He said several other interesting things, too:
At the 9:30 mark of the presentation Martin put up a slide and talked to it. The chart says (italics theirs) "2021-2022 Participants
if the suspensions remain in place" and Martin also said "if the suspensions of the men's teams are upheld". That is two uses of the word "if" and also the word "suspension" (not the word "elimination", for example) and the word "upheld" (as in, who makes the decision on whether to "uphold" the original decision?). Absolutely makes it sound like these drops are not necessarily "final".
At the 18:02 mark Martin says "my role is to review the decision, not to come up with a new one". That is not what was said when the uproar first started and W&M promised to have moderated, in-depth discussions with many stakeholders in order to "determine the way ahead". Now he has dug in and is defending ("reviewing") the original decision without even looking for a new, presumably better, way out. That also contradicts the "if" factor mentioned above; that is, if you are not looking for a new way then there is no "if".
Speaking of moderated sessions, today's was now the second time that the constituents were promised a moderated session but did not receive one. Instead we get just Martin answering some carefully pre-selected questions. It makes it look like Martin is afraid to take questions that aren't pre-selected; afraid that his answers won't stand up to live rebuttal.
(10-28-2020 08:24 PM)Tribal Wrote: Option to enroll closer to 50/50 men and women but W&M enrolls the most talented and doesn't base acceptance on sex.
Martin saying this is absolute BS !! It makes it sound like every applicant is assigned a score based on their qualifications and that W&M blindly accepts the top 1500 (or so) applicants. Bulls**t! First off, so much of the process is subjective (what extracurricular activities did Applicant 1 have? What was the GPA of Applicant 2 from a rotten school system where he was Valedictorian versus Applicant 3 from a top-notch Governor's school that was hard and had lower GPAs? Isn't it true that W&M does not even use the SAT anymore because it discriminates against minorities? Etc. Etc. Secondly, we all know that the Administration has "goals" for in-state vs out-of-state, for a diverse student body, for a certain number of overseas scholars, for a certain number of special athletes, for any number of categories including sex (they certainly wouldn't admit 80% of one sex (would they?)). So admitting more men for one year is not discrimination, it is attaining the right balance in the student body. If anything, since it is a fact that women have been admitted at a much higher level for the last decade, then admitting more men next year is nothing more than a correction for past discriminatory practices. Anyway, Martin, don't insult anybody's intelligence by saying that W&M doesn't do anything but admit the absolute top candidates.
I can see why the folks who are football superfans (or basketball) would love the guy -- he is protecting their sports and any funds saved from eliminating "lesser" sports just means more money for their teams. But folks who like a broad-based sports platform see that Martin is not answering the tough questions, he is not doing it interactively with his opponents, and his demeanor is smug and arrogant (as are many of his canned answers).