The unofficial online home for fans of the Kent State University Golden Flashes. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

I hope you'll all join me in wishing all the best to Kathleen Wiler, who stepped down today after 13 years as Kent State's head field hockey coach.

According to http://www.kentstatesports.com, Kathleen is KSU's all-time winningest field hockey coach and holds the program records for Mid-American Conference regular season titles and MAC tournament titles.

More importantly, Kathleen is an incredibly good and kind person. This is a huge loss for Kent State. I couldn't be happier for her, though. I know she is going to be a success in whatever she chooses to do next.

Thanks for everything you gave to KSU, Kathleen! You will be missed!

Dave

Any reason as to why? It appears from the story she doesn’t have another job lined up.

(11-29-2018 04:30 PM)burden Wrote:  Any reason as to why? It appears from the story she doesn’t have another job lined up.

Hi Burden,

I don't want to speak for Kathleen, and I don't know what her future plans are. The last time I talked to her was over the summer.
I just know I'm happy for her, as I am for anyone who finally makes the choice to leave on their own terms. It's no secret that Kent State Athletics is a toxic environment. The university's own climate report shows that. My belief, based on what I have witnessed and been told by former colleagues, is that women who work in the department find it especially toxic. I know there is an EEOC complaint that was filed by someone on staff within the last year. It's a shame that it would take a complaint to a federal agency, but hopefully this forces some change. I think it's also a shame the president of the university chose not to take action long ago as coaches came to her office to voice their concerns and HR reports and EEOC complaints crossed her desk.

This continues to be deeply, deeply troubling. Where is the media on stories like this? Are the local papers afraid of losing advertising dollars? If women are truly THAT terrorized in the workplace it must be addressed.

(11-30-2018 07:19 PM)JimJoyce Wrote:  This continues to be deeply, deeply troubling. Where is the media on stories like this? Are the local papers afraid of losing advertising dollars? If women are truly THAT terrorized in the workplace it must be addressed.

Hi Jim,

It's troubling to me as well. There are quite a few former employees like me who have contacted or been contacted by the media. It takes some time, though. They need to be able to vet our stories, review documents and make public-records requests if necessary. If and when they decide to publish, they need to be confident in their reporting.

I think you'll start seeing some of that reporting in the not too distant future. Again, hopefully that leads to some constructive change at KSU.

In my opinion, when a real problem is "addressed" at KSU, the decision is to feign an attempt at change. I keep thinking about a discussion I had with one of my former colleagues at Kent State this past summer. This was almost two years after the climate study had been commissioned. All of a sudden, the university was "alarmed" and instructed the athletic department to do something about the shocking results. As I mentioned earlier, one of the results was the higher than normal likelihood for employees to experience sexual harassment or unwanted sexual conduct.

My former colleague told me how Joel led a meeting to discuss how to address the problem of sexual harassment. That colleague said: "and here I am sitting in the meeting right next to a guy who was found guilty by HR of sexual harassment almost two years ago and had multiple (earlier accusations). How am I supposed to believe this is a serious meeting?"

That's the Kent State way, though. Stories like that are legion. It's next to impossible to get buy-in when employees don't trust or believe the process is real (see The Game Plan ... there's a scorecard floating around out there on the internet designed to show how they are moving forward in implementing the strategic plan. It's kind of an inside joke with some of us who are and were in the department)

Dave