Fitts on Athletics

[jonathanjoseph]

JJ is losing it. I picture his office walls covered with photos of Cowen, RD, and conspiracy theories.

You figured it out. Congrats.

[Houma de Wave]

Thank you.

Sorry jj, I know you would have preferred that he would have announced that he was planning to sink the university's entire endowment into gaining P5 membership in addition to pressing for criminal indictments against both Cowen and The Board but it was only his first day.[/quote]


LMAO--good stuff, AJC!

[wavefan03]

http://neworleanscitybusiness.com/blog/ ... president/

[nawlinspete]

President Michael Fitts' quote from THE NEW ORLEANS CITY BUSINESS journal dated November 10, 2014.

This is one of many times President Fitts has said that All Departments must meet the standard of excellence.

President Fitts, we are waiting for you to begin the process for the Athletic Department by firing Mr. Dickson, the worst possible administrator at Tulane.

[wavefan03]

you should have posted in Der Rathskeller where I posted the City Business article

[nawlinspete]

you should have posted in Der Rathskeller where I posted the City Business article

You should have posted in THE HUDDLE because President Fitts is critical to our Athletic Department's future.

You should have posted in THE HUDDLE because it will not be read here.

[winwave]

As the diehard fans of Tulane athletics we are reaching out to you. We know that you inherited a real mess across all spectrums of the university due to the failures of Scott Cowen. Right or wrong in this day and age athletics is the front porch of a school. Tulane athletics has been a mess for most of the last 65 years since President Rufus Harris decided to de-emphasize sports in 1949. By the way Tulane football entered that year as the preseason #1 team in the country.

Scott Cowen tried to get Tulane to give up athletics or drop down to Division III in 2003. He lost the vote but appears to have won the war. He did so by building the wrong facilities and by building a much too small for Division I stadium. Every coach at Tulane has wanted an Indoor Practice Facility and now a football operations center . We also need a new arena for basketball. In fact just to make sure you know the original intent of Cowen and Dickson was to build a new arena on the Rosen site. When they saw the $40 million price tag they said we can build a football stadium for that. That would be funny except it's not a joke.

If you want to save Tulane athletics and save Tulane University you need to take bold action now. You need to FIRE Rick Dickson. Our records in football and basketball under him have been abysmal and his hires have been failures for the most part. He has publicly declared that Tulane does not judge by wins and losses. How many days would he have lasted on the job at any other Division I school after making that remark. Yet he's still here years later. It's time for him to be gone.

You then need to choose an AD and give him the directive to raise the funds to build that IPF and football operations building on campus as well as a new arena. These facilities are what's needed to draw quality coaches and players so that we can win at the highest levels.

We implore you to act now. The last 65 years of ignoring the reality of the importance of major college athletics has been a great detriment to the school and has been a great source of misery for all of us diehards.

Thanks,

The Diehards of Gotula.net

This is just to get something started b/c we need to light a fire under this man's butt. Add to it. Clean it up.Write your own. But it's time for us to do this again.

[Houma de Wave]

As the diehard fans of Tulane athletics we are reaching out to you. We know that you inherited a real mess across all spectrums of the university due to the failures of Scott Cowen. Right or wrong in this day and age athletics is the front porch of a school. Tulane athletics has been a mess for most of the last 65 years since President Rufus Harris decided to de-emphasize sports in 1949. By the way Tulane football entered that year as the preseason #1 team in the country.

Scott Cowen tried to get Tulane to give up athletics or drop down to Division III in 2003. He lost the vote but appears to have won the war. He did so by building the wrong facilities and by building a much too small for Division I stadium. Every coach at Tulane has wanted an Indoor Practice Facility and now a football operations center . We also need a new arena for basketball. In fact just to make sure you know the original intent of Cowen and Dickson was to build a new arena on the Rosen site. When they saw the $40 million price tag they said we can build a football stadium for that. That would be funny except it's not a joke.

If you want to save Tulane athletics and save Tulane University you need to take bold action now. You need to FIRE Rick Dickson. Our records in football and basketball under him have been abysmal and his hires have been failures for the most part. He has publicly declared that Tulane does not judge by wins and losses. How many days would he have lasted on the job at any other Division I school after making that remark. Yet he's still here years later. It's time for him to be gone.

You then need to choose an AD and give him the directive to raise the funds to build that IPF and football operations building on campus as well as a new arena. These facilities are what's needed to draw quality coaches and players so that we can win at the highest levels.

We implore you to act now. The last 65 years of ignoring the reality of the importance of major college athletics has been a great detriment to the school and has been a great source of misery for all of us diehards.

Thanks,

The Diehards of Gotula.net

This is just to get something started b/c we need to light a fire under this man's butt. Add to it. Clean it up.Write your own. But it's time for us to do this again.

BRAVO, winwave, but will Fitts ever read this?

[wave97]

Great letter winwave,
The only change that I would make is to hire an AD as the first order of business. A competent AD on a dais with President Fitts expressing their commitment to the future success of Tulane Athletics is essential for any growth.

[winwave]

As the diehard fans of Tulane athletics we are reaching out to you. We know that you inherited a real mess across all spectrums of the university due to the failures of Scott Cowen. Right or wrong in this day and age athletics is the front porch of a school. Tulane athletics has been a mess for most of the last 65 years since President Rufus Harris decided to de-emphasize sports in 1949. By the way Tulane football entered that year as the preseason #1 team in the country.

Scott Cowen tried to get Tulane to give up athletics or drop down to Division III in 2003. He lost the vote but appears to have won the war. He did so by building the wrong facilities and by building a much too small for Division I stadium. Every coach at Tulane has wanted an Indoor Practice Facility and now a football operations center . We also need a new arena for basketball. In fact just to make sure you know the original intent of Cowen and Dickson was to build a new arena on the Rosen site. When they saw the $40 million price tag they said we can build a football stadium for that. That would be funny except it's not a joke.

If you want to save Tulane athletics and save Tulane University you need to take bold action now. You need to FIRE Rick Dickson. Our records in football and basketball under him have been abysmal and his hires have been failures for the most part. He has publicly declared that Tulane does not judge by wins and losses. How many days would he have lasted on the job at any other Division I school after making that remark. Yet he's still here years later. It's time for him to be gone.

You then need to choose an AD and give him the directive to raise the funds to build that IPF and football operations building on campus as well as a new arena. These facilities are what's needed to draw quality coaches and players so that we can win at the highest levels.

We implore you to act now. The last 65 years of ignoring the reality of the importance of major college athletics has been a great detriment to the school and has been a great source of misery for all of us diehards.

Thanks,

The Diehards of Gotula.net

This is just to get something started b/c we need to light a fire under this man's butt. Add to it. Clean it up.Write your own. But it's time for us to do this again.

BRAVO, winwave, but will Fitts ever read this?

Thanks. As for his reading it in the past this site wrote an open letter to Cowen. The intent here is the same.

[DfromCT]

I totally agree with the message and most of the statements made in this memo to President Fitts. However, I'd change a few things to get him to take this seriously. Keep in mind that while all of your points seem logical to us die-hards, we are in the severe minority among the group of people that can affect change. Administration, the BOA, Donors, Students and Alumni, for the most part, have failed to show any willingness to commit to running a successful Athletics program. They consider us the lunatic fringe, the die-hards that pine for days gone by. They don't realize what a successful Athletics Program (I'm defining success by Wins and Losses and running in the Black instead of Red) would do for student life and local and national reputation and prestige.

As you point out, Athletics have become the "front porch." Most, if not all of us on this board feel we could run a program that we all could be proud of and that would contribute rather than draw from the financial health of the University. It will take some investment, for sure, but we've barely scratched the surface with a stadium that seats less than 25k, and an 8 figure renovation of an outdated gym. What we have is a setup for failure, and the aforementioned groups that can affect change don't share our view.

As far as changes to the memo go, first and foremost, you can't attack Cowen like you do right off the bat. Unfortunately, Fitts is on record as being a big fan of Scott Cowen's, and to attack him (even though you're right) will lose credibility in Fitts' mind. (This is true for the rest of those that can affect change as well.) You also need to double check punctuation as you end a question with a period instead of a question mark. Nit-picky, I know, but these mistakes take away credibility. You also might not want to mention the Rosen site as the possible Basketball Arena location since there's debate as to whether that was ever the intention. As I understand it, the potential Basketball Arena was to be built right where Yulman was erected.

Again, I love the intention of the memo, just think it needs a few tweaks. And we all need to realize that the battle we fight is as much about apathy as it is about winning on the fields and courts of play.

[winwave]

I totally agree with the message and most of the statements made in this memo to President Fitts. However, I'd change a few things to get him to take this seriously. Keep in mind that while all of your points seem logical to us die-hards, we are in the severe minority among the group of people that can affect change. Administration, the BOA, Donors, Students and Alumni, for the most part, have failed to show any willingness to commit to running a successful Athletics program. They consider us the lunatic fringe, the die-hards that pine for days gone by. They don't realize what a successful Athletics Program (I'm defining success by Wins and Losses and running in the Black instead of Red) would do for student life and local and national reputation and prestige.

As you point out, Athletics have become the "front porch." Most, if not all of us on this board feel we could run a program that we all could be proud of and that would contribute rather than draw from the financial health of the University. It will take some investment, for sure, but we've barely scratched the surface with a stadium that seats less than 25k, and an 8 figure renovation of an outdated gym. What we have is a setup for failure, and the aforementioned groups that can affect change don't share our view.

As far as changes to the memo go, first and foremost, you can't attack Cowen like you do right off the bat. Unfortunately, Fitts is on record as being a big fan of Scott Cowen's, and to attack him (even though you're right) will lose credibility in Fitts' mind. (This is true for the rest of those that can affect change as well.) You also need to double check punctuation as you end a question with a period instead of a question mark. Nit-picky, I know, but these mistakes take away credibility. You also might not want to mention the Rosen site as the possible Basketball Arena location since there's debate as to whether that was ever the intention. As I understand it, the potential Basketball Arena was to be built right where Yulman was erected.

Again, I love the intention of the memo, just think it needs a few tweaks. And we all need to realize that the battle we fight is as much about apathy as it is about winning on the fields and courts of play.

Thanks for the response. There's a reason I ended it w/the request for cleaning it up, additions and changes. As you can see I wrote it late and just wanted to get the ball rolling on this. I hope others do too and then maybe Steve can come up w/the final edition which is how I think it went w/the letter to Cowen.

As for attacking Cowen I get what you are saying but it must be made clear that over time he will see Cowen as we do. Maybe someone w/a good memory can add all the scandals he has had the school involved in such as the Business school issues and his Cowen educational institute. In both incidents numbers were forged . He needs to know that there are Tulane people who see right through Cowen.

Take care. Hope all is going well w/Zach.

[DfromCT]

Ok, I understand your effort better now! I wrote a letter to the Tulane Magazine (the alumni mag) that I've been debating sending. I'm going to cut and paste it here:

To Tulane Magazine:

Tulane Magazine has always been flattering of the Cowen administration. I don't blame the editors; Scott Cowen was nothing if not a master manipulator of the media. But a closer look at what happened to Tulane during his 15 years at the helm might shed a different and more accurate light on the significant shortcomings of the Scott Cowen era.

During Cowen’s tenure as President, tuition went up at an extraordinary rate, despite the fact that the economy was mostly weak. (I’ll discuss the other side of the ledger later.) He did away with a great deal of the College of Engineering, and folded Newcomb College into the University, ending years of tradition. Scandals were uncovered in both the Business School and the College of Medicine. The endowment growth, vis a vis the institutions we used to consider “peers”, lagged tremendously. My Tulane degree carries less prestige now than it did when Scott Cowen took over. The Board of Advisors seemed to rubber stamp just about every Cowen agenda, and failed to disclose the huge deficit that's now coming to light. Indeed, Scott Cowen has left behind a mess, and the future of the University hangs in the balance.

Scott Cowen also badly erred with regard to Tulane Athletics. There was a golden opportunity to follow up our success in the wake of an undefeated football team in 1998. Cowen misread the tea leaves, and dropped the ball. Opting to not hire Rich Rodriquez probably cost Tulane a few more bowl appearances, which would have kept the fan base growing in the wake of 1998, and made us more attractive to a “P5” conference. (There’s other dynamics at play as well, but the point I’m making is that Cowen took the cheap way out, and it cost us big time.) His subsequent decision to attack the BCS system and try to take the high road (and woo the media along the way) has cost Tulane hundreds of millions of dollars. “The Review” was held in a shroud of secrecy (until leaked to the local media) and despite Cowen being thwarted in his attempt to end D1 athletics, he went forward with his plan to stay in D1, but do it “on the cheap.” The “Tulane Model” was destined to fail, and it has failed badly. Crowds in the Superdome were a fraction of announced ticket sale numbers, and even the inflated published attendance was diminishing. Rick Dickson continues to implement the Cowen plan despite alumni who do “measure success in wins and losses.” Lack of success on the field has been costing Tulane in ways that may never be quantified. Rather than being in a P5 conference, with Athletics contributing to the University’s general fund, Tulane Athletics are a drain. A successful athletics program also gets students more involved (as we’ve seen with Yulman) and loyal to the University. They then are more willing and generous when it comes time to donate back to the University. With a good number of Tulane’s largest benefactors aging and even more having passed away, the list of those to replace them isn’t nearly long enough. And Yulman may be the albatross that keeps Tulane from ever joining the “haves” in NCAA athletics. Do I like it better than an empty Dome? Yes, but plain and simple: Yulman is too small for the “big time.”

Furthermore, success in athletics at schools we used to consider "peers" has translated into better quality of student life, more alumni donations, better quality of freshman applications, and higher USN&WR rankings. The banner that trailed behind a plane flying over Yulman Stadium during homecoming read "Fire Rick Dickson." It says a lot that many alumni don't even know who Rick Dickson is! With the “revenue” teams performing as poorly as they have, and his hiring record atrocious, there’s few, if any D1 AD’s in the country that could hold onto their jobs as long as Rick Dickson has. I can tell you this: Rick Dickson is no Sandy Barbour, Kevin White or Chet Gladchuk. He hasn’t even been able to publically manage the $10 million “Yulman Challenge.” His chicanery with regard to “capacity” versus “seating” at Yulman was and continues to be juvenile. He thinks we’re naïve! However, many of us do judge success by wins and losses, that's why we keep score. And the Cowen/Dickson era of athletics has been utterly unsuccessful and marked by a tradition of secrecy, mismanagement, deception and failure. Dickson should step down and allow someone who has the ability to take the Athletics Department into the 21st century an opportunity to do so.

Recently, it has come to light that the University has run a deficit of $15-20 million for the past number of years. Worse than the deficit is the notion that this deficit was covered up by the Cowen administration and possibly the BOA as well. The fact that the exact size of the deficit is not known is a symptom of an administration that did not have accountability at many levels. It's time to cut all ties with Scott Cowen, including the $900k salary he’s receiving while on sabbatical. Yes, Scott Cowen did some good things in the wake of Katrina. But those 12 months are overshadowed by the destruction and tenuous position his administration left behind. There’s a big “bubble burst” coming in higher education, and Tulane is not currently well positioned to survive. It's time to move on, right the ship, and hope the University can overcome the damage done by Dr. Cowen and his administration.

David Price
Tulane (College of Arts & Sciences) 1985

*****++++***** PLEASE FEEL FREE TO GIVE FEEDBACK AND POINT OUT ERRORS IN THIS LETTER. I INTEND TO SEND IT BY THE END OF THE WEEKEND.*****+++++*****

[Jonathan]

The Tulanian magazine will not publish your letter. They only publish shorter positive letters. If I were you I would email it to Fitts and copy every member of the Tulane board. Agree with your thoughts. Usually like Cowen Fitts secretary will delete these posts and not show it to him. That is why you never get a response from Fitts or Cowen. I would put it in letter form and mail to his residence.

[IM42lane]

WinWave --- do not change a word, period. So many of us are so angry out here about Cowen & Dickson. We may all want to write our own versions of your letter, but I will admit that if I expressed my real feelings on the subject, it would not be beneficial in any good way to our 'cause'. The TU Admin would just view me as some hot-headed crackpot who has nothing constructive to say about the existing situation.

WELL DONE, and I hope that someone at TU with some level of common sense really listens to what you stated.

ROLL GREEN WAVE ! ! !

[tpstulane]

I think letters bring awareness. But only money will bring change. Unless you are a large donor Tulane will not care.

[Jonathan]

I agree. Only change I would make rather than asking to fire Dickson, I would request to retire him. Dickson or Fitts unlike former TU AD's KevinWhite and Chet Gladchuk will not return your calls or emails if you do not give over $100,000 per year to the TAF.Chet and Kevin would sit in the stands with the average season ticket holder and invite him/ them to his office and take them to lunch Uptown to discuss Tulane athletics. Rick Dickson does not return emails or telephone calls and tries to avoid us small donors the basis of the athletic support program at Tulane. If you were a $100 donor or a million dollar donor Kevin and Chet treated you the same. Also got the same vibes when Mack Brown was AD,Wright Waters as Assistant AD ran the athletic program at Tulane and he was very close to all Tulane fans like Chet and Kevin.

[Bigschtick]

I totally agree with the message and most of the statements made in this memo to President Fitts. However, I'd change a few things to get him to take this seriously. Keep in mind that while all of your points seem logical to us die-hards, we are in the severe minority among the group of people that can affect change. Administration, the BOA, Donors, Students and Alumni, for the most part, have failed to show any willingness to commit to running a successful Athletics program. They consider us the lunatic fringe, the die-hards that pine for days gone by. They don't realize what a successful Athletics Program (I'm defining success by Wins and Losses and running in the Black instead of Red) would do for student life and local and national reputation and prestige.

As you point out, Athletics have become the "front porch." Most, if not all of us on this board feel we could run a program that we all could be proud of and that would contribute rather than draw from the financial health of the University. It will take some investment, for sure, but we've barely scratched the surface with a stadium that seats less than 25k, and an 8 figure renovation of an outdated gym. What we have is a setup for failure, and the aforementioned groups that can affect change don't share our view.

As far as changes to the memo go, first and foremost, you can't attack Cowen like you do right off the bat. Unfortunately, Fitts is on record as being a big fan of Scott Cowen's, and to attack him (even though you're right) will lose credibility in Fitts' mind. (This is true for the rest of those that can affect change as well.) You also need to double check punctuation as you end a question with a period instead of a question mark. Nit-picky, I know, but these mistakes take away credibility. You also might not want to mention the Rosen site as the possible Basketball Arena location since there's debate as to whether that was ever the intention. As I understand it, the potential Basketball Arena was to be built right where Yulman was erected.

Again, I love the intention of the memo, just think it needs a few tweaks. And we all need to realize that the battle we fight is as much about apathy as it is about winning on the fields and courts of play.

Thanks for the response. There's a reason I ended it w/the request for cleaning it up, additions and changes. As you can see I wrote it late and just wanted to get the ball rolling on this. I hope others do too and then maybe Steve can come up w/the final edition which is how I think it went w/the letter to Cowen.

As for attacking Cowen I get what you are saying but it must be made clear that over time he will see Cowen as we do. Maybe someone w/a good memory can add all the scandals he has had the school involved in such as the Business school issues and his Cowen educational institute. In both incidents numbers were forged . He needs to know that there are Tulane people who see right through Cowen.

Take care. Hope all is going well w/Zach.

I get DTfrom Conn's remarks about Cowen but think that they were appropriate and certainly and if it was me, would have been far more severe. Well done and
thank you as always. We all assume Fitts probably loves Cowen for giving him the job but who cares what he thinks of the big, self-absorbed phony baloney!

[Bigschtick]

DT/David, thank you as well for your thoughtful and well done letter.

[jonathanjoseph]

I get DTfrom Conn's remarks about Cowen but think that they were appropriate and certainly and if it was me, would have been far more severe. Well done and
thank you as always. We all assume Fitts probably loves Cowen for giving him the job but who cares what he thinks of the big, self-absorbed phony baloney!

Not sure if this was irony, but in theory Scott Cowen had no input into or responsibility for the hiring of his successor.

[jonathanjoseph]

Good letter, D. I would send to the T-P, Tulanian, anyone who might publish it.

[winwave]

Ok, I understand your effort better now! I wrote a letter to the Tulane Magazine (the alumni mag) that I've been debating sending. I'm going to cut and paste it here:

To Tulane Magazine:

Tulane Magazine has always been flattering of the Cowen administration. I don't blame the editors; Scott Cowen was nothing if not a master manipulator of the media. But a closer look at what happened to Tulane during his 15 years at the helm might shed a different and more accurate light on the significant shortcomings of the Scott Cowen era.

During Cowen’s tenure as President, tuition went up at an extraordinary rate, despite the fact that the economy was mostly weak. (I’ll discuss the other side of the ledger later.) He did away with a great deal of the College of Engineering, and folded Newcomb College into the University, ending years of tradition. Scandals were uncovered in both the Business School and the College of Medicine. The endowment growth, vis a vis the institutions we used to consider “peers”, lagged tremendously. My Tulane degree carries less prestige now than it did when Scott Cowen took over. The Board of Advisors seemed to rubber stamp just about every Cowen agenda, and failed to disclose the huge deficit that's now coming to light. Indeed, Scott Cowen has left behind a mess, and the future of the University hangs in the balance.

Scott Cowen also badly erred with regard to Tulane Athletics. There was a golden opportunity to follow up our success in the wake of an undefeated football team in 1998. Cowen misread the tea leaves, and dropped the ball. Opting to not hire Rich Rodriquez probably cost Tulane a few more bowl appearances, which would have kept the fan base growing in the wake of 1998, and made us more attractive to a “P5” conference. (There’s other dynamics at play as well, but the point I’m making is that Cowen took the cheap way out, and it cost us big time.) His subsequent decision to attack the BCS system and try to take the high road (and woo the media along the way) has cost Tulane hundreds of millions of dollars. “The Review” was held in a shroud of secrecy (until leaked to the local media) and despite Cowen being thwarted in his attempt to end D1 athletics, he went forward with his plan to stay in D1, but do it “on the cheap.” The “Tulane Model” was destined to fail, and it has failed badly. Crowds in the Superdome were a fraction of announced ticket sale numbers, and even the inflated published attendance was diminishing. Rick Dickson continues to implement the Cowen plan despite alumni who do “measure success in wins and losses.” Lack of success on the field has been costing Tulane in ways that may never be quantified. Rather than being in a P5 conference, with Athletics contributing to the University’s general fund, Tulane Athletics are a drain. A successful athletics program also gets students more involved (as we’ve seen with Yulman) and loyal to the University. They then are more willing and generous when it comes time to donate back to the University. With a good number of Tulane’s largest benefactors aging and even more having passed away, the list of those to replace them isn’t nearly long enough. And Yulman may be the albatross that keeps Tulane from ever joining the “haves” in NCAA athletics. Do I like it better than an empty Dome? Yes, but plain and simple: Yulman is too small for the “big time.”

Furthermore, success in athletics at schools we used to consider "peers" has translated into better quality of student life, more alumni donations, better quality of freshman applications, and higher USN&WR rankings. The banner that trailed behind a plane flying over Yulman Stadium during homecoming read "Fire Rick Dickson." It says a lot that many alumni don't even know who Rick Dickson is! With the “revenue” teams performing as poorly as they have, and his hiring record atrocious, there’s few, if any D1 AD’s in the country that could hold onto their jobs as long as Rick Dickson has. I can tell you this: Rick Dickson is no Sandy Barbour, Kevin White or Chet Gladchuk. He hasn’t even been able to publically manage the $10 million “Yulman Challenge.” His chicanery with regard to “capacity” versus “seating” at Yulman was and continues to be juvenile. He thinks we’re naïve! However, many of us do judge success by wins and losses, that's why we keep score. And the Cowen/Dickson era of athletics has been utterly unsuccessful and marked by a tradition of secrecy, mismanagement, deception and failure. Dickson should step down and allow someone who has the ability to take the Athletics Department into the 21st century an opportunity to do so.

Recently, it has come to light that the University has run a deficit of $15-20 million for the past number of years. Worse than the deficit is the notion that this deficit was covered up by the Cowen administration and possibly the BOA as well. The fact that the exact size of the deficit is not known is a symptom of an administration that did not have accountability at many levels. It's time to cut all ties with Scott Cowen, including the $900k salary he’s receiving while on sabbatical. Yes, Scott Cowen did some good things in the wake of Katrina. But those 12 months are overshadowed by the destruction and tenuous position his administration left behind. There’s a big “bubble burst” coming in higher education, and Tulane is not currently well positioned to survive. It's time to move on, right the ship, and hope the University can overcome the damage done by Dr. Cowen and his administration.

David Price
Tulane (College of Arts & Sciences) 1985

*****++++***** PLEASE FEEL FREE TO GIVE FEEDBACK AND POINT OUT ERRORS IN THIS LETTER. I INTEND TO SEND IT BY THE END OF THE WEEKEND.*****+++++*****

Great letter. The only thing I would point out is that when you deal w/Tulane especially regarding athletics you have to assume they don't know. You reference judging by wins and losses a couple of times but that will get lost on them. You need to spit it out that RD has on more than one occasion publicly said Tulane doesn't judge by wins and losses.

[winwave]

WinWave --- do not change a word, period. So many of us are so angry out here about Cowen & Dickson. We may all want to write our own versions of your letter, but I will admit that if I expressed my real feelings on the subject, it would not be beneficial in any good way to our 'cause'. The TU Admin would just view me as some hot-headed crackpot who has nothing constructive to say about the existing situation.

WELL DONE, and I hope that someone at TU with some level of common sense really listens to what you stated.

ROLL GREEN WAVE ! ! !

Thanks.

Just to be clear I think this time we should take the letter one step further w/personal delivery by those of us here. Let's do like the students and deliver it straight to Fitts. The difference is we need someone who knows his schedule so it can be delivered when he is there. It took personal demonstrations to save Tulane athletics in 2003 and it will require the same this time around to once again save Tulane athletics.

[winwave]

I think letters bring awareness. But only money will bring change. Unless you are a large donor Tulane will not care.

As you know we were part of personal demonstrations that saved Tulane athletics from the chopping block in 2003. The same must be done now. The letter needs to be delivered personally by us as a group in a very public way. We need to alert the media to it. We should all attend wearing shirts that say on one side Save The Wave and the other saying Fire Dickson.

[winwave]

I totally agree with the message and most of the statements made in this memo to President Fitts. However, I'd change a few things to get him to take this seriously. Keep in mind that while all of your points seem logical to us die-hards, we are in the severe minority among the group of people that can affect change. Administration, the BOA, Donors, Students and Alumni, for the most part, have failed to show any willingness to commit to running a successful Athletics program. They consider us the lunatic fringe, the die-hards that pine for days gone by. They don't realize what a successful Athletics Program (I'm defining success by Wins and Losses and running in the Black instead of Red) would do for student life and local and national reputation and prestige.

As you point out, Athletics have become the "front porch." Most, if not all of us on this board feel we could run a program that we all could be proud of and that would contribute rather than draw from the financial health of the University. It will take some investment, for sure, but we've barely scratched the surface with a stadium that seats less than 25k, and an 8 figure renovation of an outdated gym. What we have is a setup for failure, and the aforementioned groups that can affect change don't share our view.

As far as changes to the memo go, first and foremost, you can't attack Cowen like you do right off the bat. Unfortunately, Fitts is on record as being a big fan of Scott Cowen's, and to attack him (even though you're right) will lose credibility in Fitts' mind. (This is true for the rest of those that can affect change as well.) You also need to double check punctuation as you end a question with a period instead of a question mark. Nit-picky, I know, but these mistakes take away credibility. You also might not want to mention the Rosen site as the possible Basketball Arena location since there's debate as to whether that was ever the intention. As I understand it, the potential Basketball Arena was to be built right where Yulman was erected.

Again, I love the intention of the memo, just think it needs a few tweaks. And we all need to realize that the battle we fight is as much about apathy as it is about winning on the fields and courts of play.

Thanks for the response. There's a reason I ended it w/the request for cleaning it up, additions and changes. As you can see I wrote it late and just wanted to get the ball rolling on this. I hope others do too and then maybe Steve can come up w/the final edition which is how I think it went w/the letter to Cowen.

As for attacking Cowen I get what you are saying but it must be made clear that over time he will see Cowen as we do. Maybe someone w/a good memory can add all the scandals he has had the school involved in such as the Business school issues and his Cowen educational institute. In both incidents numbers were forged . He needs to know that there are Tulane people who see right through Cowen.

Take care. Hope all is going well w/Zach.

I get DTfrom Conn's remarks about Cowen but think that they were appropriate and certainly and if it was me, would have been far more severe. Well done and
thank you as always. We all assume Fitts probably loves Cowen for giving him the job but who cares what he thinks of the big, self-absorbed phony baloney!

Thanks.