics had a chance to come out and admit all the shortcomings in the Shane Morris incident.  Instead he spent the entire day trying to convince the respected physicians who work with Michigan athletics that they should lie about a student athletes' medical condition.  That anyone would do such a thing is disgusting, but there are no words for when that person is being paid millions of dollars to represent Michigan.  I call on you to please have the courage to break ties with the cancer that is Dave Brandon, so that one day we can all be proud of our University again.
 
Thank you,

pearlw

September 30th, 2014 at 11:52 AM ^

Since Schlissel has been there, he has heard complaints about 1) the increased commercialism of the athletic department and 2) putting student-athletes health in jeopardy.

Just be prepared but i cant think that his first thought will be that we now need to throw 8mm/yr at a big name coach to come in.

ish

September 30th, 2014 at 11:57 AM ^

i just sent a short and sweet email.  they're not going to read long ones.  put your name, year of graduation and school you graduated from (e.g., LSA, engin, etc.) and then in the subject line write FIRE DAVE BRANDON. 

Mittelstadt

September 30th, 2014 at 12:01 PM ^

Sent yesterday at 2pm eastern:

Hello Liz,

I called earlier to make sure that President Schlissel is on top of this concussion awareness issue with Brady Hoke.

After viewing Brady Hoke's press conference today it's clear that he either doesn't know concussion protocol or he is okay with ignoring it.

Neither is acceptable.  I would not let my 15 year old play for a youth sport coach who doesn't know the protocol and this is the last straw for me with Brady Hoke.

The sports editors of the Michigan Daily have it right.  Brady Hoke needs to be removed immediately before the kids suffer any more and the perception of our great university suffers any more.

I feel especially bad for the current students on the team and others.  This is not the Michigan way.  I'm very embarrassed.

Respectfully submitted,

-Matt

PS. 

My oldest plays hockey and I went through the USA Hockey concussion training - Here's a link if it's helpful to you and your staff.

http://www.usahockey.com/safety-concussion

 

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

September 30th, 2014 at 12:04 PM ^

Ai yi yi.  The effort is appreciated but this goes to show the wisdom of Mark Twain in writing, "I apologize for sending you such a long letter but I didn't have time to write a shorter one."

Honestly, if I were Schliss reading this email, I'd skim for two seconds and go "ok, wants Brandon fired", hit delete and move on.

APGOBLUE

September 30th, 2014 at 12:13 PM ^

I think Brandon has to go, but i think were missing the mark here, i could care less AS LONG AS HOKE GOES, hes a nice guy and all but Hoke is the problem he cannot develop talent, and last time i looked david brandon does not coach the team.....FIRE HOKE this is who the subject should be about. oohrah

APGOBLUE

September 30th, 2014 at 12:13 PM ^

I think Brandon has to go, but i think were missing the mark here, i could care less AS LONG AS HOKE GOES, hes a nice guy and all but Hoke is the problem he cannot develop talent, and last time i looked david brandon does not coach the team.....FIRE HOKE this is who the subject should be about. oohrah

True Blue Grit

September 30th, 2014 at 12:32 PM ^

to each of the Regents individually listing out all the crap Brandon has done that justify his firing.  It was kind of long like this.  But heck, even if one Regent reads it, it will be worthwhile.  It also just adds more to the overall heap of discontent that the Regents are now aware of. 

2427_Couzens

September 30th, 2014 at 1:18 PM ^

This may be a good alternative way to go.  We know from the fireworks debacle that some of the Regents are getting fed up with Dave Brandon.  Although Schlissel has to know how big of an issue this is by now, he is new and is likely leaning a bit on the Regents for counsel.  And I'm very sure some of those Regents will be more than willing to express their views.

mGrowOld

September 30th, 2014 at 12:36 PM ^

That's a fantastic letter OP.  Well written and you can tell it was written from the heart.  Whether he reads it or not is not under your control obviously but I think you did a great job articulating what you and thousands of us are feeling right now.

Asgardian

September 30th, 2014 at 2:35 PM ^

Mr. Schlissel,

I am a proud alumnus (Redacted), but I am highly embarrassed by the conduct of our athletic director, Dave Brandon.  His recent handling of the Shane Morris incident is deplorable.  He allowed Coach Hoke to hold a press conference on Monday afternoon (2 days after the game), while either willfully withholding information about the events that occurred on Sunday from him, or encouraging him to provide false statements to the press. Anonymous sources within the University medical department have reported that the Athletic Department PRESSURED THEM TO LIE about the medical status of Shane Morris following the game.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. Mr. Brandon has persisted in atrocious decision-making that has embarrassed the University over the course of his tenure, and he has consistently hidden behind “corporate” boiler-plate excuses when those poor decisions blow up in his face.

-      He banned John Bacon, a Michigan professor and one of the most professional, authoritative sources on Michigan football history, from the press box during football games.

-      Last year the athletic department paid for a plane to skywrite “GO BLUE” over Spartan Stadium. I don’t need to spell out for you in further detail what a sophomoric act this was.Estimates of the cost (which were never released) were on the order of $3000, a terrific waste. The statement in response, "There were no locations targeted." – Dave Ablauf (spokesman for AD), is in stark contrast to the stated target of East Lansing by the pilot who did the skywriting.

-      He scheduled Appalachian St., to the horror of our fans, so that the national media could have a good laugh remembering our upset from 2007 under the guise of “no such thing as bad publicity”.

MORE IMPORTANTLY:

-      He instituted a ridiculous General Admission policy to the student section that prevented students from sitting with their friends during games.  The plan was poorly implemented, universally panned, and reversed the following season.

-      Following that fiasco, he increased the price of student tickets by ~25% and claimed “we are not profit motivated” and “we don’t plan to reduce the student section”, but “want to give the students an incentive to show up”.

-      Student ticket sales dropped from over 20,000 to less than 15,000.  Mr. Brandon has insisted that the drop in attendance is driven by cell phone coverage and competition from HDTV, contrary to tangible survey evidence from students that the price increase and inability to sit with friends were the primary factors.

-      The sections that were formerly students have been persistently EMPTY at games this season, despite attempting to resell them on the open market.

-      He dramatically increased the price of tickets to non-students, and now thousands of tickets remain available for sale in the week leading up to the game.  We are reduced to selling “fan packs” that include a coke, hotdog, and t-shirt.  Numerous other giveaways have been employed to fill seats this year, the most embarrassing being the “buy 2 cokes” incident, which Mr. Brandon blamed on a miscommunication.

-      There sure seem to be an awful lot of miscommunications going on in our Athletic Department! 

-      Where does the money go? Well the Athletic department had a $9M surplus this year.

-      Millions of dollars are being spent to promote the growth of non-revenue sports, such as making women’s lacrosse a varsity sport and a new field hockey facility.

-      Administrator salaries are up over 50%.

-      Yet, he refused to pay the $400K to allow the Marching Band to travel to the Alabama game in Dallas.

-      “Just because you can charge them more, doesn’t mean you should,” – Former U-M AD, Bill Martin

-      “You don’t have to do marketing at Michigan. We have the fans. We have the support. We have a great reputation... You just need to make it as affordable as possible for your fans.”– Bill Martin

-      Former U-M president James Duderstadt, referred to the situation as “a House of Cards”.

HOW DO WE FEEL?

-      The students at games are chanting “Fire Brandon”

-      A rally is scheduled on the Diag for tonight (9/30) to encourage you to Fire Dave Brandon

-      As of this writing, more than 6,000 students/alumni/faculty have signed a petition to request that you Fire Dave Brandon

o   https://csg.umich.edu/upetition/p/fire-brandon/

 

I trust that you will make the right decision to find someone that can adequately represent our tremendous University.  It is shameful that the sterling reputation of so many incredible non-athletic endeavors has been allowed to be muddied by this ham-handed Athletic Department’s mismanagement.

 

Respectfully,

(Redacted)