FC: Barbour sees no culture problem, only positive Paterno legacy
- Thread starter LundyPSU
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This is now the SECOND easiest job in the world.
The easiest is being PSU AD.
A - Collect $1,000,000
B - Make a positive reference to PSU "Culture" once per month
C - Be exalted for your splendiferously, insightful, wonderfulness
D - Everybody happy?
E - If necessary......tweet something.
Giving the benefit of the doubt is a wonderful, humane trait. No problem there. And certainly every (or at least NEARLY every) Penn Stater hopes that SB's tenure as PSU AD will be incredibly successful by every measure.
That said, it goes beyond that - and is more than a bit disingenuous - to compare someone with a track record of abject failure in their field, to someone with a track record of significant improvement and success.
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I understand that people hate anything and everything related to Penn State's administration these days, but some people forget how heavily criticized Curley was when he was AD. He was ridiculed here extensively for STEP and weak football schedules. Some wanted him to fire Joe during the "dark years". Some here commonly referred to Curley as "empty suit".
Sorry - I don't buy this. The core issue of that scenario to me was that she responded to a Michigan alum on a public forum (twitter) and she does not respond to Penn State alums. She has to know that twitter is public - it's inconceivable that she would not.
And, she was commenting on an issue that is one of the many that has come out of the whole Sandusky debacle - which is an extremely sensitive issue to almost everyone.
The best thing she could have done is ignore the Michigan alum's tweet, and/or simply not responded.
I agree completely. I don't follow her on Twitter so I don't know if she responds to Penn Staters or not but I can understand if she doesn't respond to anyone anymore.
I do think if you were to sit down and ask her- she didn't realize the firestorm that would follow the Michigan mom exchange. She simply followed the playbook and did what all Penn St administrators have done for the past 3 years- immediately apologize anytime any outsider says they are offended (warranted or not). I agree she should have ignored the Michigan mom. I think she had a steep learning curve there.
Sandy has made many missteps and I'm far from sold on her.
But, any notion that Athletics under Tim Curley was well-run is complete fiction. Sure, it made money....but it woefully lacked facility upgrades, coaching pay, staffing, and the big elephant in the room.....football scheduling.
I don't think football scheduling is the elephant in the room - the elephant in the room was the low coaches salaries, relative to other universities. Would PSU have been able to attract a top notch basketball coach, when realistically, they could not offer that coach more than what Joe was making?
Football scheduling can be frustrating, but it's two way relationship - it's not just about what the fans want their favorite team to play, it's whether the other team wants to play the fan's favorite team. Not every school out there wants to schedule Penn State, and each school has it's own reasons. Further, I fully understand why PSU scheduled some weak non con games - they needed the extra home game. It was that way with Curley and his predecessors, and it's going to be that way with Barbour and anyone who follows here when she is done.
As Penn Staters, we take pride in a few key tenets of our athletic program:
1. Graduation rates
2. Running a clean program
3. Winning
4. Being self supportive
I get that the PERCEPTION of #2 took a big hit, and #4 is temporarily an issue. But that happens when you have a $60 million fine. That didn't go away along with the other sanctions.
Yeah, lots of revisionist history going on with Curley. To his credit, he didn't screw it up, and he did get the ball rolling on facility upgrades in some non revenue sports. But no one seems to acknowledge that a number of things have changed and the PSU AD job is infinitely more challenging now than it was before Sandusky. And everyone seems to have forgotten the shitshow that was Joyner.
Penn Staters are some of the most resistant to change people I have ever met. I understand where it comes from. And there are a lot of good traditions and tenets that should continue. But, my God, trim or no trim on a football jersey causes major angina amongst alumni. That should be the least of our worries. For all the good, the problem is too many people who only see what was, not what could be. X was good enough in 1986, why isn't it good enough now? A little off topic, perhaps, but...
I've seen nothing from Barbour that says she doesn't get and believe in the 4 points above. And as has been pointed out, she's said more publicly in support of Joe than just about anyone. The Twitter mishap was a big screwup, but look at the total picture and stop getting hung up on one incident. Stop letting your impatience with the BOT and admins color your view of her. Time will tell if she does a good job or not. OK, off soapbox. LOL
1. Graduation rates
2. Running a clean program
3. Winning
4. Being self supportive
I get that the PERCEPTION of #2 took a big hit, and #4 is temporarily an issue. But that happens when you have a $60 million fine. That didn't go away along with the other sanctions.
Yeah, lots of revisionist history going on with Curley. To his credit, he didn't screw it up, and he did get the ball rolling on facility upgrades in some non revenue sports. But no one seems to acknowledge that a number of things have changed and the PSU AD job is infinitely more challenging now than it was before Sandusky. And everyone seems to have forgotten the shitshow that was Joyner.
Penn Staters are some of the most resistant to change people I have ever met. I understand where it comes from. And there are a lot of good traditions and tenets that should continue. But, my God, trim or no trim on a football jersey causes major angina amongst alumni. That should be the least of our worries. For all the good, the problem is too many people who only see what was, not what could be. X was good enough in 1986, why isn't it good enough now? A little off topic, perhaps, but...
I've seen nothing from Barbour that says she doesn't get and believe in the 4 points above. And as has been pointed out, she's said more publicly in support of Joe than just about anyone. The Twitter mishap was a big screwup, but look at the total picture and stop getting hung up on one incident. Stop letting your impatience with the BOT and admins color your view of her. Time will tell if she does a good job or not. OK, off soapbox. LOL
I'm going to take some heat for this, but I really believe this deserves some thought.
I am very impatient for the honoring of Paterno and the returning of the statue. However, to do these things now would not have the positive impact of doing it after the C/S/S and Paterno trials are completed. While I am completely confident that the outcomes of these trials will be positive and I doubt that the C/S/S trials will ever happen - the State does not have the evidence - the National impact will be more negative with these trials hanging out there. The honoring would not have as positive an impact if there is a hiccough in any of these trials and I believe the "leadership" (such as it is) realizes this.
Waiting for these trials to conclude before honoring Paterno is the better course of action and this will have the maximum positive impact. With the trials behind us the cynical will not have a lot of traction and the wind will be with our sails.
Repeating, I am impatient for the honoring of Joe and return of the statue, but I believe the better outcome will be obtained by waiting for the trials to conclude.
I only hope it comes in Sue's lifetime!
I am very impatient for the honoring of Paterno and the returning of the statue. However, to do these things now would not have the positive impact of doing it after the C/S/S and Paterno trials are completed. While I am completely confident that the outcomes of these trials will be positive and I doubt that the C/S/S trials will ever happen - the State does not have the evidence - the National impact will be more negative with these trials hanging out there. The honoring would not have as positive an impact if there is a hiccough in any of these trials and I believe the "leadership" (such as it is) realizes this.
Waiting for these trials to conclude before honoring Paterno is the better course of action and this will have the maximum positive impact. With the trials behind us the cynical will not have a lot of traction and the wind will be with our sails.
Repeating, I am impatient for the honoring of Joe and return of the statue, but I believe the better outcome will be obtained by waiting for the trials to conclude.
I only hope it comes in Sue's lifetime!
Perhaps, for me, it is not so much about the honoring as the dishonoring. It seems many, like Barron and the old line BOT members, still treat Joe as a villain. That needs to stop....now.
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That's what it is for me, and I might add their treatment of the university too. Personally, I don't think the current leadership is qualified to honor Joe.
I don't understand this urge to have some kind of honor ceremony. Isn't the fact that for the last quarter century of his career he got to determine how long he'd coach (barring something very strange, which ended up happening near the end) one non-stop quarter century long honor?
I think people are getting things twisted around. In his prime the last thing JVP stood for was honoring people with statues. Instead he stood for principles. The way you honor someone that does good by promoting good principles is to value and promote those same principles.
Image that the JS stuff didn't happen and imagine that PSU didn't put up a statue of JVP outside the football stadium and instead the only thing in campus with his name or likeness was the library. That would have been the biggest honor that could possibly have been bestowed on him. Every other school with a coach or player the does anything gets a giant statue to worship but PSU has the winningest coach of all time and he promoted academics and then after he's gone there is no statue for him but instead a library named for him? Now THAT would be a giant honor. It would speak volumes about priorities of said schools.
A bunch of people in 2015 or 2016 or 2017 stand around and say some nice words about JVP and then unveil a statue? What difference does that make?
The university has never officially recognized Joe's passing. Just wrap your head around that. He is someone who did an enormous amount for Penn State and the university never even had a moment of silence for him anywhere -- let alone a football game. It's shameful. It really is. It's absolutely despicable. It's a reflection of the malevolence that has gripped Penn State.
It's going to be pretty awkward when Fran Fisher is remembered at a game this fall, now isn't it?
Aww come on, Aoshiro.....there was the "moment of silence for all of those who are experiencing grief and loss" at the first home game of 2012.
There was also a public viewing held at the spiritual center on campus, a public memorial service held at the Jordan Center on campus, the lights at the stadium were turned on every night for a week, and the university released a statement after Joe died: http://news.psu.edu/story/152367/20...ustees-and-president-erickson-passing-paterno. If you want to say that the university didn't do enough to honor Joe when he died, that's one thing. But to say that Penn State failed to publicly recognize Joe's death in any way is simply not supported by the facts.
Allowing the Paterno family to use univerisity faciliies does not mean that the UNIVERSITY recognized Paterno's death. That's like saying that if I have my wedding at the spiritual center the university "recognized" it. Don't be an idiot.
Joe Paterno was Penn State football for 60 years and his passing and his contributions still have not been acknowledged at Beaver Stadium during a game. The people who have siezed control of Penn State are despicable, malevolent people. There is no other way to put it.
Like I said, the first game this fall is going to be mighty awkward if they do some kind of tribute for Fran (which they should) when they have not done that for Paterno (which of course they should have). Good luck with that, Sandy.
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