Quote:I know that the last week has been difficult for everyone in the UAB community. I deeply regret that we did not handle our recent athletic department announcement better and that there was a breakdown in communication during that process. I know that many of you have strong feelings about the decision, the way we arrived at it and the way I communicated it with you.
In recent days, our wonderful community has been divided, and trust has been damaged. The only way I know to rebuild trust is to back up my words with actions and to engage every part of the community in developing our plans moving forward. It is my goal to meet with leaders from every UAB constituency in the coming days – something I have already begun to do. I want to make sure there is a real mechanism for sharing and addressing questions and concerns and, more importantly, gaining critical insights into the best way to move UAB forward.
I am firmly committed to increasing significantly the involvement of faculty, staff, students, alumni and the community by creating a series of task forces that will look at future directions for athletics and all of our academic programs. I am planning to convene these task forces as soon as possible, and we will begin to meet at the start of the spring semester in early January – or before if possible. I will also continue to seek advice from all constituencies as we put together a search committee for our new athletic director.
We are all a part of what I consider one of the greatest institutions of higher learning in the world. I love UAB with all of my being, and I am totally dedicated to the long- term success of this university. I am truly awed and humbled by your passion for UAB, for it is ultimately that passion that will propel our university, our community and our state to even greater heights.
I'd just like to point out that the only one in the UAB family who has been "divided" is Ray Watts. The students, alumni, and faculty have united like never before and displayed exemplary solidarity. Keep up the good fight, because this is democracy vs tyranny. Best of luck, Blazers! #FreeUAB
Compare this statement to the one that was read at the Faculty Senate meeting. Any references to "mistakes" his statement "the buck stops with me" has been removed. Someone from the university PR department got their hands on his original statement. He has now backtracked again. The longer this goes on, the deeper his hole gets. We don't have to do anything. He's digging his own grave.
(This post was last modified: 12-09-2014 03:17 PM by blazerman2006.)
(12-09-2014 03:17 PM)blazerman2006 Wrote: Compare this statement to the one that was read at the Faculty Senate meeting. Any references to "mistakes" his statement "the buck stops with me" has been removed. Someone from the university PR department got their hands on his original statement. He has now backtracked again. The longer this goes on, the deeper his hole gets. We don't have to do anything. He's digging his own grave.
I prefer to hand him the largest shovel I can find. The more we press the faster this is over
I used this opportunity to shoot off a quick email to rlwatts@uab.edu
Quote:Dr. Watts,
I sincerely thank you for the letter you put out to the UAB community today. You, no doubt, underestimated the support and passion of the UAB family in this matter.
If you truly love UAB as you say you do, and you truly desire to move us forward into a new era of openness and cooperation in moving forward, then I would challenge you to immediately rescind your decision to eliminate the football, bowling and rifle programs to allow them to continue to compete. From there you should move forward to build support for these programs and enter into an open dialogue as you have laid out. You have said from the beginning that this was your decision and yours alone, so it shouldn’t be that hard to come to the community and say that you mistakenly underestimated the available support and because you do value the trust of the community, faculty, alumni and students that you will reopen the assessment and allow more to be involved.
I will say that it is very interesting to me that you are asking for something going forward that was offered to you from the moment people became aware of your intentions in this process. The Birmingham City Council asked that you speak with them before an decision you made, The UAB Football Foundation has said that they came and spoke with you on more than one occasion, donors have said they didn’t have the chance to give and today the athletic faculty representative stated that he was also left in the dark on this decision. It is not too late to undo this as most of our athletes are still UAB students and Coach Clark has not signed a new contract. You have seen firsthand how passionate our fan base is and how donors have gone public on national television to state that they are ready to fund this program to the level it needs. Now it’s time for you to come off of your island and join the fight to make UAB the best that it can be.
Rescind your decision to cut the athletic programs effected. I think you have seen in the last week, if you are for UAB, then UAB is for you and your request in this letter will be welcomed. The ball is in your court.
Sincerely,
I know many of you will say it much better than I have.
(This post was last modified: 12-09-2014 04:12 PM by iam4uab.)
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Watts Letter to UAB Community
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