This is the definitive place to discuss everything that makes life on & off campus so unique in Central Virginia.

Moderators: jcmanson, Sly Fox, BuryYourDuke

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By Just John
Registration Days Posts
#607470
rhezick wrote: August 25th, 2020, 10:35 am
gerb wrote: August 25th, 2020, 10:30 am
Sly Fox wrote: August 25th, 2020, 8:46 am I haven't talked to Mark in years. A decade ago he offered me a job at his firm and we used to be in touch regularly for a period of time. He has recovered from his cancer treatments at last check. He would make a strong board member with a track record of holding adminstrators accountable.

Gerb - I feel you on your concerns. You will not likely find a more passionate person on this board than me about rooting out sexual abuse in the church. We as Evangelicals have come a long way in acknowledging the horrific nature of this sin and the impact on the victims and the witness of the church to the lost. My grandfather who passed away a few years ago there in Lynchburg bravely exposed covered up sin at the largest church in America back in the '80s. It cost him friendships, financial support and resulted in death threats for years. Interestingly enough the only Christian leader who was willing to stand by my grandfather through this time was Doc. I have counseled churches through staff sex scandals over the years and have been consistent in shedding light on the darkness and supporting the victims the way Scripture demands us.

This only makes the events of the past few days all the more ironic and sad. Doc spent his entire life in full recognition of what a scandal like this would do to the university and his ministry. It is a primary reason he didn't follow the trend at the time of naming his school after himself when Oral Roberts and Jimmy Swaggart had their names front & center. Apparently his eldest wasn't paying close enough attention.

I am sure the board will hire a search firm. A guy I know here in Houston leads the largest Christian ministry leadership search firm. It will be interesting to see if the board hires them or a secular search firm with proven track record. What I hope they avoid us setting up their own internal search committee. The credibility of the board is so low right now that such an endeavor could be disastrous.

I do suspect that the board is consulting with Mart Green who shepherded ORU through their own scandal-plagued recovery.
I don't know Mark but have observed his body of work in the PR business and its revolting. Church after church hiring his firm to do damage control and spinning their disastrous coverup of sexual abusers and abuse of victims.

Doc is my hero but hasn't always been. After graduating, I thought he was over the top for example referring to Ellen as Ellen Degenerate. However, now that pedowood is coming to light, I think Doc was more red pilled than any of us can imagine. Its also probably one the reasons he never hitched his wagon to the SBC. I'm not surprised that Doc defended your grandfather. He was the real deal which is VERY rare as a nationally know Christian.

I agree with those that say we should move away from the attraction of big names in christian circles. After 30 years of observing, running in circles near some of the biggest leaders in the church today and observing mind boggling indifference regarding the sexual abuse of children and members to outright defense and active coverup, I've come to realize the following reality.

- There is a deep church.
- The Vatican is satanic to the core and is covertly pulling the strings of almost every denomination
- Almost every "big name" christian "leader" is a controlled puppet usually controlled via sexual deviancy
- They move their respective organization further and further away from the gospel and truth over time and are incredibly deceptive
- When instructed, the puppets will suddenly consolidate christians behind the pope and a world church
- And most christians will fall for it.

Make no mistake, there are those that are all over LU and the BoT right now putting on a full court press to install their next leader that will carry out their agenda, weaken LU over time and eventually turn us into Baylor or worse.

I believe God blew up Jerry's boat because he loves LU and because of the lifetime of prayers from Doc (and many others), a man who truly loved his savior. I pray the next chancellor of LU knows and loves the Lord like Doc did.
Did you just Jesus juke us into Qanon?
I was waiting for the "George Soros is funding it all"
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By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#607476
Ad in the other thread....
For those of us who ha e to read these threads while driving, could you all try to keep your posts under 37 paragraphs in length please? Thanks!
By rogers3
Registration Days Posts
#607485
olldflame wrote: August 25th, 2020, 11:02 am
Jonathan Carone wrote: August 25th, 2020, 10:16 am For those of you who know more about University leadership, can you fill in some blanks for me? What positions do we need in executive leadership and what are their primary roles/responsibilities?

President
Chancellor
Provost
COO
I don't know the specifics on roles, but JR was both President and Chancellor. COO is Randy Smith and Provost is Scott Hicks, who has only been in that role for 2 years. Hicks was hired as a professor in 07 and has been promoted 3 times.

Smith told me that he was pretty much done after the end of Spring 2020. He was on his way out and seemed ready. He really wasn't qualified to run the organization but was certainly a yes man. Remember, his past Admin experience was running WSET, so there is that.
Provost is to Academics what the AD is to sports. The provost should have a strong background in Academics and teaching. Heady would have been a strong candidate for Provost according to several faculty members I have spoken with. Hicks, while nice, isn't really qualified to do anything other than teach sub-Masters business classes. Quick MBA (from LU, of course) then online doctorate during his time as the head of the Business Department. He once tried to hire one of my counterparts; aftersharing that he could void any part of the contract that seemed to cramp one's lifestyle, my counterpart declined the job. Hick's wife is probably more qualified to be an academic administrator.
Clean out the lot of them.
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By Sly Fox
Registration Days Posts
#607489
Frankly the chancellor title is not really necessary. Doc used it to show that he had final say even though he wasn't involved in daily operations which were run by the president. But typically that title is ued to show the chief administrator for a system of colleges.

The president is supposed to be someone who oversees both academic & operations side of the university. At LU that should also include some spirirtual leadership as well. As referenced earlier, the COO title typically at many universities would be referred to as Executive VP of Operations. But I recognize the COO title seems to be embraced by more and more non-profit institutions. The provost is the academic leader of the university. Typically most provosts are considered heir apparents to slide into president roles. They need to have impeccable credentials and the full respect of the faculty.

Sadly over the years many of the folks who would have been good fits in some of these roles didn't play the internal politics game the way that would have positioned for those seats. Some left out of frustration and others were pushed out the door. We have a number of folks who fall into these categories posting here from time to time.

In other words, our next hire needs to be someone who can lead a reorganization of the leadership that honors meritocracy. This will not be an easy job as the entire organization had been set up to support the vision of the leader who is no longer here. If I am a candidate considering the assignment, I would have to possess considerable concern about the two years ahead where I will likely be very unpopular with most of the people surrounding me.

The good news in all of this is that in spite of all that has occurred, the university remains a rare species in being fully committed to Evangelical orthodoxy while have the resources to compete with other major universities who have a differing viewpoint. I am confident that there will be some that will relish the opportunity to take LU to the next level based on its original mission.
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By Sly Fox
Registration Days Posts
#607500
Quick followup: Emily Heady is taking the high road on Facebook today as anyone who knows her would expect. I'd still love to see her return to LU whether in the short term or longterm.

As for thread lengths, good luck with that request under these circumstances.
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By ballah09
Registration Days Posts
#607511
Sly Fox wrote: August 25th, 2020, 12:50 pm Quick followup: Emily Heady is taking the high road on Facebook today as anyone who knows her would expect. I'd still love to see her return to LU whether in the short term or longterm.

As for thread lengths, good luck with that request under these circumstances.

What did she say? I would love her to be the next president or provost.
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By Sly Fox
Registration Days Posts
#607514
I wouldn't want to quote her directly without permission. In essence she indicates that with every development she has been flooded with messages from friends in the LU community looking for her reaction. She has no schadenfreude and speaks glowingly of her Liberty experience in spite of what went down three years ago. She does mention that she expects there will be more revelations to come. That sounds a bit ominous.
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By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#607517
Sly Fox wrote: August 25th, 2020, 12:50 pm Quick followup: Emily Heady is taking the high road on Facebook today as anyone who knows her would expect. I'd still love to see her return to LU whether in the short term or longterm.

As for thread lengths, good luck with that request under these circumstances.
Well if I get in a car accident I’m totally blaming you long poster people!
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By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#607532
olldflame wrote: August 25th, 2020, 1:31 pm I seem to recall an oooooooooooold conversation on this board where "SuperJon" defended himself for texting and driving. 8)
Technically this is t texting. It’s posting. Or typing. And reading. And driving.
#607547
olldflame wrote: August 25th, 2020, 1:31 pm I seem to recall an oooooooooooold conversation on this board where "SuperJon" defended himself for texting and driving. 8)
Funny how people can grow up and realize things they used to do weren't the best thing to be doing.
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By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#607550
Jonathan Carone wrote: August 25th, 2020, 2:12 pm
olldflame wrote: August 25th, 2020, 1:31 pm I seem to recall an oooooooooooold conversation on this board where "SuperJon" defended himself for texting and driving. 8)
Funny how people can grow up and realize things they used to do weren't the best thing to be doing.
Or they get better at it! :D
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By thepostman
Registration Days Posts
#607553
Some people are oddly obsessed with you Jon. Go ahead and search back on my post history. You will see a lot of stupid things from when I was a college student 10+ years ago.

Anyways...

Over/Under on if we will get a new permanent president before the end of the academic year? I see us going the whole academic year with the current acting president and changes coming this summer. What do you guys think the timeline will look like?
#607554
thepostman wrote: August 25th, 2020, 2:23 pm Some people are oddly obsessed with you Jon. Go ahead and search back on my post history. You will see a lot of stupid things from when I was a college student 10+ years ago.

Anyways...

Over/Under on if we will get a new permanent president before the end of the academic year? I see us going the whole academic year with the current acting president and changes coming this summer. What do you guys think the timeline will look like?
Optimistically, quick and calculated to where by the end of this semester the "deep cleaning" is done. Everyone who enabled or knew about Jr. should be gone, and LU should hopefully have a clear spiritual and educational direction under a godly leader.
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By Sly Fox
Registration Days Posts
#607560
A proper search will take a few months. The goal should be to have someone in place to start the new calendar year. But honestly I could see this lingering for awhile if we don't have clear direction from the BoT.
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By thepostman
Registration Days Posts
#607563
They are scheduled to have a meeting in person soon according to their press release to discuss the next steps forward. I, for one, would much rather see a slow, methodical approach. This is new for our institution so they need to make sure they get as much outside help as possible.
#607568
thepostman wrote:They are scheduled to have a meeting in person soon according to their press release to discuss the next steps forward. I, for one, would much rather see a slow, methodical approach. This is new for our institution so they need to make sure they get as much outside help as possible.
My hope would be to come to a decision on a new President by the end of the school year and have them in place by the 2021-2022 year.
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By TH Spangler
Registration Days Posts
#607569
Sly Fox wrote: August 25th, 2020, 2:33 pm A proper search will take a few months. The goal should be to have someone in place to start the new calendar year. But honestly I could see this lingering for awhile if we don't have clear direction from the BoT.
Charleston Southern University used CarterBaldwin Executive Search.
By ballah09
Registration Days Posts
#607571
I think we're stuck with Prevo until next year or at least January the earliest. They need outsiders to do the searching and the vetting. We can't afford to have another mishap.

I just hope we get an academically sound person who's apolitical. It can't be that hard to ask for.
#607572
thepostman wrote: August 25th, 2020, 2:23 pm Over/Under on if we will get a new permanent president before the end of the academic year? I see us going the whole academic year with the current acting president and changes coming this summer. What do you guys think the timeline will look like?
Prevo and the board will take the fall semester to investigate things and give a little bit of stability in the interim. I'd expect the search for the new president to start next spring with him/her in place July 1 of next year.
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