Bev Plocki Speaks Out on Rhonda Faehn
Bev Plocki was on WTKA with Sam this morning, speaking out on the Rhonda Faehn situation for the first time. Some highlights:
- She was, I thought, contrite and admitted that in hindsight, hiring Faehn was a mistake. Plocki said she was only thinking about the reaction within her own team, and didn't think of how the larger university community would be impacted and would react.
- When she first had the idea of hiring Faehn, she went first to a Nassar survivor on her team and asked what she thought about it. The survivor was totally on board. Then she went to the team and asked if anyone objected. Nobody did. She said that if they wanted to message her privately to object, they could. Nobody did. The whole team was on board and excited about this.
- She then went to Warde and said she wanted to hire Faehn. Warde said no. He then had an opportunity to meet with the captains and get the team's feeling on the situation, and decided to OK the hire.
I might have missed a few things, but that was the gist of it. Plocki was genuinely apologetic that she put the university in this situation, and admitted she didn't think it through.
January 17th, 2019 at 10:54 AM ^
Good points. In addition, since this was such an unusual situation, informing Faehn (pre-hire) that Michigan would also reach out to other nationally prominent Nassar survivors to discuss might have been reasonable. Not a good policy in general, but prob appropriate in this situation.
January 17th, 2019 at 9:59 AM ^
Someone makes a mistake, someone realizes mistake, someone fixes said mistake, someone apologizes for that mistake and offers some insight into how it happened.
Moving on.
Or...we could parse through the minutae of every aspect of the event and debate it as nauseum with everybody giving their own opinion and pointing fingers.
Nah...let just move on.
Basketball team is doing quite well.
January 17th, 2019 at 10:05 AM ^
What?!? Don't let this dissuade you if you thought that everyone involved in this decision was totally incompetent and a complete moron, despite their past successes. Instant social media convictions are just and fair...burn them at the stake!!
I shouldn't have to add this, but will.../s
January 17th, 2019 at 10:07 AM ^
People sure do like to form an opinion without knowing the whole story.
January 17th, 2019 at 10:22 AM ^
I feel bad for Faehn because - from everything I've read and gathered - she seemed to be worthy of this chance and this could have been introduced in such a way that she could join the staff just fine.
The error here seems to be entirely on Warde. He needed to be out in front of us this one, introduce it to the Michigan public and say why they wanted to do this, why it was ok, why they believe in Rhonda Faehn's character, etc. Instead they didn't announce it and tried to hide it which is bizarre. Totally bungled by the Michigan AD. They need to take a look into their PR department / protocol and figure out how the heck they screwed that up so bad
January 17th, 2019 at 11:05 AM ^
He already got his grade yesterday. The group concluded without said investigators to Fire and say $&;))&/$;) WARDE, and his whole entire family. It’s a great to be .... “ “ wolverine.
January 17th, 2019 at 11:16 AM ^
Brian had some words about this situation on his most recent podcast and I pretty much agree with what he said...worth a listen if you haven't heard it. I know I didn't have all the facts and Brian's overview was helpful.
January 17th, 2019 at 11:22 AM ^
How long before Ohio State's football team hires Faehn? That's sort of their thing right?
January 17th, 2019 at 11:28 AM ^
It’s too bad that the safe spacers at UM had to deny employment to someone bc their feelings were hurt. We don’t live in a bubble.
January 17th, 2019 at 11:51 AM ^
This is a bad take
January 17th, 2019 at 12:05 PM ^
Isn't the real issue boil down to it not being insubordination, to go directly to authorities in addition to notifying your superior? She was just hired, and that is uncomfortable, when she reports it to her new boss, and surely he assuaged it somehow. I think she got hosed because was naive and she walked into a horrible situation, and not easy to be subordinate when just hired.... but that is life, and it isn't fair oftentimes...
January 17th, 2019 at 12:05 PM ^
January 17th, 2019 at 7:27 PM ^
Nassar was gone from USAG a bit over two months from the day Faehn learned he might be a problem. People who expect large organizations to move faster than that have unrealistic expectations. I'd have felt better of Faehn could document that she'd recommended that Nassar be suspended during the investigation, but I don't know that he wasn't or she didn't.
The Michigan press release pretty much says just what you wanted it to say regarding her hiring, as far as I can tell.
I agree that, given that one of the victims was publicly slagging her (while admitting to not knowing any details) it was impossible to keep Faehn, but I don't blame Warde Manuel for thinking that, if the victims he talked to were excited to have her come to Michigan, that was likely going to be the general reaction from other victims.
January 17th, 2019 at 12:05 PM ^
January 17th, 2019 at 1:28 PM ^
Clearly Warde knew about potential fallout b/c he said "no" in the first place. What's baffling is that, after talking to only the Michigan coaches and players, he was cool with it. He failed to have a plan in place to deal with the fallout that he knew would happen.
This is clearly not a fire-able offense, but better strategic anticipatory plans going forward I would like to see.
January 17th, 2019 at 2:24 PM ^
Has anyone listened to the podcast and confirmed Bev really said Warde said no initially? I thought she said he was against it when he first heard but wanted to talk to the team before deciding, which is different than said no but accidentally ran into captains who changed his mind as the OP relayed it.
January 17th, 2019 at 3:51 PM ^
What's baffling is that, after talking to only the Michigan coaches and players, he was cool with it.
I actually think that's a decent leadership trait. Warde said no. His directs:
- Weren't afraid of have a differing opinion (no toxic culture in his office)
- Felt comfortable enough to question a superior's decision
- Warde listens to subordinates even if the message is difficult
January 17th, 2019 at 3:30 PM ^
Why isn't Warde speaking on this?
It's 100% his fuckup the way this was handled.
Warde's responses:
1. Try to hide behind weak PR statement
2. Try to hide behind the gymnast's skirts
3. Try to hide behind Plocki's skirt
Warde fucked this up by not holding a press conference, and he's fucking up again not standing up and taking the heat for this. He should be answering for this, not Plocki.
January 17th, 2019 at 4:32 PM ^
Nice to see that casual misogyny can find it's way into a post that is related to sexual assault victims.
January 17th, 2019 at 4:55 PM ^
Feel free to recharacterize Warde's conduct in this manner in any way you wish, but it was shameful.
January 17th, 2019 at 7:28 PM ^
Haters are hateful. Film at eleven.
January 17th, 2019 at 4:30 PM ^
Good stuff. Again, I think everyone had good intentions here, but it was never going to be a good match externally and, frankly, it wasn't worth all the fallout.
January 17th, 2019 at 9:58 PM ^
So we still going to keep blaming Manuel for this?
Are we still going to act like mentioning the student-athletes was a "cop out?"
She went to a Nassar SURVIVOR! Fuck each and every one of your opinions on this - especially mine.
3/4 of this board was ready to fire Warde and everyone involved for saying they consulted the student-athletes...now whuddakow. Not only did they consult them, they FIRST consulted a survivor, which makes ALL of our opinions (unless any of you are a survivor) irrelevant on this one.
You saying it was a cop out is saying that the survivor's voice did not matter. Even worse...you all were saying that the survivor was being scapegoated off the decision. Shame.