He gives all journalism grads a chance at getting a prez job. I'll be 70 next month, so I'm just reaching my Biden years.
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He gives all journalism grads a chance at getting a prez job. I'll be 70 next month, so I'm just reaching my Biden years.
Louisiana Tech University
Flagship of the University of Louisiana System
Now that it's a done deal, folks are feeling freer to talk. Learned last night, from some folks who are definitely in-the-know, that Henderson was selected as prez of NSU with the understanding he wouldn't make any major changes to faculty or staff for at least 2 years. State legislators from this area and whom had connections to NSU wanted an easy...i.e. no political upheavals...transition from Dr. Webb to Henderson. At the same time Henderson was going through the hiring process for the NSU job, his alma mater, Dr. Sandra Woodley suddenly resigned as ULS president, March, 2015. Dr. Dan Reneau was appointed as a temporary ULS prez while a search began to replace her. Woodley is now president of the Univ. of Texas-Permian Basin. Some people think this unexpected occurrence changed everything for Henderson. Now, instead of NSU being his dream job, the lure of the president of the system was attractive to him. He was tabbed by the board as a strong candidate, but he needed some experience in the UL system...whallah! perfect, 18 months at NSU was enough of an excuse for them to name him prez of the ULS. Thus, Henderson did not have time to implement the changes that needed to be made at NSU. He had a "no major change" mandate for 2 years, and he was gone after 1 1/2 years.
What does this mean? Well, according to some, Henderson will make the changes needed at Tech. Not right of way, as Henderson will want to see for himself who can stay and who needs to go. If he has no "no change" mandate then this could happen fairly quickly, but probably not for at least a year, in most cases. These folks are dyed-in-the-wool NSU people, which means, by definition, they despise Tech. It's in their DNA. They are expressing a jealousy, envy that Henderson is at their sworn enemy, Tech, and not back at NSU. So! you are probably thinking, well then, this bodes well for Tech. Obviously, I HOPE so. I know Henderson is smart and is very capable of doing good things, but...
Here's my "but." He is ambitious and I wonder if he sees Tech as a destination job, where he plans to stay for some 15 years and build Tech into everything our great alma mater can be, or, if this is just another steppingstone for him. In his short 18 months at NSU he made some very questionable decisions, even as he was not supposed to implement any significant changes. Final verdict, since the majority of the faculty/staff at NSU were not impacted they think he did a good job while there. Some of them don't realize, even to this day, their heads might have been on the chopping block had he stayed at least 2 years.
So, again, I hope he does a great job for Tech. Then, again, I hoped the same thing for Coach Crummy....
He definitely needs to make "major changes" to faculty, as in "hire some."
He needs to “fire some” too.Originally Posted by Blue Dawg
Too many cronies and crooks with “jobs”
The ULS board is feeling its oats, eh. Named Rick Gallot, the prez of Grambling, the new ULS president, again without any search or process. Suppose he'll favor Grambling getting the "lion's share" of funding over the poor saps at McNeese, Nicholls, etc...
If the governor has any stroke, Landry should immediately fire the entire ULS board...and do it without any "search" or process.
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Yep. Making some appontments before the new guv.
Louisiana Tech University
Flagship of the University of Louisiana System
I hope Henderson will bring the "demand for excellence" like FJ Taylor did.
We MUST ramp up the marketing of our athletics, and gear it toward the younger "always had social media accounts" folks and to the old school people as well. I don't see very much pre-game marketing; maybe I am out of the loop. I think HogDawg has shown what a great job North Texas does in the past. There's no shame in Tech following the marketing plans NT has used. I just don't see the level of outbound engagement from Tech that is needed to grow.
Wild idea, but why not reach out to other "college town", outside of major/medium TV market university Presidents and ADs and have a summit of sorts? Discuss how to grow, or at least maintain in the current age of Portal/NIL/everything TV world. Tech has to get creative or else it, along with other schools like it, will get left behind.
That train has already left the station.
We have marketing?
The problem is we don't know who we are, so we can't actually market anything. I wish we would stop trying to be LSU North. We aren't going to pick up fans by claiming that nonsense. Tulane is starting to proclaim that. ULL tried that. It doesn't work.
I am in the church world and the analogy is, my church isn't First West or Temple or Life Church or whatever mega-church you want to name, so do I try to offer all the bells and whistles of these mega-churches: coffee, bookstores, jungle gyms, Kids game rooms, youth bowling alleys, etc... OR do I find the right niche that works for my church?
I doubt that ANYONE at Tech has ever done a SWOT analysis for their athletics programs. So I also highly doubt that ANYONE at Tech could tell you what they are good at and what they are bad at, much less what works and what doesn't work. If they had done such things they might understand that Tech was known for its high-flying pass-driven air raid offense, QB U is our history. Not pro style, not West Coast, not Power Running. High-tempo fun and gun. People showed up for that. Even losses were fun. They might have also discovered that Tech tailgating was at its apex before we kept cutting the parking lot off for gold tags that never showed at 8:30 AM! They might have also discovered that eliminating student tailgating in the park also eliminates students at the games. They might have also discovered that adding more restrictions to ticket sales doesn't actually increase ticket sales. On and on and on...
TLDR - No one at the school has any clue about Tech athletics. No one.
(Don't believe me? I talked to an ex-employee there who said all they did while they were there was bang their head against the wall because nobody got it. So please someone keep telling me that this next president "gets it.")
At least Tech’s sports have a chance at a changed direction which obviously wasn’t going to happen under Guice. I can’t see that any kind grace period or evaluation is necessary since there are already years of underachieving to go by. The longer it takes Tech to start anew the longer it’s going to take to get anywhere better and the institution can’t afford that. If Henderson has any genuine leadership in him he’ll jump with both feet into AD Wood’s business and get him straightened out January 2nd.
Hand Wood and Crummy, oh and that basketball coach, their walking papers. Storrs and Burroughs put on notice with definitive (but achievable) goals. Perform or out you go too.
This approach would be too logical. Won’t happen and I’m sure you know that too.
Interested in hearing thoughts and feelings about the appointment of Dr. Collin Wick as Dean of COES. Surely some of you folks must know him ??
Great points all. Also, it has been my experience that Tech and Ruston have never worked together and never will. If they wanted to make it work, the whole town would keep their businesses open until 2 hours prior to game time or open for a few hours after early games. Of course, we would also have to be playing on Saturday instead of frickin Tuesday. If people aren’t into tailgating, give them a reason to spend the day in Ruston until game time. Let parents of students in the games for free or cheaper to get them here staying at hotels, buying meals, concessions, and Tech apparel. Those may be terrible ideas, but it’s better than anyone at Tech has come up with or better than what the young visionaries are allowed to try.
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