Job, please tell me you added a mic drop as the end of theseā¦
Dear Chancellor Dubois,
I wrote to the Board of Trustees earlier in the year regarding the state of Charlotte athletics, and you were kind enough to respond to me with your perspectives. I did not get back to you, but was grateful nonetheless.
Yesterday, when I found on Twitter that you would be joining WFNZ for an interview, I was encouraged. Unfortunately, the predictable talking points that you recited this morning, along with the tone with which you presented them, have left me discouraged ā to put it lightly. Despite my openly jaded views toward the handling of the Charlotte 49er athletic department, I came into today hopeful that you would use the interview as an opportunity to acknowledge the toxic atmosphere enveloping Niner Nation, and gain some control by demonstrating a relatable understanding of why fans feel increasingly alienated from Charlotteās athletic program. Instead, what I heard was in very defiant opposition to that expectation, and judging by the social media response, your performance has already begun to serve as a unifying source of anger amongst those that no longer have confidence in UNC Charlotteās desire to compete athletically.
You perfectly summed up your sentiments today by claiming that angry fans have expectations for winning that are, ātoo high.ā I disagree, and find this to be a naĆÆve assessment of the growing dissent exhibited by a very large & formidable contingent of alums, students, and former athletes. Fans are not angry because their expectations are unreasonable. Fans are angry because they are embarrassed to be constantly affiliated with chronic losing. I was at the Wake Forest game last night, and left at halftime. My expectations for getting blown out were validated 10 minutes into the first half. We should be putting our student athletes in a fair position to win each game ā but that isnāt happening, nor are their chances improving year over year. Fans are right to be angry about that, and attempting to brow-beat them into submission by calling their reactions āshamefulā or ā tragicā is only going to encourage more of the same until substantial changes are made.
It was frustrating listening to you deflect justifiable criticism of our major sports programs by propping up ancillary accomplishments as a suitable replacement for achieving tangible success on the basketball court or football field. We expect you to graduate student athletes. We expect you to run a clean program. Itās nice to be competitive in non-revenue sports (Show me on ESPN.com where I can find coverage for tennis, golf, soccer, softball, cross countryā¦). Refuting the critics of our losing culture by boasting about complying with these fundamental objectives is like trying to convince a kid that he shouldnāt be upset about being denied dessert day after day, because heās already full from finishing his vegetablesā¦ Your talking points in support of the status quo were unpersuasive, and because long-term damage to UNC Charlotteās reputation is at stake, I strongly encourage you take a new and more effective approach towards dealing with restless fans. If you genuinely believe that Judy Rose, Brad Lambert, and Mark Price are the future, there are certain to be more.
And finally, to reiterate the point I made to the BoT in March, I have been in a position to donate considerably for several years now, but refrain from giving carte blanche for lack of faith in this Universityās commitment to a winning atmosphere. When that commitment changes, I will immediately put forth resources to help get this derailed train back on track.
Regards,
Nice work Donkey.
Esteemed Board,
I write to you today to express my complete dismay with the state of the Athletics Department at UNC Charlotte and my vote of no confidence in our Athletics Director, Judy Rose.
Our University is at a critical turning point in its history right now. Our athletics have taken a nose dive, and the current leadership is not competent to bring us back to a place of relevance. We are a ghost in our own town, and have disappeared from national media coverage. The prominence of our revenue sports is nonexistent. Unfortunately, on-field performance is but one of the many festering issues with our beleaguered athletics. Community engagement is almost non-existent. Alumni engagement, including, but not limited to, growing the number of members of the 49er Club, has been abysmal.
Judy Rose was hired as Athletics Director in 1990, a time long before most of our current traditional students were even born. It cannot be ignored that Athletics Director Rose has seen some success in many forums in her career. Athletics Director Rose oversaw the construction and opening of Halton Arena in 1996, the expansion of Hayes Stadium in 2007, the opening of Richardson Stadium in 2013, and many more facility improvements for athletics.
We also had a successful run in Menās Basketball ā our most visible and flagship sport at the time ā from the mid-1990s until 2005. Unfortunately, since that time, we have not had great success in front of the larger local and national audience.
It would be easy to point to prior successes in menās or womenās soccer, golf, or baseball and say we have been running a winning department. It would be foolish to ignore the fact that these are not the sports in our national consciousness. Menās Basketball and Football are the preeminent college sports in the American psyche. Ignoring that to tout the success of other sports is foolish and shows a complete lack of understanding of our actual and potential audiences.
Our menās basketball program has not made the NCAA Tournament since 2005. A staggering 227 programs have been to the NCAA basketball tournament since our last entry. Football is still in its infancy, but our recently retained coach has shown little to give fans reason to believe he is the proper person to elevate the program from a startup to one that competes for Conference USA championships.
The lack of success in the sports that the community at large is engaged is has not gone unnoticed. Attendance at Halton Arena is down nearly 50% from 2005. Attendance for football was the worst this year it has ever been. If it were not for the department buying its own tickets, we would be facing NCAA probation for attendance in football. Our most visible sports are floundering and the image of the University as a whole is paying the price. We live in a world where athletic successes or failures often creep into the image of a universityās overall prestige; if you are a losing program, the school is perceived as a loser, while the inverse is also true.
This decline is not due to a lack of funding however. USA Today reports that UNC Charlotte has the seventy-third largest athletic budget in all of NCAA sports. This Board is well aware that a very large portion of that money is coming from student fees, $824 per student, per year, the highest in North Carolina. The students voted for a fee increase to pay debt service on the construction of our on-campus football stadium, which was the original justification for the incremental fee increases. Instead, Rose and her team have used the increase in fees as a buoy to float the entire Athletics Departmentās budget in light of her failure to substantially increase alumni and corporate giving.
Because Rose utilizes the fees in this way, it raises several fundamental questions: Can we justify the return on the investment of our students? Can we justify students paying greater than $3,000 in fees over a standard four year baccalaureate program for the product that we are putting on our fields and courts? Have we been judicious with the use of our studentsā funds, the money that many will have to pay back with interest, the borrowed money that will burden so many of our students in the form of years or decades of student loan payments?
I would challenge anyone who thinks the answer is yes to go out and take an informal poll from our students. Ask them if they think the success our programs have had is worth their $3,000. They clearly are not engaged as evidenced by the abysmal student attendance at games. None of our current students have seen any measure of success in our most visible sports during their time at the University. They, just like the alumni and the community, are abandoning their support for the athletics programs. The difference is, they are beholden to the mandatory student fees. They can walk away, but they cannot withdraw their non-negotiable financial support.
The question this Board should reflect on is this: Is this university treating the money we are taking from students judiciously, or is it being squandered by inept leadership?
Where you can see the withdrawal of financial support is with the 49er Club. Under Athletics Director Roseās leadership, we have seen miniscule growth in the athletic foundation. This is during a time in which enrollment has soared, the number of alumni along with it. This during a time under her watch when the City of Charlotte has almost doubled its number of inhabitants from 430,000 to 840,000. We are failing. We are failing to engage our students. We are failing to engage our alumni. We are failing to engage our local community.
Our failures can be traced to the head of the athletics department. Athletics Director Rose was responsible for a costly extension of Bobby Lutz that resulted in us paying his salary for years after his dismissal. We then hired Alan Major to replace him, at the time an assistant that, by all accounts, had never been considered for a head coaching position before. It is unclear what metrics Athletics Director Rose used when selecting Coach Major, but what is clear is that he was unable to sustain any level of success, failing to reach the NCAA tournament during his tenure.
Coach Major was replaced three years ago by Mark Price. Coach Price had a fantastic playing career in both college and the NBA; he was a āsplashyā hire. Unfortunately, Coach Price had almost no head coaching experience, his limited run just a handful of games where he had a losing record. He was a shooting coach for the Charlotte Hornets immediately prior to his hiring at Charlotte. Again, Athletics Director Rose has never made clear what her metrics are in her selection process for head coaching talent, but it is difficult to see any objective measures that she is using which would point to either of these gentlemen being successful head coaches.
The announcement of the firing of Coach Price is troubling. It is troubling because it is illustrative of an athletics director that is incapable of using sound decision making when hiring coaches. It is troubling because the firing came mid-season, right in the midst of a social media and in-person campaign to remove Athletics Director Rose. The move seems whimsical, and it does not comport with her decision to retain Coach Lambert. It would seem this was done in an attempt to deflect attention away from the continually growing dismay of 49er fans and alumni with Athletics Director Rose.
The thirteen of you have been charged with an honorable and challenging task overseeing the University. Each of you has chosen to dedicate your time, efforts, and intellectual capital to the mission of pushing this University forward. We have made great strides improving the quality of education, the beauty and function of our campus, rising through rankings and elevating our institution to a level of national prominence. For all of this, I thank you.
I would ask that you take time to reflect upon, however, whether we have been moving in the same direction with athletics, or if we have been sliding backwards. You have the facts. If Judy Rose was to be let go today, would another Division I athletics program hire her? Has she shown that she has the drive and resolve to elevate another institution? Has she even shown she has the ability to maintain the status quo somewhere that has had some success?
If the answer is no, then the Board should act, to engage with Chancellor Dubois about removing Mrs. Rose and starting a national search for a new athletic director. One that will provide a vision that includes being accountable to the students and alumni. A director that will make winning, in all sports, but especially in those that can raise the profile of this university, a part of its mission statement. We have almost 30,000 students and over 120,000 alumni. Letās get new leadership in our athletics, and give them something to be proud of. You all have been entrusted with this University, Iād urge you to reflect honestly on the state of Charlotte athletics, and then make the right decision. Continued regression and irrelevance is not the answer. Thank you for your valuable time.
Regards,
Marc S. Asbill, 2006
Great letter, NinerCentral.
I also sent them a little follow up love letter to my novel last week. Just to keep them on their toes:
Happy Friday! Just following up on this email, as neither of you saw fit to respond.
Since bringing these issues to your attention, weāve had:
- Greater than 1,000,000 twitter impressions for #FireJudyRose
- Almost two weeks straight of complete annihilation of the department on local sports talk radio at all hours of the day, including drive times
- Two students get called into the principalās office for chalking campus with #FJR, and then having their messages washed away by the school while other nearby messages remain (this is so petty, yāallā¦)
- 1,362 signatures to the change.org petition asking for Judy to be removed that will be sent to the BOT when it reaches 1,500 (and weāll keep going)
- Numerous national sports bloggers, writers, and tv personalities eviscerating the incompetence of how the department is run (and this group is only beginning to catch on)
- $2,000+ raised privately to fly our next aerial banner, and boy this one will be a doozy!
- 20+ FSL holders (just that I know of) committed to walking away next year unless Judy is gone
- And to top it all off, one incredibly vacuous decision to fire Mark Price in the midst of all of this, as if somehow that wouldnāt look like a reactionary move to āshow us you care about wins and lossesā when, in fact, juxtaposed next to Lambertās retention and both of your comments thereafter, just makes you both look even more incompetent to a broader range of people than the movement had already picked up. Like throwing jet fuel on this thing. Iām not sure you could formulate a worse public relations strategy for dealing with this if given 100 tries, but by all means, please keep proving me wrong!
Best of all, this movement just keeps picking up steam and followers. I havenāt been this energized about Charlotte sports since I was a student, and based on the number of people coming out of the woodwork to join in, I think Iām hardly alone. Itās almost like winning, at somethingā¦anythingā¦MAKES PEOPLE WANT TO JOIN IN AND GET EXCITED! Iām not sure about all the complexities of running an athletics department, but this concept I think I understand quite well.
So my question to both of you is this: How much longer do you want this to go on? Weāll call off the dogs immediately once Judy realizes the $12k per month state pension she has waiting is more than enough to fuel the Ramblinā Rose for her glory days. All aboard the hot mess express!
Way to go NinerCentral!
[quote=ājfickett, post:146, topic:30865ā]Great letter, NinerCentral.
I also sent them a little follow up love letter to my novel last week. Just to keep them on their toes:
Happy Friday! Just following up on this email, as neither of you saw fit to respond.
Since bringing these issues to your attention, weāve had:
- Greater than 1,000,000 twitter impressions for #FireJudyRose
- Almost two weeks straight of complete annihilation of the department on local sports talk radio at all hours of the day, including drive times
- Two students get called into the principalās office for chalking campus with #FJR, and then having their messages washed away by the school while other nearby messages remain (this is so petty, yāallā¦)
- 1,362 signatures to the change.org petition asking for Judy to be removed that will be sent to the BOT when it reaches 1,500 (and weāll keep going)
- Numerous national sports bloggers, writers, and tv personalities eviscerating the incompetence of how the department is run (and this group is only beginning to catch on)
- $2,000+ raised privately to fly our next aerial banner, and boy this one will be a doozy!
- 20+ FSL holders (just that I know of) committed to walking away next year unless Judy is gone
- And to top it all off, one incredibly vacuous decision to fire Mark Price in the midst of all of this, as if somehow that wouldnāt look like a reactionary move to āshow us you care about wins and lossesā when, in fact, juxtaposed next to Lambertās retention and both of your comments thereafter, just makes you both look even more incompetent to a broader range of people than the movement had already picked up. Like throwing jet fuel on this thing. Iām not sure you could formulate a worse public relations strategy for dealing with this if given 100 tries, but by all means, please keep proving me wrong!
Best of all, this movement just keeps picking up steam and followers. I havenāt been this energized about Charlotte sports since I was a student, and based on the number of people coming out of the woodwork to join in, I think Iām hardly alone. Itās almost like winning, at somethingā¦anythingā¦MAKES PEOPLE WANT TO JOIN IN AND GET EXCITED! Iām not sure about all the complexities of running an athletics department, but this concept I think I understand quite well.
So my question to both of you is this: How much longer do you want this to go on? Weāll call off the dogs immediately once Judy realizes the $12k per month state pension she has waiting is more than enough to fuel the Ramblinā Rose for her glory days. All aboard the hot mess express![/quote]
Amazing work!
Complexity line. Haaaahaaa
[quote=ājfickett, post:146, topic:30865ā]Great letter, NinerCentral.
I also sent them a little follow up love letter to my novel last week. Just to keep them on their toes:
Happy Friday! Just following up on this email, as neither of you saw fit to respond.
Since bringing these issues to your attention, weāve had:
- Greater than 1,000,000 twitter impressions for #FireJudyRose
- Almost two weeks straight of complete annihilation of the department on local sports talk radio at all hours of the day, including drive times
- Two students get called into the principalās office for chalking campus with #FJR, and then having their messages washed away by the school while other nearby messages remain (this is so petty, yāallā¦)
- 1,362 signatures to the change.org petition asking for Judy to be removed that will be sent to the BOT when it reaches 1,500 (and weāll keep going)
- Numerous national sports bloggers, writers, and tv personalities eviscerating the incompetence of how the department is run (and this group is only beginning to catch on)
- $2,000+ raised privately to fly our next aerial banner, and boy this one will be a doozy!
- 20+ FSL holders (just that I know of) committed to walking away next year unless Judy is gone
- And to top it all off, one incredibly vacuous decision to fire Mark Price in the midst of all of this, as if somehow that wouldnāt look like a reactionary move to āshow us you care about wins and lossesā when, in fact, juxtaposed next to Lambertās retention and both of your comments thereafter, just makes you both look even more incompetent to a broader range of people than the movement had already picked up. Like throwing jet fuel on this thing. Iām not sure you could formulate a worse public relations strategy for dealing with this if given 100 tries, but by all means, please keep proving me wrong!
Best of all, this movement just keeps picking up steam and followers. I havenāt been this energized about Charlotte sports since I was a student, and based on the number of people coming out of the woodwork to join in, I think Iām hardly alone. Itās almost like winning, at somethingā¦anythingā¦MAKES PEOPLE WANT TO JOIN IN AND GET EXCITED! Iām not sure about all the complexities of running an athletics department, but this concept I think I understand quite well.
So my question to both of you is this: How much longer do you want this to go on? Weāll call off the dogs immediately once Judy realizes the $12k per month state pension she has waiting is more than enough to fuel the Ramblinā Rose for her glory days. All aboard the hot mess express![/quote]Fantastic workā¦Please keep it up!
Billboards around downtown Charlotteā¦For the average person (+ the media) to see every dayā¦I love the irony of us having fireJudy boards while the school does almost zero marketing.
Chancellor Dubois,
The dismissal of Mark Price yesterday, mid-season through his 3rd year as head coach of the Charlotte 49ers MBB team is another stellar example of how Judy Rose is incapable of running the athletic department. Her last 15 years have been a complete, abysmal and objective failure. She is not equipped to lead another head coach search and her abilities to make judgements are severely flawed.
Just so that itās clear, I do not question her intent to do whatās best for Charlotte. I whole heartedly believe she thinks she is making the decisions that are best for the universityās athletic department and the campus as a whole. I do, however, question her ability to make these decisions and to be the transformational leader that UNC Charlotte needs right now.
The #FireJudyRose campaign will only get more heated from here on. Her classless mid-season dismissal of Mark Price yesterday will only intensify local coverage into national coverage. Her legacy will be ruined. Her feelings will be hurt. Your feelings might be hurt. The University will be hurt. This is not the route that anyone of us wants, but itās the one that must occur if you continue to refuse to convince Judy that itās time to separate from our athletic program.
Make the decisions that must be made.
Regards,
Matt
On Wed, Dec 6, 2017 at 12:27 AM, Matt Murrow mmurrow1@gmail.com wrote:
Chancellor Dubois,
āWe must dare to be great: and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courageā -President Theodore Roosevelt
I come to you as a graduate of the UNC Charlotte class of 2014 and as a loyal supporter of Charlotte 49ers athletics. Throughout my undergraduate career, there was nothing that got me more excited than Charlotte 49ers basketball in Halton Arena. In those years as a student, I missed a total of 6 home basketball games and would plan my class schedule around the basketball schedule. In 2012, I spent $2,000 of my hard earned money as a summer intern to purchase FSL tickets in section 109. My name is on the statue in front of Jerry Richardson Stadium.
As a current resident of NJ/NYC, I traveled to Charlotte twice this season from NYC for Charlotte 49ers football games, those being the home opener against NC A&T and Homecoming against UAB. I currently serve as a member of the Belk College Alumni Council and I truly love being able to engage with my University as an alumni. Having said all of this, I am done with Charlotte 49ers athletics until significant changes are made within the Athletic Department, namely the resignation or retirement of Judy Rose as Athletic Director.
I could name all the specific reasons why Judy should resign or retire (49er Club donations, post season appearances across the 17 sports, her unprofessionalism in handling critical feedback of her performance, AD reliance on student fees), but Iām sure other alumni have emailed you all the data points that have been compiled. In any other major D1 program, her record of performance would not be accepted for this duration, 27 years. From contract mismanagement to coaching selections to the lack of foresight of conference realignment, there have been major failures at every key factor which determines the success of our program.
Now, I understand and acknowledge that the role of D1 Athletic Director is a complex job with many different constituents and responsibilities, many being ones that are unseen by even the most engaged alumni and students. On the most important key metrics though, the athletic department is a shadow of its once former self. Judy should take this opportunity to retire before the alumni movement destroys any shred of legacy she has left.
This alumni movement is coming to a boiling point. The guys over at Bring Back the Buzz are printing Fire Judy shirts, Twitter is aflame (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FireJudyRose?src=hash), and the media coverage is starting to intensify. Iām sure you saw the #FireJudyRose signs and heard the chants at the Charlotte v WF basketball game tonight. Take this opportunity for Judy to retire. Itās in her best interest and the Universityās best interest.
Charlotte deserves better. The student body deserves better. The alumni deserve better.
Now is the time for change, sacrifice and high courage. Dare to be great. Make the decisions that must be made.
Stay Green & Go Niners!
Matthew G. Murrow, Class of 2014, Belk College of Business
FSL Owner since 2013
clt says we have smart fans on this chat page.
has anyone recād any sort of a reply??
I know 1 person got the reply āwould you rather us be Louisville?ā
my answer would be: Yes
[quote=āpunchdrunk, post:154, topic:30865ā]has anyone recād any sort of a reply??
I know 1 person got the reply āwould you rather us be Louisville?ā
my answer would be: Yes[/quote]
If chapel hill Phil gives anyone else this same shallow reply, they need to respond with YES, LOUISVILLE HAS A MED SCHOOL.
[quote=ā49r9r, post:155, topic:30865ā][quote=āpunchdrunk, post:154, topic:30865ā]has anyone recād any sort of a reply??
I know 1 person got the reply āwould you rather us be Louisville?ā
my answer would be: Yes[/quote]
If chapel hill Phil gives anyone else this same shallow reply, they need to respond with YES, LOUISVILLE HAS A MED SCHOOL.[/quote]
They arenāt the University of Kentucky at Louisville either.
Dear Chancellor,
I am a 1990 graduate of the William States Lee College of Engineering, but my formative years were during the 1974-1983 years of college basketball dominance by the ACC. Despite this, my wife and I enjoyed a great run during and after my college days at UNCC and we have so many great memories of our successes of that time. We are DIEHARD college basketball fans and our memories are steeped in the Jeff Mullins/Bobby Lutz years of Charlotte menās basketball success. This led us to jump right into the 49er Club w/season tickets upon my graduation and I/we have maintained participation in the 49er Club to date.
My wife and I have been supporters of this university for 27 years. We have supported the the Athletic Foundation, the Charles Hayward Fund, the Menās Basketball team, and the Football team. We have been MBB season ticket holders since 1992 and purchased 4 FSLs in 2013. Inclusive of 2017, weāve been responsible for upwards of $65k in financial support of this school. Since 2005, weāve endured a lot of ups and downs and, while we understand that athletic program success comes and goes, we havenāt seen an upward trend in many of the athletic programs since 2010. Our Menās and Womenās basketball teams have performed marginally during this time (save from the 2010 and 2012 WBB seasons) and the football team has failed to show significant improvement during its first five years despite competing in a weak conference. We have attended all football and basketball games this year, although we left many games by halftime after disgust, most notably our only football win versus UAB and our MBB game against Wake Forest.
My wife and I are at or nearing retirement age, and with that, our six-figure income along with other financial instruments have been available for the support of this university. However, we clearly see that there is a common denominator to the lack of success of 49er Athletics and that is the current Athletic Director, Judy Rose. While we realize that she doesnāt coach teams, she IS responsible for the hiring of coaches and supporting staffs that are under performing. Judy has done a remarkable job as an ambassador of our university w.r.t. athletic leadership since 1990. Nonetheless, we are less than confident in her ability to manage these programs successfully going forward. As such, you can NOT count on our support of the athletic programs in the future until a change in leadership is made.
The ball is now in your court Chancellor. Please encourage our Athletic Director to resign while she still has a somewhat positive legacy to leave with this proud institution.
Best Regards,
Tony Poovey P.E.
Classes of 1990/92
xxx-xxx-xxxx
49erClub rank - (look me up)
Nice letter Poovdog! Too nice however. :-* I thought you were a 1980 graduate.
I graduated from āHarvard on the Highwayā in 1980.
Thatās a strong letter, will be interesting to see if he takes his typical demeaning tone with that one.