VTTW Board Index

Released documents under the FOIA. Give you something to do this weekend. :biggrin:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ojyeg96gwsqfml0/AABTaH8am8iLi7BD_G8y91i9a?dl=0

Trey Wallace, who's the guy that requested the FOIA docs, said in his podcast that this is just a fraction of what he asked for, and that he expects to get a lot more soon.

Yeah......word is there is quite a bit more to come. Some of this will make your head spin. Some was omitted on purpose mostly from the big boosters. Thunder was lobbing for Fulmer to get the coaching job before he got the AD job. Figures.

Raja Jubran seems like he shouldn't be in whatever his position is... Mike Leach reached out 11/3/17. No reply from Curry for 3 weeks. SMH.

Most of us were opposed to Currie, but gave him a chance. This could likely have been avoided with competent administration hiring Blackburn instead, or even Fulmer.


https://orangeandwhitereport.com/ut-board-of-trustees-behavior-during-coaching-hire-shows-a-disturbing-disconnect-between-decision-fc9ea9e82155 (https://orangeandwhitereport.com/ut-board-of-trustees-behavior-during-coaching-hire-shows-a-disturbing-disconnect-between-decision-fc9ea9e82155)

I'd like to kick Raja in the nads

Right there with you!  :evillaugh:

lol

Well, to be the devil's advocate, IMO the backlash against Schiano was first and foremost because he wasn't the right guy.  The PSU stuff just gave a rallying cry.

But Raja is definitely tone deaf to Tennessee fans, for sure.

I'm glad Curri is gone and Fulmer iAD, for sure.

Curie was indeed under the influence of the House of Haslem or he is a complete IDIOT.  Either situation reflects badly on him and the University and the people that support it.
Keeping the Chairman of the BOT Athletics Committee out of the loop was just F'ing STUPID and / or arrogant

Interesting article.  Raja is the effective head of the BOT for day to day, since he is outranked only by Haslem, who, as governor, one has to assume is a bit of a figurehead:

https://trustees.tennessee.edu/board-members/

So...there are 26 members.  Some of them are state officials, some University officials, and others appointed from the outside, and one student member.  For the record, there are 26 total and 6 were appointed prior to Haslam.  I thought Bill Haslam's brother - Jimmy - was on the BOT, but he is not.  He is apparently just a big donor.   Jimmy was said to be heavily involved in the search.  I don't know, but with Bill the governor and given the family history, it seems likely.

I am not sure the FOCUS bill mentioned in the article is designed to trim board members not appointed by Bill as it seems to imply.  With him leaving office shortly, is the purpose really to finish loading the BOT with his appointees?  It seems like it was already pretty loaded.  I guess it warrant watching.

Here's my $0.02.  The father, James Haslam, was pretty brilliant.  He founded and made a huge success of Pilot Oil, and during his days on the BOT as Athletic Committee Chair, Tennessee football returned to prominence.  Not to mention he was a OL on the 1951 NC team, and so understood the game really well.

His boys simply don't measure up.  And thus the cluster fizzle that has been UT athletics the last 8 years (which interestingly coincides with Haslam's term as governor).  Not to mention the Browns.



So, there appears (to me, at least) that there was a definite divide within the Board of Trustees that (very coincidentally) manages to fall right in between the members appointed prior to Governor Haslam’s election and those that Haslam appointed. Anyone who is in the middle regarding the FOCUS bill should feel a tremor of concern about that, because it seems like the portions of the BoT the Governor describes as “unwieldy” seem to reflect those who oppose a specific agenda, and one that doesn’t take into consideration the wishes of anyone outside a tiny, privileged few.

That is EXACTLY what the bill was intended to do
We can't have rational peole who love and care for the University like Charlie Anderson on the BOT ...

Clearly the athletic department had/has more deeper issues than just bad coaching from Butch.

No, that's what the author is saying the bill is supposed to do.  I'm not sure I agree.

https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/26/university-tennessee-board-focus-act-senate-haslam/460456002/

I had to dig for it, but here is the actual bill.

http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/110/Bill/HB2115.pdf

Just skimming through that, it's a pretty draconian restructuring, and it actually would go into effect June 1.  So Haslam seems to be trying to get his way on some UT issues right about the time he exits from the governorship.  Doesn't smell right, for sure, and a lot of students and faculty are protesting it, but it seems to go far beyond disagreements over athletics.

One thins is for sure...UT doesn't seem to have prospered during the Haslam governorship.