Now that the Post Standard has published their story

[rjs13090]

I feel it is time for me to share my experience with this story. Loving Syracuse the way
I do, the way we all do, I thought I was in a unique position to maybe broker a peace
deal between the parties. I have known one of the Trustees well for over 30 years.
Plus, I had access to a couple of others. It was my intention to have them introduce me
to the Chancellor and for me to get the Chancellor and Adaw W together for a lunch.
Let's see if we can come up with a solution that both sides could live with. At this
point, I had never spoken with either the Chancellor or Adam W.
The first thing I did was call Adam W. After a couple of misses, we finally spoke.
I found Adam to be charming and more than willing to this potential meeting.
He said he just needed a bit of notice. For me, I thought one half of my plan had
been accomplished. Next, I contacted a BOT member that have known extremely well
for 32 years. The response couldn't have been colder. The message was that she would
pass my request through official channels to the Chancellors office. Keep in mind,
this is a person I had done a very big favor for with the University just a few years ago.
I explained that I needed more than that. I needed a phone call to the Chancellor. The
request was refused. I contacted two other BOT members and got even less of a
response. One saying that Kent will never meet with Adam. Well, I have had to fight
for everything I have ever got in my life so I wasn't going to just take a couple
of no's and quit. So I wrote the nicest letter to the Chancellor. Very complimentary
and respectful. I explained who I was and all I wanted was a lunch meeting. My treat.
The Chancellor never responded. I waited a few days and sent another message.
I provided the Post Standard with these messages. Once again, the Chancellor
never responded. No, thanks but no thanks. No go to hell. I guess he left his
manners back in D.C.. As i told the Post Standard, the message was clear.

You tried. I’m troubled by the arrogance of saying Adam is not a big donor. The fact that coach and Carmelo are friends with Adam tells a lot?
With or without Adam, there must be substantial improvement this season

 

[SanDiegoCuse]

Thanks for trying, Dasher. This whole thing is so stupid and just childish.

 

[baggerbob]

It is what it is. The school thinks AW is toxic and wants nothing to with him. Maybe someday things will thaw but who knows.

Hopefully this whole thing can be put to bed.

Probably not until the Chancellor is gone.

 

[llandz]

I happen to know the Chancellor fairly well. I actually represented him in a past swearing in of the President of University of Arizona. I have had breakfast with him and his wife when they were her in town, and I was his guest at the 2016 Women's basketball first round NCAA game at the Dome. I also sat with him at the recent bowl game parade. I am going to say that 100% he never saw your email. In each of the above instances a "handler" made the plans. Even when the chancellor and his wife were running late for breakfast, I only heard from that contact person and never directly from the Chancellor. He told me he is directed by others as to whom to meet with and he doesn't get to make those decisions very often. He also may have been directed not to respond to any of this story. Whether or not he is a good Chancellor or what you think of him, I can say as a person he is upstanding and have enjoyed knowing him on a personal level.

Thanks for trying Dasher, and I do think someone could have sent you some sort of "polite" response.

 

[llandz]

Thanks for trying!

I think Kent's contract expires next year. Is he retiring in 2026 or might it be extended?

I'm going to take a guess at saying the first option.

 

[UnknownOrange]

The name is Dasher. Or Mr dasher. Or Dash, sir.

dasher my syracusefan name is for sale

 

[orangefog]

I happen to know the Chancellor fairly well. I actually represented him in a past swearing in of the President of University of Arizona. I have had breakfast with him and his wife when they were her in town, and I was his guest at the 2016 Women's basketball first round NCAA game at the Dome. I also sat with him at the recent bowl game parade. I am going to say that 100% he never saw your email. In each of the above instances a "handler" made the plans. Even when the chancellor and his wife were running late for breakfast, I only heard from that contact person and never directly from the Chancellor. He told me he is directed by others as to whom to meet with and he doesn't get to make those decisions very often. He also may have been directed not to respond to any of this story. Whether or not he is a good Chancellor or what you think of him, I can say as a person he is upstanding and have enjoyed knowing him on a personal level.

Thanks for trying Dasher, and I do think someone could have sent you some sort of "polite" response.

What did he have for breakfast? That should tell us all we need to know about the chancellor.

 

[kuethstheman]

I wouldn't judge your BOT contact harshly. There are topics you know not to bring up to certain executives. I'm sure they judged that it would do neither of you any good to bring this up to the chancellor.

 

[Blanko97]

I feel it is time for me to share my experience with this story. Loving Syracuse the way
I do, the way we all do, I thought I was in a unique position to maybe broker a peace
deal between the parties. I have known one of the Trustees well for over 30 years.
Plus, I had access to a couple of others. It was my intention to have them introduce me
to the Chancellor and for me to get the Chancellor and Adaw W together for a lunch.
Let's see if we can come up with a solution that both sides could live with. At this
point, I had never spoken with either the Chancellor or Adam W.
The first thing I did was call Adam W. After a couple of misses, we finally spoke.
I found Adam to be charming and more than willing to this potential meeting.
He said he just needed a bit of notice. For me, I thought one half of my plan had
been accomplished. Next, I contacted a BOT member that have known extremely well
for 32 years. The response couldn't have been colder. The message was that she would
pass my request through official channels to the Chancellors office. Keep in mind,
this is a person I had done a very big favor for with the University just a few years ago.
I explained that I needed more than that. I needed a phone call to the Chancellor. The
request was refused. I contacted two other BOT members and got even less of a
response. One saying that Kent will never meet with Adam. Well, I have had to fight
for everything I have ever got in my life so I wasn't going to just take a couple
of no's and quit. So I wrote the nicest letter to the Chancellor. Very complimentary
and respectful. I explained who I was and all I wanted was a lunch meeting. My treat.
The Chancellor never responded. I waited a few days and sent another message.
I provided the Post Standard with these messages. Once again, the Chancellor
never responded. No, thanks but no thanks. No go to hell. I guess he left his
manners back in D.C.. As i told the Post Standard, the message was clear.

Im not too surprised, the university had nothing to gain at that point. They cut the cord for a reason and reopening the wound would only cause additional pain. At the end of the day, they have 1,000,000 other things to worry about and Adam is probably nothing more than a distraction and thus they didnt feel the need to answer the plea of an alumni.

 

[Willy75]

I wouldn't judge your BOT contact harshly. There are topics you know not to bring up to certain executives. I'm sure they judged that it would do neither of you any good to bring this up to the chancellor.

The BOT doesn't work for the Chancellor, it's supposed to be the other way around.

 

[dasher]

Im not too surprised, the university had nothing to gain at that point. They cut the cord for a reason and reopening the wound would only cause additional pain. At the end of the day, they have 1,000,000 other things to worry about and Adam is probably nothing more than a distraction and thus they didnt feel the need to answer the plea of an alumni.

Didn't feel the need? How about getting money from me? They feel like that? Or just having manners? How about that?

 

[dasher]

I wouldn't judge your BOT contact harshly. There are topics you know not to bring up to certain executives. I'm sure they judged that it would do neither of you any good to bring this up to the chancellor.

Then they shouldn't be on the BOT. He works for them.

 

[AlpharettaCuse]

I feel it is time for me to share my experience with this story. Loving Syracuse the way
I do, the way we all do, I thought I was in a unique position to maybe broker a peace
deal between the parties. I have known one of the Trustees well for over 30 years.
Plus, I had access to a couple of others. It was my intention to have them introduce me
to the Chancellor and for me to get the Chancellor and Adaw W together for a lunch.
Let's see if we can come up with a solution that both sides could live with. At this
point, I had never spoken with either the Chancellor or Adam W.
The first thing I did was call Adam W. After a couple of misses, we finally spoke.
I found Adam to be charming and more than willing to this potential meeting.
He said he just needed a bit of notice. For me, I thought one half of my plan had
been accomplished. Next, I contacted a BOT member that have known extremely well
for 32 years. The response couldn't have been colder. The message was that she would
pass my request through official channels to the Chancellors office. Keep in mind,
this is a person I had done a very big favor for with the University just a few years ago.
I explained that I needed more than that. I needed a phone call to the Chancellor. The
request was refused. I contacted two other BOT members and got even less of a
response. One saying that Kent will never meet with Adam. Well, I have had to fight
for everything I have ever got in my life so I wasn't going to just take a couple
of no's and quit. So I wrote the nicest letter to the Chancellor. Very complimentary
and respectful. I explained who I was and all I wanted was a lunch meeting. My treat.
The Chancellor never responded. I waited a few days and sent another message.
I provided the Post Standard with these messages. Once again, the Chancellor
never responded. No, thanks but no thanks. No go to hell. I guess he left his
manners back in D.C.. As i told the Post Standard, the message was clear.

He didn’t return Rick Pitino’s call either.

 

[orangefog]

He didn’t return Rick Pitino’s call either.

That was a mistake, I am sure he missed out on a good time.

 

[EnviroSciGuy]

Yes. But the answer to that is that they could have written and said we are going in another direction. And then asked me for a donation. Business wise, it was inept. Let alone, etiquette wise.

Higher ed, man.

I've worked in it for 13 years at a few different institutions, and this how a lot of these situations go down. Higher ed administration is a weird, weird subculture.

 

[dasher]

I happen to know the Chancellor fairly well. I actually represented him in a past swearing in of the President of University of Arizona. I have had breakfast with him and his wife when they were her in town, and I was his guest at the 2016 Women's basketball first round NCAA game at the Dome. I also sat with him at the recent bowl game parade. I am going to say that 100% he never saw your email. In each of the above instances a "handler" made the plans. Even when the chancellor and his wife were running late for breakfast, I only heard from that contact person and never directly from the Chancellor. He told me he is directed by others as to whom to meet with and he doesn't get to make those decisions very often. He also may have been directed not to respond to any of this story. Whether or not he is a good Chancellor or what you think of him, I can say as a person he is upstanding and have enjoyed knowing him on a personal level.

Thanks for trying Dasher, and I do think someone could have sent you some sort of "polite" response.

Anything my name is associated with, I am responsible for. I hold anyone else to that standard. If he didn't see my posts, plural. and a handler of his did and decided to ignore it, he should have hired better people to represent him. No matter what happens in my life going forward, I would never meet with him or have anything to do with him. You on the other hand, I would meet any time.

 

[Blanko97]

Didn't feel the need? How about getting money from me? They feel like that? Or just having manners? How about that?

I hear you there. That being said, I recognize that he likely has no interest in speaking with 3rd party about a relationship that has caused more harm than good. (I also am not sure of your relationship with him, so who knows what else could be at play there) So yes, he probably should've responded but barring you being a million a year type guy (and I truly say this with so much appreciation for everything you do here) I'm not sure you're a big enough "fish" to warrant a response on this particular subject.

 

[dasher]

I hear you there. That being said, I recognize that he likely has no interest in speaking with 3rd party about a relationship that has caused more harm than good. (I also am not sure of your relationship with him, so who knows what else could be at play there) So yes, he probably should've responded but barring you being a million a year type guy (and I truly say this with so much appreciation for everything you do here) I'm not sure you're a big enough "fish" to warrant a response on this particular subject.

Obviously, I wasn't

 

[CuseFan]

Thanks for trying Dasher. We all appreciate your efforts to bring the group back together.

Senior leaders can get inundated with requests, and they can never respond to them all, and definitely cannot make everyone happy. Still, if one of the chancellor's team decided not to forward, that's fine, but they should just say so and decline. Unprofessional behavior. This is really true when the world knows this is a hot topic. When a BoT member asks you, I would have thought this would have more weight. Again, you can say no, but say so.

I have no idea what the issue is or why the university wants nothing to do with AW. I am disappointed that the parties (some anyway) will not even try. In a time where money is key to recruiting and having a healthy university, it seems short sighted to not try to rebuild a bridge (which again, I commend you Dasher for trying to do exactly that).

I hope this is resolved someday, but it does not seem likely.

 

[Cusefan95]

I wouldn't judge your BOT contact harshly. There are topics you know not to bring up to certain executives. I'm sure they judged that it would do neither of you any good to bring this up to the chancellor.

It’s also possible the BOT instructed him to have no contact with AW - so a BOT member bringing up the offer was not going to happen. Regardless, in similar situations I’ve at least told the person “Can’t do it, Sally” without offering excuses or reasons - it’s fair to expect at least that.

 

[RF2044]

It’s also possible the BOT instructed him to have no contact with AW - so a BOT member bringing up the offer was not going to happen. Regardless, in similar situations I’ve at least told the person “Can’t do it, Sally” without offering excuses or reasons - it’s fair to expect at least that.

 

[FloridaCuse]

Anything my name is associated with, I am responsible for. I hold anyone else to that standard. If he didn't see my posts, plural. and a handler of his did and decided to ignore it, he should have hired better people to represent him. No matter what happens in my life going forward, I would never meet with him or have anything to do with him. You on the other hand, I would meet any time.

Dasher, I get it. Totall understand your feelings and reactions. But I hope at some point you can feel more mellow (no pun intended) about it and if, by some chance, you did hear from the Chancellor you'd talk to him and hear him out. I learned a long time ago that you never know why people act or react the way they do. Sometimes we have no idea why. A long time ago I had a good friend who all of a sudden stopped taking or returning my calls. I thought maybe I had offended him in some way. A few years later he called me and I asked if he was upset with me. Turned out he wasn't, he was just going through something himself and didn't want to talk to people at the time. Lesson: you never know. Also, when I saw your earlier posts that you were going to work on getting Adam and the Chancellor together my intial thought was based on what I had heard about the Chancellor's reactions to some of Adam's activities, that meeting would never happen. I thought about posting something to that effect in reply to your posts but I thought I shouldn't and didn't want to discourage you. I now wish I had so maybe you'd at least know more how big the rock was that you were pushing up the Hill (pun intended). Take care. Thanks for what you did.

 

[orange79]

Dasher, I get it. Totall understand your feelings and reactions. But I hope at some point you can feel more mellow (no pun intended) about it and if, by some chance, you did hear from the Chancellor you'd talk to him and hear him out.

Some bridges get burned.

Others get BURNED.

 

[llandz]

Anything my name is associated with, I am responsible for. I hold anyone else to that standard. If he didn't see my posts, plural. and a handler of his did and decided to ignore it, he should have hired better people to represent him. No matter what happens in my life going forward, I would never meet with him or have anything to do with him. You on the other hand, I would meet any time.

I would also love to meet you. And I agree that this was not handled properly at all. As someone said above, the way this university and other educational institutions handle things leaves a lot to be desired. Many know that I ran 2 alumni clubs and served 2 terms as a Director of the National Alumni Board. I saw a lot that was not right and handled poorly.

 

[MadNY3]

I do admire your drive to make something happen. That said, hard to successfully cash in two piles of personal/political chips by not knowing AW or the Chancellor and relying on a BOT member to cash in a bit of her's.

Sounds harsh, but giving you credit for making you leap despite the situation.