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(09-15-2017 01:12 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  

(09-15-2017 10:03 AM)hooverblazer Wrote:  In the BOT athletics committee meeting this morning, St John said "I think you can argue that UAB athletics is in better shape than it has ever been."

I don't trust him, but it's nice to see a positive comment from him.

I would agree with him on that statement, but the better question would be is UAB athletics in as good shape as it should be.

This is Alabama where UAB has about the same level of local autonomy under the system BOT as the cities like B'ham have under the state legislature.

How many local "no confidence" votes did UAB president Dr Ray Watts receive in 2015 and still has kept his office? The ONLY people who could fire him won't, and if he leaves, his replacement will be named by that same BOT.

(09-15-2017 10:03 AM)hooverblazer Wrote:  In the BOT athletics committee meeting this morning, St John said "I think you can argue that UAB athletics is in better shape than it has ever been."

I don't trust him, but it's nice to see a positive comment from him.

This is both true and intellectually dishonest. He knows that wasn't the objective in 2013-14. The only thing that saved UAB from permanent athletic irrelevance was people getting up in the face of the BOT.

As far as Gray, my conversations with him a couple of years ago left me unimpressed. He displayed the typical paternalistic attitude the board has shown in the past to everything associated with the west end of campus. I kept reminding him that the average freshman really doesn't care about a new diabetes hospital, something he had a hard time wrapping his head around. When I finally pressed him to explain his vision for the undergraduate experience in 1-5 years he couldn't/wouldn't articulate anything.

Hopefully this has been a learning experience for all the board members.