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Dr. Wente's Views on Athletics?

freakadeac said:
not worried about this with Currie at the helm
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Agree with this, but I am still glad we were able to get rid of Manning during a pandemic , and hire Forbes, without a new President questioning either move.
 
Still kind of chuckling thinking about the supposed deep insider knowledge of brangus’ multiple vandy friends knowing that the provost of their school I didn’t like athletics. I didn’t even know the name of Wake’s provost until this thread, let alone their athletic leanings. So I’m a biiiiit suspicious.
 
Brangus, don't let anybody bust your chops for the thread. Legit question, especially given the board debate over the previous president for the last 15 years. The fact she's a woman has nothing to do with people wondering her attitude toward athletics, and neither should it make her immune from discussing the topic.

Truth is, man/woman/they/their/whatever, Wake Forest is going to always hire a nerdy academic as president. It's who we are. There are universities that hire business/political/PR-types and let them raise money and leave the management to others. But at Wake there will always be a tension between academics and athletics, and that's fine with me. But it's stupid cancel culture mentality to be afraid to discuss a brand new President's attitude toward sports on the university's "Discuss Wake Forest Athletics. Freely" goddamn sports message boards.
 
Turd Ferguson said:
Wake Forest is going to always hire a nerdy academic as president. It's who we are. There are universities that hire business/political/PR-types and let them raise money and leave the management to others. But at Wake there will always be a tension between academics and athletics, and that's fine with me. But it's stupid cancel culture mentality to be afraid to discuss a brand new President's attitude toward sports on the university's "Discuss Wake Forest Athletics. Freely" goddamn sports message boards.
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This is the very thing that business/political/PR-type administrators do not do in practice.

Also, pointing out that someone's Tier One alumni sources and twitter homepage might be uninformed is not "cancel culture mentality". Nobody is afraid to discuss this topic. And people are not cancelling Brangus, they are laughing at his alarmist thread title (which has now been edited to reflect more appropriately the discussion).
 
It's not just a WF thing. By their nature, University President's are typically "nerdy academics". The thing with WF, and almost every other school (believe it or not even the Ivies and D3 schools; why do you think they fund all those athletic programs with no direct revenue streams?), athletics are so inextricably tied to fund raising that schools can't just shove athletics to the side and meet fund raising goals, which always tops every University President's to-do list. Athletics are often the biggest link between rich/successful alumni and the school; as a secondary benefit, athletic success also boosts application numbers, which is also massive priority for a University President. Have no idea if Dr. Wenke is going to be on the sideline fist bumping Clawson, and on the Court chest-bumping Forbes, but based on her background, she knows the benefits of having a strong athletic department on a college's image and standing.
 
Turd Ferguson said:
Brangus, don't let anybody bust your chops for the thread. Legit question, especially given the board debate over the previous president for the last 15 years. The fact she's a woman has nothing to do with people wondering her attitude toward athletics, and neither should it make her immune from discussing the topic.

Truth is, man/woman/they/their/whatever, Wake Forest is going to always hire a nerdy academic as president. It's who we are. There are universities that hire business/political/PR-types and let them raise money and leave the management to others. But at Wake there will always be a tension between academics and athletics, and that's fine with me. But it's stupid cancel culture mentality to be afraid to discuss a brand new President's attitude toward sports on the university's "Discuss Wake Forest Athletics. Freely" goddamn sports message boards.
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Discuss wake athletics freely also includes dumping on lame takes. Cancel culture my ass. I guess it was inevitable that term would be co-opted by those with bad takes.
 
WFU1977 said:
Wonder what Rogan Kersh is thinking this morning. Seems like he was the guy in waiting. Did he piss someone off or a casualty of MeToo movement?
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does this post get made if the new president was a man or nah

Note: This is not a cancel culture post, I have not yet called for WFU1977 to be officially cancelled, though I reserve the right to call upon ANTIFA and Twitter dot com to enforce said cancelling at a later date.
 
TenaciousKory said:
does this post get made if the new president was a man or nah

Note: This is not a cancel culture post, I have not yet called for WFU1977 to be officially cancelled, though I reserve the right to call upon ANTIFA and Twitter dot com to enforce said cancelling at a later date.
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Well, the provost at Wake was passed over in favor of the provost at Vandy. He knows that his shot at the top job at his alma mater has passed. I don't know if he wanted the job or if they considered him for it. But assuming he wanted the job, he has to do a little personal accounting.
 
well, more specifically asking out of nowhere if Rogan Kersh was a "casualty" of a national movement against sexual abuse and sexual harassment, but you're not wrong about the other stuff
 
Probably even worse to suggest that someone in his position would be possibly taken down by such a movement if you believe women at all.
 
TenaciousKory said:
well, more specifically asking out of nowhere if Rogan Kersh was a "casualty" of a national movement against sexual abuse and sexual harassment, but you're not wrong about the other stuff
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I wonder if 77 was thinking more of Kersh being a "casualty" of an appropriate response to the long-standing male privilege in this country and simply used the wrong term.
 
BiffTannen said:
Well, the provost at Wake was passed over in favor of the provost at Vandy. He knows that his shot at the top job at his alma mater has passed. I don't know if he wanted the job or if they considered him for it. But assuming he wanted the job, he has to do a little personal accounting.
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Why? Internal presidential hires are rare at this level. Schools hire up to attempt to boost prestige. Hiring alums is probably even more rare. The Wake provost got beat out by the Vandy provost. That's not a reason to be ashamed.
 
Lol. Board logic as follows:

Hire Hatch: Spend 15 years complaining an "academic" from Notre Dame hates sports and is holding WF back. Alums from ND confirm Hatch was never a supporter of sports.

Hire Clawson: Alums love him, good hire.

Hire Curry: Mixed reviews, some alums loved him, some hated him, robust conversation.

Hire Forbes: ETSU alums love him, must be positive.

Hire Wente: Academic from Vanderbilt clearly recognizes how important athletics is to a university because for fuck's sake, any president would know that (refer to 15 years of discussion about Hatch), disregard any comments from alums because they are stupid. Discussion of incoming president's take on athletics is verboten...Because Vanderbilt is a juggernaut in athletics compared to ND.

Got it.
 
wakephan09 said:
This is the very thing that business/political/PR-type administrators do not do in practice.

Also, pointing out that someone's Tier One alumni sources and twitter homepage might be uninformed is not "cancel culture mentality". Nobody is afraid to discuss this topic. And people are not cancelling Brangus, they are laughing at his alarmist thread title (which has now been edited to reflect more appropriately the discussion).
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This simply isn't true. There are plenty of figurehead presidents with connections and fundraising moxy that don't manage the day-to-day ACADEMICS like a president at Wake does. This is not a criticism. Just a reality. Plenty of university presidents would make much different decisions regarding academics/athletics than happens at Wake. Glad we prioritize academics. Still worth a discussion.
 
A friend from Wake who knows a ton of people in TN/KY area says his friends say we will love her.
 
Turd Ferguson said:
This simply isn't true. There are plenty of figurehead presidents with connections and fundraising moxy that don't manage the day-to-day ACADEMICS like a president at Wake does. This is not a criticism. Just a reality. Plenty of university presidents would make much different decisions regarding academics/athletics than happens at Wake. Glad we prioritize academics. Still worth a discussion.
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How many of them are at top 30 universities?
 
The Vanderbilt athletic department sounds like a mess, if this article is accurate. https://vanderbilt.rivals.com/news/a-peek-behind-the-curtain-at-vanderbilt-s-athletics-decisions

They eliminated almost their entire athletic communications department (wtf?) and their latest AD left after one year. Wente appointed the new (now permanent) AD. This article does allude to her wanting to downplay athletics, at least in her role at Vandy. Sounds like just another suit/politician.

...things quickly went south under interim chancellor Susan Wente.

'Her focus was getting the chancellor's job," a source says. "To do that, she had to keep her foot on athletics. She didn't want athletics out front. That's not the Vanderbilt Way and it would hurt her chances.

"She was petrified of athletics spending money, of a facilities plan and all that. That would have stirred up the faculty. She wanted to avoid any noise because she was afraid it would hurt her chances of becoming chancellor."
 
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