Andrea Wickerham named Assistant AD.
- Thread starter PennStateNate
- Start date
OK, we have a lesbian AD, now an assistant AD who would also appear to be of a different persuasion, which is all fine.
All of this begs the question: What? There were no other straight male or female candidates?
Oh please. Smoke screen got people blinded!
I've personally seen this before in the workplace.
10 - 1 they were once partners at once point in time.
All of this begs the question: What? There were no other straight male or female candidates?
Oh please. Smoke screen got people blinded!
I've personally seen this before in the workplace.
10 - 1 they were once partners at once point in time.
So, if Curley had hired a straight woman as an Assistant AD, would you have bet 10-1 they were married in the past? Seriously?
Or has she been penciled in for "a" position since sandy was hired? Just waited for the right time.
The epidemic for sexual equality starts and ends with in some religious communities. There's been a lot of promoting "women's" rights and what not since sandy was brought on. This new hire, if you look into her background, is on just about every "women in sports" organizational board there is.
Penn State has had some of the best, if not THE best support in the country for the women's sports teams.
Again, my concern is that instead of just running the A.D. like a normal, equal person should, were being subject to this finger waving about awareness like there has been some sort of divide in the Penn State community. There hasn't been any divide, or discrimination regarding women or gays at Penn State. That said, why is there a need to push what clearly looks like a self serving agenda?
Assistant AD in charge of the changeover of incandescent to led lightbulbs. Can't wait to see the qualifications for assisstant AD for urinal upgrades at beaver stadium.
Just playin devils advocate is all.
But they HAD to have known one another prior. Only they know how??
No,..and you know it. That is NOT part of the original premise.
Do you want to talk about the gay penguins story now??
Please document this agenda with which you're so concerned. I haven't seen any evidence of it, other than the "You Can Play" video that Penn State and a lot of other schools produced about a year ago. It's clear that about half the posters on this thread have no sense of embarrassment.
Go look at her Twitter. She only responds to women, she consistently promotes women's stuff... I'm not saying it's bad but merely pointing out a pattern. The Michigan fan she gave into on Twitter regarding the 409 on the hockey helmets was another woman who's Twitter was nothing but promoting women's equality stuff. I would link her profile for you but it was deleted after that debacle so you could see for yourself.
The point is for a group of people who demand equality, it seems as though their promoting is one sided.
Why are we to be subjected to dealing with a "problem" where there wasn't one to begin with.
She should be working on A.D. Stuff instead of hiring people to do her jobs while she's out tweeting about purses, shoes and women in sports stuff.
When she has free time And is on Twitter killing time, she should be promoting the tradition and educational opportunities PSU has to offer.
But why is there a need to promote this "we can play" stuff. We know they can play and nobody cares what you do behind closed doors. If Hackenburg announced tomorrow that he would be going the route of Bruce Jenner, my opinion would be "ok. Now go win the Heisman."
It is insane the amount of love Barbour gets in the state college media, solely for being a woman and/or lesbian. Every woman loves and admires her for no reason other than being a woman in a "man's" job. Nobody knows about how poorly she did at Cal. It's never reported on. Nobody knows there was zero demand by anyone to hire her, and then psu swoops in and pays her 3 times the amount she would have come here for.
Folks, for the three cents it's worth, I think we should limit the discussion to the jobs, their necessity, and the ability of the person hired to do it. Plenty to discuss there without being sidetracked on other agendas, real or imagined.
GLOV, just to calm you down a bit here. I read that Amanda Knox was going to grad school at Notre Dame.
Fair enough. But in order to get to whether or not the person hired is qualified to do the job, you have to look at how that person was hired.
Our A.D. is a world class program. Why are we hiring people off of the streets who are not employed, or not in demand when we should be employing up and coming personnel from smaller institutions or having people make lateral moves from institutions that are on par with Penn State?
It just looks shady and sorry for getting sidetracked but the connection for this hire seems to be glaring. Before diving into this woman's qualifications I think it's important to dissect the process in which she was hired.
But from the outside looking in, she seems to have some decent qualifications based on what little info about her that is available. The most recent stuff is she was fired from her last position after being a whistle blower.
Hey, what do you know, another thread with outrage over filling a position that already existed albeit with a slightly different title.
Erikka Runkle held the title of Human Resources Manager Intercollegiate Athletics for the period of April '08 through March '15. She is now the Director of Human Resources for the College of Agricultural Sciences.
So now that the replacement has the title of Assistant AD - Human Resources we are supposed to be up in arms?
Erikka Runkle held the title of Human Resources Manager Intercollegiate Athletics for the period of April '08 through March '15. She is now the Director of Human Resources for the College of Agricultural Sciences.
So now that the replacement has the title of Assistant AD - Human Resources we are supposed to be up in arms?
You may very well be right, but I tend to take a digital approach to stuff like this: good decision or bad decision. Make enough good decisions and you get more money, too many bad decisions and your ass is history.
Wickerham's last job is interesting. She spent 14 years at a company that administers drug tests to athletes. Apparently she questioned the propriety of the test of Von Miller and maintains that single incident got her fired. Maybe, but rumblings have been rife throughout sport for years as to whether drug tests are cooked and they involve pretty much every company that conducts them. So Wickerham works at one of these places for as long as she did and only encountered only one suspicious test that caused her to sound the alarm? Color me skeptical.
Hey guys, before you get carried away, this lady is well qualified. You need staff to manage all the disparate parts of athletics. Ice Hockey is a new and growing program. One snafu and you will be critical of AD for her failure to have proper staff. Be happy!
GLOV, just to calm you down a bit here. I read that Amanda Knox was going to grad school at Notre Dame.
Mama always told me it's easier to dislike multiple people when they are together in a group! Perfect!!!
First off.....the job isn't "Overseeing the Hockey Program". Not sure if that was some sort of typo on your part, or if you have no idea at all what you are talking about. But, in any event:
Coupla' stints as an Assistant Coach for Field Hockey and Women's BB.......Coupla' short stints as Assistant AD.
Brief stint as the AD at "Luther College" (don't ask me.....I have no idea LOL)
Then a JD degree at one of the twenty lowest rated Law Schools in the USNews rankings (University of Missouri - Kansas City).....following a Bachelors from Ursinus and a Masters from U of Iowa (probably while she was doing some AC-ing).
Stint with a Drug Testing outfit....that was mentioned earlier.
I never met/interviewed/talked with this lady. She may be the most impressive, engaging person you will ever meet one-on-one......I have no way of knowing.
Thing is....you don't make mention of meeting her either.
Unless you had that opportunity.....you are trying to tell us she is "well qualified" based on the resume listed above. Sorry, but from what is on paper, that is a resume you could equal or better 100 times over by just shaking a couple of trees around campus.
So.....why do you find it necessary to tell us she is "well qualified"?
Of course - IMHO, anyway - the bigger issue isn't what John Q or Susie Q is or isn't "qualified for".......the MUCH bigger issue is the absolute swelling of the bureaucracy of athletics administration.
The bloated, redundant, deadwood head counts are sweeping across the athletic department (and, to be fair, the University administration in general - in every area accept the ones that actually deal with....you know...educating students LOL)
Layers of bureaucracy and waste are spreading like the Bubonic Plague......and it will.....in time.....for both the Athletic Department and the University as a whole......have the same effect.
Wickerham, Guadagnino.....etc etc et al et al. All of the bureaucratic layers within the athletic admin, general counsel's office, and ALL the University administrative layers......each is relatively insignificant - just like those fleas on the rats that carried the Plague.
But, in total, all those fleas on all those rats nearly wiped out Europe.
Last edited:
So Michael Cross, who was hired earlier this week, will be sharing that responsibility with her? Do you know something the rest of us don't? And do you know that there are differences, nuanced, I know, between ice and field hockey?
He obvioulsy has the two recent hires mixed up. Easy to understand given that one came soon after the other.
maybe Sandy wanted someone on staff familiar with the upcoming Student Athlete to a union movement, seems to me she is getting ahead of the curve.
http://clas.uiowa.edu/andrea-s-wickerham-0
http://clas.uiowa.edu/andrea-s-wickerham-0
I would consider being an Assistant Athletic Director at Harvard (whose has even more athletic programs than we do) and an assistant coaching job at the University of Michigan (who I believe PSU considers to be a peer academic and athletic institution) to both be previous positions that warrant quite a bit more than the cursory dismissal you seem to give them. She seems to be quite qualified for this role, regardless of whether you feel the role should exist or not.
As I said:
"Of course - IMHO, anyway - the bigger issue isn't what John Q or Susie Q is or isn't "qualified for".......the MUCH bigger issue is the absolute swelling of the bureaucracy of athletics administration.
The bloated, redundant, deadwood head counts are sweeping across the athletic department (and, to be fair, the University administration in general - in every area accept the ones that actually deal with....you know...educating students LOL)
Layers of bureaucracy and waste are spreading like the Bubonic Plague......and it will.....in time.....for both the Athletic Department and the University as a whole......have the same effect.
Wickerham, Guadagnino.....etc etc et al et al. All of the bureaucratic layers within the athletic admin, general counsel's office, and ALL the University administrative layers......each is relatively insignificant - just like those fleas on the rats that carried the Plague.
But, in total, all those fleas on all those rats nearly wiped out Europe."
Maybe I wasn't clear enough.
Okay, Assistant AD at Harvard is a third-tier (below the AD) job and Wickerham spent a couple of years there as a compliance officer. At Michigan, she was an AC for a mediocre field hockey team for a few years........about 30 years ago. gangbuster credentials.
Well, at least you can bet that they won't be having a Rene Portland Day any time soon.
Mind you, I did agree with Portland on one point--that at a lot of programs if you don't "play on the coach's team" you don't play, and that's flat out wrong.
Don't sell Joyner short......when he took over, he had nearly as much experience in "FAIL" on his resume as SB did when she got he job (of course, SB got double the salary of Joyner
)
I have no problem with challenges to the seemingly growing bureaucracy within ICA (and within Penn State and higher education generally), but this thread has descended into a lot of silliness. I should be on my knees every night praying that BWI posters have no influence in University decision making.
LOL.....good luck with that.
For me.....I'd feel one HELL OF A LOT better if Clucko the Tic-Tac-Toe Chicken replaced the power brokers at PSU.
And that is not hyperbole.
"He was taught of course....he went to Chicken School"
First, we're not talking about appointing an AD. Second, Curley had been an assistant to Jim Tarman for more than ten years and had been around PSU athletics for a number of years before that, so he knew the lay of the land and PSU knew what it was getting. Joyner is the poster boy for who and how not to hire, so I wouldn't hold him up as evidence for "hiring for success."
so her PSU bio/news release is wrong as well??
After graduating with a degree in history from Ursinus, Wickerham was the head field hockey and softball coach at Mount St. Mary’s (Maryland). She was a graduate assistant field hockey coach at the University of Iowa for two years while earning her master’s degree in physical education. Wickerham then served as an assistant women’s basketball coach at Eastern Michigan University before serving in a similar capacity at the University of Michigan for two years.
http://news.psu.edu/story/365014/2015/08/06/wickerham-named-penn-state-assistant-athletic-director
