UAH Hockey is on the precipice. Please tell our President to step off.

[pgb-ohio]

Re: UAH Hockey is on the precipice. Please tell our President to step off.

Signed.

Posted Reason: As the only D-1 Hockey program in the South, the Chargers are catering to an otherwise unserved taste. If something must be cut, duplicative programs should be the first to go. As a unique commodity, UAH Hockey is a precious asset and should be jealously protected. To cut a trailblazing program is to strive for mediocrity.

[bigmrg74]

Re: UAH Hockey is on the precipice. Please tell our President to step off.

That's the goal I put on it. The pace has slowed a bit, but it's still pretty steady. We'll obviously take many more.



The individual presidents in the UA system have a fair amount of autonomy. He's rushing to do this before the new President is named. That tussle---Portera v. Huntsville Business Community---is another interesting tussle. It makes me think that this guy is out to cut UAH down to size, which is funny as we're the smallest school in the system already.

http://www.uscho.com/2011/09/07/alab...sroots-effort/ I guess you can say that I'm mad.

GFM

I've slapped the link up at a few different little corners of the internet that I know of. Figure its worth it to drive a few more people your way.

[Ralph Baer]

Re: UAH Hockey is on the precipice. Please tell our President to step off.

I have forwarded it to both Joe Yerdon and Bob McKenzie. I would think BobbyMack would be quite supportive seeing how his son, Mike, played hockey at SLU.

Joe Yerdon http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2...save-it-again/

[Back check]

Re: UAH Hockey is on the precipice. Please tell our President to step off.

Any posters able to take in press conference of the community group?

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: UAH Hockey is on the precipice. Please tell our President to step off.

Any posters able to take in press conference of the community group?

GFMorris had mentioned being able to attend in one of the articles.

[UAHStatman]

Re: UAH Hockey is on the precipice. Please tell our President to step off.

GFMorris had mentioned being able to attend in one of the articles.

Geoff was there, and he posted the press release and his thoughts at saveuahhockey.com:
http://saveuahhockey.com/2011/09/08/...ss-conference/

John Turner of The Huntsville Times was also there and filed this report (includes photos):
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2..._rally_to.html

[bigmrg74]

Re: UAH Hockey is on the precipice. Please tell our President to step off.

halfway to 5,000.

[gfmorris]

Re: UAH Hockey is on the precipice. Please tell our President to step off.

I've got video of the presser and I'll post it tomorrow.

GFM

[SteveP]

Re: UAH Hockey is on the precipice. Please tell our President to step off.

Hey Geof -- I'm telling all the Bama fans visiting the PSU All Sports Museum today to sign the petition or write the administration in support of the Chargers. Hoping it will help the cause!

[gfmorris]

Re: UAH Hockey is on the precipice. Please tell our President to step off.

Hey Geof -- I'm telling all the Bama fans visiting the PSU All Sports Museum today to sign the petition or write the administration in support of the Chargers. Hoping it will help the cause!

I hope so, but given that you're dealing with UAT folks, they may not even know about us.

GFM

[SteveP]

I hope so, but given that you're dealing with UAT folks, they may not even know about us.

GFM

Actually, quite a few did.
Good luck.

[jyoung]

Re: UAH Hockey is on the precipice. Please tell our President to step off.

...our university president was run out on a rail in March. [I've never been sure why, but I think it was his free-spending ways.]

I can speak to this just a little bit, at least the whole run out on a rail thing. Outside of his support for the hockey team, Dr. Williams was deeply unpopular with alumni, staff, faculty, and students as well as the Board of Regents. He had his own ideas, and they didn't seem to mesh with anyone else's. Many of us felt his biggest failure was that he couldn't listen when he had his mind made up on an issue. He made many decisions which were felt to be in less than the best interest of the school. These include:

Attempting to merge Arts and Sciences and planning shifts in Chemical Engineering

Indebting the school for millions to build an on campus dorm during a recession and during massive tuition hikes. (I averaged an increase of over 10% annually during my time at UAH.)

Instituting several high fee policies including the two year live on campus rules, and the meal plan requirements for all students. Exemptions came later but are still significantly more stingy than most other similar institutions, and the arguments were predicated on false pretense. I.e. the myth that students who live on campus get better GPA's. There's a lovely doctoral dissertation from Maryland that debunks that quite nicely.

Changing the school to UAHuntsville, at significant cost

That's just a few of the many things we were having issues with and we were shaking the tree pretty hard, though I can't say how much of that shaking ended up helping topple the tree. Dr. Williams was losing community support and that didn't pair well with his fights with the controlling Board of Regents who have their own ideas of what UAH should be. I admit my involvement here, I had a hand it just about every protest that hit in the last three years regarding Dr. Williams ouster. Outside of his support for the hockey program I did not find him to be the right leadership for the school. No more than I like Mack running it now. Yes, more than a few of us were actively trying to get rid him, there's no question about it. Many of us felt Dr. Williams had turned his back on, and flat out attacked, many of the non-traditional students who are a mainstay of the UAH campus though out the years and we were being bled dry in a recession. The town hall style meetings were heated to say the least, and it was a combination of all the stakeholders who showed up, not just students or faculty. While it grieves me that his removal may also inadvertently kill the hockey team (by giving Mack the opportunity to kill it), but I firmly believe that Dr. Williams was the wrong choice for UAH... and so far I'm not terribly impressed by our new Athletic Director.

UAH unfortunately is in for a rough ride, and has been in one, for several years. If the school, like the hockey team, survives; it will be better and stronger for the experience. But it does not make the experience any less unpleasant.

By the by, he already had the Ohio State job lined up before he officially called it quits at UAH. I got that bit from a few friends who are OSU alums and had they'd already been posting about it.

[NUMcNeely]

Re: UAH Hockey is on the precipice. Please tell our President to step off.

signed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xArv_1YuwQM

[gfmorris]

Re: UAH Hockey is on the precipice. Please tell our President to step off.

By the by, he already had the Ohio State job lined up before he officially called it quits at UAH. I got that bit from a few friends who are OSU alums and had they'd already been posting about it.

I was fairly sure that was the case. The on-a-rail bit comes from the announcement happening right before the men's hoops regional final. I think he'd told the system that he had the new job so he could bow out, and they put a boot in his ***. I felt like he deserved the chance to have that come out a day or two after. He didn't show up for the game, which I thought was sad. I'll save my comments about Williams for another thread.

#####

http://saveuahhockey.com/2011/09/10/...ss-conference/ has all the video from Thursday. You can see that this is a broad group. The only player alumnus on the dais was Bowen.

GFM

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: UAH Hockey is on the precipice. Please tell our President to step off.

Without a Peer has spread the word. I merely read their site; I do not write for it.

http://www.withoutapeer.com/2011/09/...f-friends.html