Paul Davis
04/15/04 10:53AM
Just as Interim University (aka Auburn University) seemed
on the verge of filling a deanship for the Lowder College of Business -
a post vacant for four years - a not-so-strange development may slow down
or halt the process. Down to six finalists for the post, the search committee
has been told that interim dean John Jahera, a faculty member for more than
20 years, has the backing for the job of a powerful member of the Auburn
board of trustees, Bobby Lowder. The names of Lowderıs parents are emblazoned
across the front of the college.
³I donıt feel that I can now vote for him, although I was
planning too. That tie to Lowder ended my support,² one search committee
member said.
Committee members had been told not to discuss their work
or the fact that Lowder is apparently backing Jahera. Dr. Richard Saba,
a faculty member in the school of business for more than 30 years, was not
willing to be gagged. In fact, he was rather blunt: ³Lowderıs endorsement
has had a chilling effect on the search committee.² Auburn University, which
has an interim president, and interim athletics director and several interim
deanships, is currently under probation by its accrediting agency primarily,
for micromanagement by its trustees.
Dr. Saba said Lowderıs involvement once again in the day-to-day
affairs of the university is of serious concern to him, some other search
committee members, and probably will be cited by the Southern Association
of College and Schools and as another example of trustees operating outside
their accepted sphere of influence.
³It seems that every time we take one step forward at Auburn,
we take three steps back,² Dr. Saba said. He added that the finalists for
the deanıs job of the College of Business have been narrowed to six, and
that search committee members have been told not to mention publicly the
names of references given by the finalists.
³But Dr. Jahera told us his references and Lowderıs name
was on that list. He made public Lowderıs name. I donıt know why everything
has to be done in secret here at Auburn. It would just be so much easier
and so much better if everyone could just tell the truth,² he said. Saba
is a tenured professor and is not caught in the web of fear and intimidation
that seemingly permeates the university.
The University hired an executive search firm to identify
candidates for the post and as a part of the search contacts were made with
persons identified as personal references by the candidates. Lowder was
on Dr. Jaheraıs list and was contacted by the search firm to get Lowderıs
recommendation on Jahera.
³When you have a trustee, especially Bobby Lowder, backing
a candidate, it certainly makes the search committee rethink how they plan
to vote - in either way,² Saba added. The search committee is expected to
make its recommendation to the Provost Tom Hanley and then Interim President
Ed Richardson is expected to name a new dean. Whether Lowderıs involvement
will slow the process or incur the additional wrath of SACS has yet to be
determined.
The University had hoped to have a new dean for the business
college in place by the beginning of the universityıs fall term. Thereıs
been a run on whiteout at Wal-Mart since the current AU fiasco began. Names
of references are being removed from the resumes, a faculty member said.
The search committee is chaired by Dr. Larry Benefield, head of the AU Engineering
Department.
Committee members are being told not to divulge the name
of references or any other details of the committeeıs work. ³We have been
told not to talk,² another professor said. ³Lowderıs involvement changes
thingsplease donıt mention my name. ³I think itıs inappropriate for a board
member to say 'Dear Mr. Provost and President, youıre selecting a new dean
and this one has my recommendation. With everybody talking about board members
being involved with everything, I was surprised to see this involvement.
³If you were the distinguished banker in question (Lowder)
wouldnıt you say I donıt think I should be saying things like that in public?ı
Iım sure that with the way Mr. Lowder thinks about things that would certainly
have crossed his mind because of all the trouble the university is in due
to the board membersı involvement in everything.
³I put this whole thing under the heading of wow how could
this be happening.ı There has been a lot of misbehaving at the top level
in the college (of business) and I had always believed that the reason they
could get by with these things was because the past president and the past
provost (at Auburn) chose not to get involved because these people in the
school of business have direct ties to certain board (of trustees) members,²
he said. (There is another internal candidate for the position, Professor
Sharon Oswald. She is a mere woman and members of Auburnıs board havenıt
shown an inclination to elevate women or blacks. Remember Lowder getting
rid of his nemesis, Betty DeMent, last month? She was the highest-ranking
female administrator on campus.)
Auburnıs interim president Ed Richardson says things are
changing. Seems like business as usual to me. (Paul Davis writes a Sunday
column for the OA News. He may be contacted at
pauldavis@bellsouth.net)
Paul Davis
03/26/04 12:31PM
>>> Paul Davis col March 28 2004
The federal government decided to take over my care and
feeding a few months ago. They said they would also care for my bride. I
realize that I donıt look it, but I have turned 65 and from now until I
die (when the government will pay $250 for my burial) Iım on easy street.
Thereıs only one problem. I donıt want to be a kept man. I donıt want the
government to take care of me. That never has been an acceptable alternative
for me.
Guess what? I donıt have any say in the matter. I can turn
down Medicare, but I canıt continue my regular Blue Cross. Go figure.
Iıve paid a Blue Cross premiums all my life for my family.
Medicare says it will now provide that care, but it most certainly wonıt.
Thatıs why I now must purchase supplemental coverage from Blue Cross to
take care of gaps in coverage and payments not handled by Medicare. After
a deductible, Blue Cross paid 80 percent of my drug bills - a staggering
amount of money. Medicare pays nothing.
Not to worry worry. Medicaid says help with my drugs is
on the way in the form of a discount card. I can get 15 per cent off the
list price of the drugs. Of course I can get 50 per cent off the same bills
if I order them from Canada, but the federal government says itıs illegal
for me to save that money.
Isnıt it strange what we allow the government to do for
us? If the government would simply stay out of my life and let me pay my
own way as Iıve done all my life, Iıd be very happy. Iıd even settle for
a health plan that members of Congress provide for themselves.
Iım having a terrible time with medications. I take a handful
of pills morning noon and night. They are prescribed by a consortium of
local physicians who are all conspiring against me.
All the newspaper, magazine and TV ads tell us to talk
to our physicians about certain drugs. I keep asking my doctors and I usually
get strange looks. I asked my internist recently if I should be taking a
certain drug. He said, ³Are you having night sweats and hot and cold flashes.²
Heck, I didnıt know it was a female drug. The ad didnıt say.
Are we to self-prescribe today? It wasnıt long ago that
the names of drug were known only to the doctors. They told us to take them
and we did. Now, theyıre all over the magazines and TV. I found 20 pages
of pill stuff in last weekıs Time and Newsweek magazines.
One asked, ³When do ordinary legs become killer legs? It
said that "Aventis" is wonderful for people with killer legs. I think I
have killer legs. I look good in short britches.
The only folks spending more money on air time today than
the politicians are the pharmaceutical companies pushing pills for men who
want to be 16 again. Thereıs Viagra, Levitra and the Cadillac of all male
pills, Cialis. Some of these little miracles sound too good to be true.
The front pages of the ads show a fellow waltzing his bride across a field
of clover. Iım allergic to clover. All the fine print about all these wonder
drugs is contained on the back paid and is in print smaller than the conditions
of an apartment lease for a college student.
I read all that stuff, not that I would ever take any of
those pills. There was that same old warning, ³Talk to your doctor before
taking." My doctor hates to see me coming.
The wonder pills for men said be careful if you heave heart
problems such as angina, heart failure, irregular heart beat, have low blood
pressure, if you have had a stroke, any family members with a rare heart
condition known as prolongation of the QT interval, long QT syndrome, have
liver problems, kidney problems, on dialysis, have retinitis, stomach ulcers,
have a bleeding problem, have a blood cell problem or have a mother-in-law
living with you.
I can figure out all that without a visit to the doctor:
The only folks well enough to take that stuff donıt need it.
No foul play in Tuskegee fire
Fire marshal releases report on blaze that destroyed historic buildings
Associated Press and Mitch Sneed Opelika-Auburn News Thursday, March
25, 2004
TUSKEGEE -- The Alabama state fire marshal found no evidence of foul
play or arson in the Feb. 10 fire that destroyed three historic buildings
in downtown Tuskegee.
A report on the fire was released Wednesday, but no cause
was determined in the blaze that destroyed offices of prominent civil rights
attorney Fred Gray, The Tuskegee News and others.
"I had hoped that when the report came that we'd know what
caused it and we'd have some closure," Tuskegee News Publisher Paul Davis
said. "I guess we still don't know. It just blows my mind."
The report notes that a few interviews still need to be
completed, but officials said the status of the case is not likely to change.
"I don't think there's going to be anything that will affect
the bottom line of the report, unless there's something out there that has
not been made available to us at this point," said Ragan Ingram, a spokesman
for the state fire marshal's office.
The five-page report indicates the three buildings were
unoccupied for hours leading up to the early morning fire. The buildings,
estimated to be between 125 and 150 years old, had old wiring in places,
and at least one of them had a window heater unit, the report said.
The fire destroyed many historical documents from the civil
rights movement that were stored in the office of Gray, who represented
Rosa Parks in her landmark bus desegregation case and later the victims
of the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study.
Gray said he and his staff are trying to move forward,
regardless of the fire's cause.
"We are up and running and we contemplate rebuilding,"
he said from a temporary office.
Also destroyed were the offices of the community action
center and The Tuskegee News, which once featured columns by famed black
educators Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver.
Davis said the staff has set up in temporary offices just
behind the old building and has offices for production in Auburn as well.
"We're doing fine and things are moving on," Davis said.
"I just wish they had some idea of what caused it. We heard so many things.
We may never know now."
Paul Davis
03/19/04 02:45PM
Paul Davis col March 18 2004
Is this March Madness or what?
I thought CBS had exclusive rights to the name and the
event. But, no, not even the basketball games to select a national champion
can match the unfolding of events on the Auburn University campus.
Interim President Dr. Ed Richardson, who came in with a
mandate to clear up the sordid affairs at AU, is using the wide swath of
a bush hog, rather than moving forward with a well-honed meat axe.
He has said in recent days that he was going to make some
changes that would displease the trustees. Heck, he has made so many changes
so quickly that he has managed to alienate every constituent group on campus
in one way or another.
Bush hogs will take your row crops out at the same time
that it clears the weeds.
Letıs see, now, David Housel, Auburn athletics director,
is the lamest of lame ducks; AU basketball coach Cliff Ellis bit the dust
Thursday morning and Betty DeMent, vice president for Alumni Affairs, was
told to clean out her desk and turn in her keys on Wednesday.
Dr. Richardson may have misread his charge from the board
and was confused over the acronym of the name of the Southern Association
of Colleges and Schools (SACS). He may have confused that with the word
³sacks.² Whoıs next? Spin the wheel. Where it stops nobody knows.
In recent weeks the talk has always been about the four
³Hıs:² - Housel, Hachtel, Heilman and Hanley. John Hachtel is director of
communications and marketing; John Heilman is senior adviser to the president;
Thomas Hanley is provost.
Are the firings meant to please SACS, the accrediting agency
that has placed Auburn on probation? I canıt see that happening. In fact,
changes being made now may enhance SACSı findings that the same folks -
trustees - are still making management decisions.
Fire all those folks and you still have a band of five
trustees - Bobby Lowder, Jack Miller, Paul Spina, Earlon McWhorter and Jimmy
Rane in firm control. They were the ones SACS was talking about when it
cited the board as having too many interlocking relationships. Four with
umbilical cords to Bobby Lowder and his Colonial Bank firmly in place.
Auburn has no problem with its academic programs. SACS
gave the University high marks on academics, but failing grades on governance.
Why? Because of its board.
So why fire Betty DeMent? Thatıs an easy one. Lowder wanted
her gone. Heıd wanted her gone years ago. Why? She proved to be a rather
uppity woman. She allowed letters from angry alums to be printed the alumnus.
I mean, she allowed them full expression, freedom of speech. She did that
at the behest of her board. You canıt do that in a magazine with a full-page
ad for Colonial Bank on the back cover.
She also stripped Lowder of his vanity credit cards issued
through his bank and shut down his attempts a few years back to stuff the
ballot box with alumni board members of his choice. DeMent is the ONLY female
on the administrative team at AU. The only female vice president at Auburn.
Possibly the lowest paid vice president at the University. Surely a sacrificial
lamb to satisfy her most adamant critic, Bobby Lowder. She received a one
percent raise last year. The men got 20 to 30 percent increases. She has
a lawsuit just waiting to happen. She retained big-bucks lawyer Jere Beasley,
an AU grad, several weeks ago.
Will her firing convince SACS that the board (Lowder) isnıt
still running Auburn University?
The nominations of two more individuals to serve on the
AU board were announced Wednesday. They are Charles McCrary, head of Alabama
Power, and Virginia Thompson, director of marketing at East Alabama Medical
Center. The nominees, whose names go now to the Alabama Senate for confirmation,
were selected on 3-2 votes by a committee composed of two AU trustees, the
president and vice president of the Alumni Association and Alabama Gov,
Bob Riley.
Earlier nominees were selected with unanimous votes. In
a strange twist, the selection of Virginia Thompson gives the hospital,
which also operates a medical clinic on the campus of Auburn University,
the possibly of having two hospital employees on the Auburn board.
Golda McDaniel, a major supporter of Lowder, recently moved
to Auburn and is now employed at EAMC.
It is obvious Lowder engineered a trade off - if Housel
is going to be fired, DeMent had to go. Lowder wants to regain control of
the Alumni Board and the firing of DeMent is the first step.
The alumni board has two members on the trustee nominations
committee. The board of trustees adds two of its members to the selection
committee. The governor is the fifth member, the swing vote. Lowder does
long-range, strategic planning. He has spent 15 years fashioning the trustee
board to his liking with a majority beholden to him in some way. When his
term as a trustee ends in about 36 months, he needs to have the alumni board
stacked just right.
(Paul Davis writes a weekly column for the OA News. You may contact him
at pauldavis@bellsouth.net.)
Paul Davis
03/18/04 01:28PM
Housel heads out
Maybe four months too late
Our View
March 18, 2004
Athletic Director David Housel started out right.
When he came to Auburn in the summer of 1965, he said his goal in life
was to be sports editor of The Auburn Plainsman.
He worked in print journalism, served as adviser to The Plainsman for
eight years and moved to media relations.
In a January interview with The Plainsman, he said he never thought of
becoming athletic director until then-President William Muse encouraged
him to go for it in 1994.
Tuesday, after more than 30 years on the University payroll, Housel
announced his retirement, complete with snazzy press release lauding his
many accomplishments.
We can't speak for Housel. We don't know if he's happy with his story's
last chapter. We don't know when he sold out along the way. All we know
is he somehow managed to get out without looking forced out.
Angry Auburn fans demanded Housel's resignation following Petrinogate.
Auburn journalism affiliates counted him lost when he walked out during
the 1999 Communications Board hearing of a Plainsman editor. Housel got
out just in time to avoid a censuring vote.
It's a shame, that the man who dedicated his life to Auburn would leave
without giving it the legacy it needs.
Housel's going to keep the code of silence that seems so popular these
days.
In a lifetime of work at Auburn, Housel learned how to avoid sticky
situations and on-the-record interviews, but he never learned how to
leave a legacy. Now it's too late.
Paul Davis
03/05/04 11:08AM
Paul Davis col March 8 2004
Dr. Ed Richardson is really worried about Auburn Universityıs financial
woes.
I mean really, really worried. Somber tones worried.
Heıs the interim president of AU and in the first meeting with his new
bosses, the trustees of Auburn University, he said:
³The chances of increased state aid to higher education are not good. If
we start the discussion now, I believe we can make increasing changes over
the next six months to avoid spending more than we are taking in.²
Last week, he stood in frigid winds and showers in front of the Alabama
Statehouse and told 2,000 college students from around the state they should
brace for more tuition increases because colleges and universities simply
donıt have enough money.
He has told AU trustees that some programs may have to be cut back or
eliminated, coupled with tuition and fee increases.
Iım shocked! How can this be true? We have been told for years that
Auburn is in better financial shape than any university or college in the
state. It is raking in millions in gifts from alumni.
More tuition increases? Program cutbacks? Why? Hasnıt Auburn raised
tuition by almost 40 per cent in just three years under three different
presidents?
And Dr. Richardson is talking about making it even more difficult for
Alabamaıs young people to attend AU.
One beautiful female student at last weekıs student rally in Montgomery,
held a large cardboard sign which said she would ³Work for tuition.²
Whatıs wrong with this picture? The stateıs richest universitytuition
rates going out of reachprivate jets to ferry trustees FROM BIRMINGHAM TO
AUBURN rich trustees who truly love Auburn.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways:
A $270,000 annual salary for a president who has been fired.
Millions in attorneysı fees paid with University tax dollars to fight
those who question anything these FOOTBALL trustees do.
Millions in public relation and spin-doctor fees to do the impossible:
make these football trustees look good.
Today, cranes are swinging into place components for new skyboxes at
Jordan-Hare.
Head football trustee Bobby Lowder gives $4.2 million to the Athletics
Department for a state-of-the-art schoolhouse for athletes. (Are the
thousands of empty classrooms after 5 p.m. not adequate?) Not a dime for the
academic side.
I get the feeling that very little is actually changing at Auburn. A
week ago during a visit in my office, I asked Dr. Richardson if it was true
that his daughter was working for Colonial Bank.
He went on the defensive immediately. Our conversation was quickly
terminated after he had spent close to an hour listening to the Terry Bowden
tapes in which Bowden charged that several sitting trustees engaged in a
pay-for-play scheme for AU football players.
I was surprised to see his response when the O-A News inquired about his
daughterıs employment. He told them it was none of their business.
Well, it is some of their business. Perception is the name of the game.
It has been disclosed that a majority of Auburnıs trustees have business
connection, loans or other ties to Lowder. Now, it is learned, the president
does, too, and had them when he was a member of the board of trustees. The
football trustees all feed from the same trough.
Why didnıt Richardson disclose his tie when the governor asked him about
becoming interim president?
(For the record, Richardsonıs daughter, Laura Richardson, is not some
low-level employee. She is a senior vice president. She works in Bobby
Lowderıs Colonial Center in Montgomery and in Atlanta.)
Iıll bet SACS will love that.
You still cannot get information out of Auburn in a timely and honest
fashion. It took two days for the PR types to even acknowledge that Walker
was on the payroll.
John Hachtel, communications boss, said Dr. Walker resigned from the
presidency, not the university. He remains as a tenured professor. O.K.,
then why not pay him a tenured professorıs salary instead of 270,000 grand?
And would it be too much to ask that he do some work?
Did he sign one of those pledges ³not to speak evil of Auburn²? He did not,
Hachtel said.
So heıll draw about $1,000-plus PER DAY until June, 2005 because he has an
³unwritten contract.² Those are the best kind. The devil is in the details.
Students may have to pay a little more so that the university can continue
to pay the ex-president $5,000 per year more than the interim president. We
need to start the search for a new president now. Interim President
Richardson could be special counsel to the permanent president and them
ex-president once-removed Walker could by vice special council to ex-interim
president Richardson - provided neither of them are able to obtain a job
with Colonial.
Whatıs the big deal of the title ³Special Counsel to the president²?
Hachtel: The title was intended for short-term use to hold Dr. Walker on the
payroll until President Richardson decided how Dr. Walker would transition
from the presidency.² Thatıs nice PR language. It means it took a little
time for the scheme to be put together.
Dr. Walker has no office in Samford Hall, no office on campus, no telephone
number and will not be required to do any work. Only in America! Only at
Auburn University!
Walker should wear a towel over his head when he goes to the mailbox to pick
up his check.
Gov. Bob Riley said he knew nothing about such an arrangement. Trustee
board chairman Earlon McWhorter said he knew nothing of the arrangement.
Whoıs minding the store over there?
State politicians and education officials beg for more funding for
education, as Richardson did on the Statehouse steps last week. But can you
ever sell an increase in taxes with the flagrant mismanagement of the
stateıs largest university?
Soon, a million-dollar-plus retirement package will be announced for
David Housel, Auburnıs athletics director. He does have a contact and it
just rolled over. Auburn will buy that contract just to have him gone. That
may be part of an agreement with NCAA to settle charges that Auburn buys
basketball players, too.
Before the official NCAA probe started, Auburn said for months that it had
done nothing wrong. Then, before the committee, it admitted to a few ³minor²
violations. Canıt get the truth of that, either.
On the continuing investigation of Auburn by the Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools (SACS), a former member of several panels that looked
at member school for SACS said there is little chance that Auburnıs
probation will be lifted anytime soon.
As long as you have four sitting trustees accused of serious violations
there is little, if any, chance that probation will be lifted, he said.
Those football trustees and their ties to Lowder and details of allegations
against them will be named in a scalding two-part series in The Sporting
News in the near future under the byline of Matt Hayes.
The articles pull no punches, names the coach who allegedly handled the
payroll for players along with the alleged involvement of his wife in what
is described as a ³Money laundering² scheme through Lowderıs Colonial Bank.
By the way, Dr. and Mrs. Walker were honored at a Wine and Cheese party
Wednesday at Greystone. Hosts were three of the beleaguered presidentıs
strongest supporters from the AU faculty, John Mouton, Barbara Struempler
and Paula Sullenger.
Apparently my invitation got lost the mail.
(Paul Davis writes a weekly column for the OA News. You may contact him at
pauldavis@bellsouth.net.)
The graduation rate for student athletes appears to be increasing every
year. Many universities are spending millions on facilities and tutors to
keep their athletes on track toward graduation.
The University of Georgia has found a way to help students succeed in
school without having to spend millions on special classrooms or tutors.
They are doing it with a single exam in which every enrolled athlete got
an ³A.² The teacher was Jim Harrick Jr., an assistant basketball coach
working for his father, Georgiaıs head coach.
We once laughed that student athletes took courses in basket weaving and
physical education. Harrick taught a class entitled ³Coaching Principles and
Strategies of Basketball.²
Details of that very successful program have been discussed across the
nation in recent days and have been talk-show fodder for millions.
Both Harrick Sr. and Herrick Jr. have been fired for several reasons, but
the test that junior left behind shows just how much college sports need
major reform.
Hereıs the test, no joke. How well will you score?
Coaching Principles and Strategies of Basketball final exam. (The
multiple-choice test was given in December 2001.)
1. How many goals are on a basketball court? 1 2 3 4.
2. How many players are allowed to play at one time on any one team in a
regulation game? 2 3 4 5.
3. In what league do the Georgia Bulldogs compete? ACC Big Ten SEC PAC 10'
4. What is the name of the coliseum where the Georgia Bulldogs play? Cameron
Indoor Arena Stegeman Coliseum Carrier Dome Pauley Pavilion
5. How many halves are in a college basketball game? 1 2 3 4 .
6. How many quarters are in a high school basketball game? 1 2 3 4.
7. How many points does one field goal account for in a basketball game? 1 2
3 4.
8. How many points does a 3-point field goal account for in a basketball
game? 1 2 3 4
9. How many officials referee a college basketball game? 2 4 6 3
10. How many teams are in the NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship
Tournament? 48 64 65 32
11. What is the name of the exam which all high school seniors in the state
of Georgia must pass? Eye Exam, How Do The Grits Taste Exam, Bug Control
Exam, Georgia Exit Exam
12. What basic color are the uniforms the Georgia Bulldogs wear in home
games? White Red Black Silver
13. What basic color are the uniforms the Georgia Bulldogs wear in away
games?
Pink Blue Orange Red
14 How many minutes are played in a college basketball contest? 20 40 60 90
15. Now many minutes is played in a high school basketball game? 15 30 32 45
16. Diagram the 3-point line
17. Diagram the half-court line
18. How many fouls is a player allowed to have in one basketball game before
fouling out in that game? 3 5 7 0
19. If you go on to become a huge coaching success, to whom will you tribute
the credit? Mike Krzyzewski, Bobby Knight, John Wooden Jim Harrick Jr.
20. In your opinion, who is the best Division I Assistant Coach in the
country? Ron Jirsa, John Pelphrey Jim Harrick Jr. Steve Wojciechowski
How pathetic. How sad. Itıs a given that a majority of todayıs superior
athletics are black. Is that why Harrick dumbed down his final exam? Was he
implying that blacks couldnıt make the grade academically? Reminds me of the
Mississippi sheriff back in the 60s who had sadistic fun with voting exams.
He liked to ask blacks trying to pass a votersı test: "How man bubbles are
there in a bar of soap.² Real cute.
He aimed to make sure backs didnıt succeed; Harrick was determined to see
that they did not fail. How demeaning.
Harrick shouldnıt have been just fired; he should have been tarred and
feathered.
***** ******* ****** ******
Do the math: Itıs been estimated that full tuition for 58 students
at Auburn would be available each year with the funds Auburn is paying its
disgraced former president William Walker for doing absolutely nothing,
(Paul Davis writes a weekly column for the OA News. You may contact him at
pauldavis@bellsouth.net.)
Paul Davis
Paul Davis 02/23/04 12:02PM
I have never been cited for any violation of the rules of the Southern
Association of Colleges and Schools.
I have never been cited for any violation of NCAA rules.
Auburn University trustees have been cited for repeatedly violating the
rules of one or both of these organizations which seek to have the
institutions they oversee play by the rules.
It is because of the actions of university trustees that SACS has placed one
of the nationıs finest universities on proration. Not for anything I have
done. Not for anything I have written. Auburn Universityıs faculty called
for the SACS investigation. SACS came and found that the charges by the
faculty were true. They placed the university on probation.
I wonder how the university can get off probation since at least four of its
sitting trustees have been charged with buying and paying football players.
Am 1 bringing Auburn down, or is that being done by trustees who break all
the rules. A majority of the trustees have direct financial links to the
boardıs most powerful trustee, Bobby Lowder. SACS said that Lowder is the
³de-facto² head of the athletics department. I didnıt say that, but I did
report what SACS said. Is SACS trying to bring down the University? It made
the changes. I simply reported them.
Now I have learned that even the interim president. Dr. Ed Richardson,
has an indirect tie to Lowder. His daughter actually works for Lowder. Now
that means that Paul Spina, Jack Miller, Byron Franking, Jimmy Rane, Lowell
Barron and interim president Richardson, John Blackwell, Earlon McWhorter
all have ties to Lowder, along with the late Jimmy Samford. SACS was
worried about that, too. It cited ³interlocking² business relationships
among the trustees.
Terry Bowden was determined to clean up what he said was Auburnıs dirty
little secret.
Paul Davis February 22,
2004
I drove by the site of my office in Tuskegee a week after the blaze that
destroyed it and the offices of famed civil right attorney Fred Gray.
It was still smoldering. One hundred and forty years of history. All
gone.
I met Gray there again. We hugged again. All his civil rights library was
gone; all the bound volumes of the newspaper were gone.
We had been told by firefighters and the mayor that the devastating fire had
started in the Masonic Lodge, upstairs over my office. We had been told of a
meeting in that upstairs office the night before.
We had been told that a space heater had been left on. We had been told that
there possibly was some faculty wiring.
WRONG! ALL WRONG!
Scott Pilgreen, deputy state fire marshal, visited with me in my Auburn
office Thursday and said this:
* The fire started in my office on the first floor.
He acknowledges that there were no space heaters in my office.
He acknowledged that my offices had been completely re-wired and were up
to code.
He said we would probably never know the cause of the fire.
We report, you decide.
Strange how the events of the past week have unfolded. Everybody who
contacted me mentioned arson. I donıt know that to be true, but Iıll always
be suspicious.
John Saunders from ABC-ESPN called me and asked about arson. I donıt know
what he said about that conversation on TV, but the telephone and e-mail
traffic again picked up in my office. What I told Saunders was this:
As I stood with Gray and watched the flames consume our buildings, we
recounted the civil rights years. He was a marcher. I was, too. But I was a
marching reporter. I told Gray that I stood in the schoolhouse door with
George Wallace, as a reporter, covering the desegregation of he University
of Alabama. Buford Boone, my publisher, won the Pulitzer Prize that year for
our attacks on the Ku Klux Klan.
I told Gray, and later Saunders, that I didnıt get as many death threats
while covering the Klan as I have received covering the corrupt dealings of
some of the trustees of Auburn University. No, I didnıt equate the two, nor
did I call any trustees Klansmen.
Things really picked up then. Saundersı producers called back and want to do
a major piece on corruption in the Auburn board which has led to the stateıs
largest University being placed on probation by its accrediting agency and a
trip to appear before the NCAA last week.
Tuesday, a writer from The Sporting News flew in and joined me for breakfast
at The Auburn Grille. He stayed all day, gathering information on trustees
who are destroying Auburn. He listened to tapes (which are not kept in my
office but in a locked box off premises along with my computer files.) He
wanted the names of trustees who have been named by Auburnıs former coach
with providing cash to football players. He wanted the names of coaches that
have been accused of handling payday for student athletes. He got them.
Then Bryant Gumbelıs producers at Real Sports on HBO called, I think, three
times. They want the story about men who say they love the Auburn, yet do
things which make Auburn one of the most penalized universities in the
nation.
I thought it a bit ironic that after a year of proclaiming they have done
nothing wrong in the basketball program, AU officials appear before the NCAA
last week and offered to give up some scholarships. Why would you do that,
if youıve done nothing wrong? Well, the president now says, maybe there were
a few ³minor² violations.
We donıt do minor violations at Auburn. Perhaps we seek to be No. 1 in
cheating, too. I believe we narrowly missed the death penalty during the
last NCAA probe under Coach Pat Dye. We headed that off by firing the coach,
paying him a million or so, keeping him on the payroll till this day,
providing free medical insurance and an office. Who says crime doesnıt pay?
Gov. Bob Riley is a decent and honorable man. He is trying to clean up the
sleaze at Auburn. Heıs got a major task.
He got three new trustees confirmed last week. But control of the board is
still in the hands of Bobby Lowder, head of Colonial Bank.
The governor also called last week, on another subject. I felt an obligation
to tell him of the upcoming national publicity and the naming of the
trustees for national media. He requested that I share the information with
Dr. Ed Richardson, Auburnıs interim president.
I did that, face to face. My first visit to Samford Hall since the
firing of Dr. William Muse. I told the governor I would go if I could be
assured that none of the Universityıs massive, million dollar, PR network
would be involved.
It was not an interview, just a briefing session. I told the president I
would not print his remarks in my column. I wonıt.
Weıll meet again and Iıll play the tapes for him.
Richardson and the governor went Friday to meet with the Southern
Association of College and Schools. Riley has said publicly that he wants
the University off probation by this summer. I don't think thatıs going to
happen.
When you have four trustees setting the policy for Auburn University who
have been implicated in a scheme to pay players $15,000 to sign with Auburn
and $600 per month to play, can you truly say there is any meaningful
change?
I donıt think so. Everybody I talk to agrees that David Housel, Auburnıs athletic director,
will be gone shortly. I had predicted that he would be removed after
Auburnıs recent meeting with the NCAA.
Housel is calling around seeking a way to save his job. He wonıt. The
axe will fall soon. Houselıs latest effort was a lengthy phone conversation
with Ralph ³Pee Wee² Jordan, son of AUıs legendary coach Shug Jordan.
Jordan, informed sources say, told Housel that the window of opportunity for
a graceful exit had passed.
That source said Housel is now holding out for a million-dollar settlement.
Fired coaches get that, why shouldnıt the AD?
I wonder if David will sign one of those contacts promising to speak no
evil, in exchange for a million dollars and his soul?
Paul Davis writes a weekly column for the OA News. You may contact him at
pauldavis@bellsouth.net.)
Paul Davis
Paul Davis
02/10/04 04:19PM
One of the largest fires in the history of downtown Tuskegee consumed
much of the townıs rich history as the offices of The Tuskegee News, the
Community Action Agency and the law offices of Fred Gray Sr. were destroyed.
The blaze, which as reported at 3 a.m. consumed half a city block and
also threatened a large tire warehouse. Fire departments for seven cities
and one federal agency responded to the roaring fire, just across the street
from the historic Macon County Courthouse.
The State Fire Marshall was on hand early Wednesday morning to start a
probe into the cause of the fire.
Gray, a lifelong champion of the civil rights movement in Alabama and
across the nation, stood in the pre-dawn drizzle with his wife and watched
as a lifetime of memories and historical documents went up in smoke.
³We talked just last week about moving those documents to another location
so that the records of the civil right movement would be preserved forever.
Now, theyıre all gone,² he said.
Paul Davis, owner and publisher of The News, stood with Gray and watched
the inferno grow in intensity. The old heart pine flooring and rafters
seemed immune to the thousands of gallons of water poured onto the blaze.
The Tuskegee News, established in 1865, had as some of its earliest
columnists George Washington Carver and Booker T. Washington, farmed
educators at Tuskegee University.
³The News has been recording the history of Macon County for almost 140
years. We go to press every Wednesday morning, and weıll go to press this
Wednesday morning,² Davis said.
³Weıve had The Auburn Bulletin, The O-A News, Boone Newspapers and the
Alabama Press Association, the Auburn University Journalism Department all
offering to help. People with ink in their blood form a very tight bond,²
Davis added.
The fire started in The Tuskegee News building and despite brick walls, some
18 inches thick, spread to the Community Action Agency and then by 4 p.m.
burned through into the Gray law offices.
Fire trucks from the city of Tuskegee, the Veterans Administration Hospital,
Franklin, Shorter, Macedonia, and Auburn were called to fight the fire that
threatened the whole block.
No injuries were reported.
The Tuskegee News will open Monday in temporary location at ____
______ Street. Phones calls and faxes to the News will be routed into the
companyıs Auburn offices, according to Guy Rhodes, editor.
The law offices of Fred Gray will move to 104 West North side St. in
downtown Tuskegee, next to Alabama Exchange Bank. The phone number will
rename the same.
³We will be open Monday, if not before,² Fred Gray said.
The Tuskegee News had been in that same building since its beginning in
1865. It was published for many years by the late Neil Davis, also owner and
publisher of The Auburn Bulletin.
The Bulletin had a printing press and several area papers, including The
Auburn Plainsman and the Tuskegee News were printed on the Auburn presses.
When the paper was purchased in 1975 by Boone Newspapers, some job printing
was still being down in Tuskegee - stationery, business cards, envelopes.
That was done with hot metal and handset type.
Stan Voit became publisher in 1976 and it was in that year that the
first full-color pictured graced the paperıs front page. Voit said customer
came ion and asked if the price of the paper was going up with the advent of
color photographs. It didnıt.
The newspaper has hundreds of subscribers across the United States,
including a Yale University professor and famed Commodores singer Lionel
Ritchie of California.
Paul Davis
Paul Davis column for
Sunday February 1, 2004
Remember Mike Lude?
Son of a tenant farmer in Kalamazoo, Michigan - no plumbing, no electricity,
one-room school house.
Former athletics director at the University of Washington, four trips to the
Rose Bowl, the first college graduate in his family. Former athletics
director at Kent State, co-originator of the famed Wing-T. And, oh yes,
athletics director at Auburn for about 24 months, during the demise of
Auburn football coach Pat Dye in the wake of still another NCAA
investigation in which Auburn was dished out some heavy sanctions.
Now meet Mike Lude, the scribe, who is now a resident of Tucson, AZ., and
his latest book probably to be titled ³Kalamazoo to Toomerıs Corner.²
Press date has been awaiting all those contracts which coaches, athletics
directors and presidents sign pledging not to tell or say anything bad and
the bad programs they oversaw. Coach Lude can exercise his free speech and
lay it on the line. And he does. He blasts the former president of
University of Washington (where he was muted by contact for 10 years, and he
rolls back the curtain on Auburnıs athletics shenanigans while his former
coach Terry Bowden, it appears, is under a lifetime ban to keep quiet.
Coach Lude was brought to Auburn by former AU President Bill Muse to clear
up the mess in Auburn brought on by Coach Dye (who had been fired) and his
teammate Bobby Lowder, then the most powerful man in the athletics
department and on the Universityıs board of trustees.
Listen to his description of the mess he inherited in the Loveliest Village.
³Not long after I became athletic director at Auburn University, I was
lectured by a prominent booster and member of the Board of Trustees about
the importance of football at Auburn: 'Mike, this is not a matter of life or
death. This is really important.' Auburn's president, Dr. William Muse, had
hired me to help him bring some sanity to an athletic department that had
skirted the borderline of NCAA rules and regulations as long as most fans
could remember.
³One of my first jobs was to orchestrate Auburn's appearance before the NCAA
Infractions Committee in a case involving a former football player who had
accused coaches and some boosters of making improper payments to him as an
athlete.
I was shocked to learn this was the sixth time Auburn had been called on the
carpet by the NCAA. We were able to get Auburn through that investigation
and NCAA hearing with penalties less than anyone had expected although at
one point I thought they were going to put us in jail.²
The book already needs an update. Auburn will stand before the NCAA this
month, with Ludeıs successor, David Housel, and Auburnıs third president in
three years, pleading the case. This time itıs Auburn's basketball program,
which is under review for allegedly buying basketball players.
Lude's biggest challenge (and greatest accomplishment) was to keep the
college program surviving and prospering in this changing era.
The book also discusses speculation about alleged illegal, under-the-table
payments to athletes at Auburn University when that school was sanctioned
and penalized by the NCAA.
(Lude is believed to either possess or had access to tapes in which the
names of Auburn trustees are charged with buying and paying players,
including three sitting trustees. In addition to facing NCAA sanction once
again, Auburn is now under a more serious gun - probation by the Southern
Association of College and Schools for, among other things, excessive
involvement in athletics. The SACS investigators have even stated that
Lowder seems to operate as Auburnıs athletics director.
Lude seems to agree, according to excerpts of the book he has sent to me.
He pulls no punches in explaining the "good old boy" network that has been
influential in the Auburn athletics program and led to the downfall of
football coach Terry Bowden - Lude's close personal friend and the man he
hired as the Auburn coach.
³I got an inside look at the incredible devotion and loyalty Auburn fans
have for their football program. I've never seen anything like the tradition
of 'Rolling Toomer's Corners' to celebrate a football victory. Students
gather, thousands strong, to 'roll' everything-street lights, power lines,
traffic lights and trees-with toilet paper."
"Terry Bowden had a head start on most football coaches. He came from one of
intercollegiate football's premier coaching families. He has a law degree
and studied at Oxford. But when he was hired as Auburn's head coach in late
1992 he was outmaneuvered from the opening play of that scenario by Bobby
Lowder, the soft-spoken power broker behind the scenes of Auburn athletics.
³Lowder was able to convince Bowden that he was hired because of Lowder's
influence in the selection process. That's sad because both President
William Muse and I strongly supported the selection of Terry Bowden.
³As Terry became successful he gradually distanced himself from the
influence of Lowder. There were recurring rumors that Auburn players were
receiving improper payments from boosters but when I was there I never saw
evidence of wrongdoing. In 1999 (after he left as coach) Terry told me that
when he first took over as head coach some Auburn players were being paid.
³He said he had worked to end the payoffs and that the last 'tainted' player
left the program in 1995. In a note from him in March, 1998, Terry said: 'I
just signed a seven-year contract. Maybe I can keep this school out of
trouble for a while.
³Time has proven you (Lude) right on about every problem you recognized.
Fortunately, we are now beginning to see some light at the end of the
tunnel'. Terry's record of 47-17-1 was the best of any Auburn coach.
³While a storm cloud seems to hover over Auburn, Terry Bowden is doing a
superb job as a football commentator for ABC... Terry was a good coach at
Auburn. He would be an even better coach now."
Short Takes: What Lude Thinks About: The Arms Race:
"Want to know the most shameful and disgraceful trend in intercollegiate
athletics in the last decade? It's the so-called arms race, the mammoth
salaries that are being paid to head coaches by universities and colleges
across America. I call it immoral."
Pay for college athletes?
"I totally disagree. Student athletes are being well taken care of now. For
those with serious financial problems a variety of programs are in place for
special needs. And we can't afford it. Only two-fifths of the 117 Division
1A schools playing football in 2001 operated in the black."
NCAA over regulation:
"I disagree there are too many rules and I don't know how you could rewrite
the rule book. 1 would hope there will always be a governing body for
intercollegiate athletics, that they wouldn't be turned loose like a bunch
of cannibalsı college vs. pro sports "It's demeaning to the college game to
be classified as a farm program for the pros.
On being a successful AD
"Tell it like it is but respect the opinions of others. Don't be afraid to
make a decision and don't try to please everybody; do what's right, ethical,
honest, and what works.inder a more serious gun - probati² A release date for the book, which contains a
forward by Keith Jackson, the legendary ABC college football broadcaster,
has not been announced.
****&*********
Forget all that stuff you hear about Auburn Schools Superintendent Dr. Terry
Jenkins. Yes, he has been to the hospital and, yes, he does have three
cracked ribs. But heıs getting along well with his wife, no domestic
violence involved, and kids against drug testing in schools have not taken
shot at his.
The good Dr. Jenkins simply turned too quickly in his office and fell.
End of story.
(Paul Davis writes a Sunday column for the OA News. You may contact him at
pauldavis@bellsouth.net)
Paul Davis
Paul Davis column for January 25, 2004
You would have thought that Auburn University was hiring, or firing a
football coach.
Eight, count em, eight TV cameras were rolling, newspaper reporters were
scribblingı pencils down to the nub and latecomers were searching for seats,
despite the fact that extra rows of chairs were in place.
Unfolding before our very eyes was the election of the third Auburn
University president in roughly 36 months.
Coronation of Dr. Ed Richardson, state superintendent of education, was the
third - the second to wear the interim title.
Voting members of the troubled AU board voted unanimously to name
Richardson. Non-voting members begged, pleaded almost, for a little more
time, a little more involvement - any involvement - for faculty and students
to at least have a voice in naming the interim.
And trustee Jack Miller, University of Alabama grad, the well-heeled,
well-bred, well-paid attorney for Boss Trustee Bobby Lowder, even brought a
bit of culture to the unwashed of Auburn when he cited the words of William
Shakespeare in an apparent attempt to describe his feeling about the demise
of William Walker.
Was he equating the fall of Walker with the demise of Julius Caesar? Wow.
And the betrayal? ³Et tu, Brute?² ³Then fall, Caesar.ı²
Pretty gruesome stuff for a trusteesı meeting, although we have had our
share of folks being stabbed in the back and others falling on their own
swords.
But Barrister Miller brought up all the "Ides of March² stuff, ³butchers in
the streets,² fears that ³all of Italy shall be plunged into domestic
strife² and that ³Caesarıs spirit, full of rage and fury, shall ³Cry
³Havoc!² and ³let slip the dogs of war.²
Duly impressed, Riley learned forward, thanked Miller but confessed he
didnıt have a clue what he was talking about. I donıt think Miller did,
either.
Maybe Miller was suggesting Caesarıs spirit could assume the at-large seat
of the board being vacated by Richardson. Heck, I donıt know what the man
was thinking.
Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, assuming his role as chairman of the board, said in
this time of crisis for the stateıs largest university, there simply wasnıt
time for a delayed search for an interim president. But, he pledged ample
time for the voices of faculty, students and alumni when the search for a
permanent president begins.
He said the university has 11 months to clear its name with the Southern
Association of Colleges and Schools, its accrediting agency that placed the
university on probation.
Riley said he couldnıt wait a month or so to name an interim and he couldnıt
wait a month or two to see if the Alabama Senate would confirm three new
trustees. Not with the SACS clock ticking.
So usher in Ed Richardson. He is the INTERIM president. He will not become
PERMANENT president.
The governor came riding into town Tuesday on a white horse. He quickly
snatched a knot in the tail of the trustees.
He had engineered the resignation (firing) of Walker, he had set the wheels
in motion for Richardson to lead the search for a new ³world class²
president and he has a firm pledge, a promise signed in blood, that
Richardson will never even be a candidate for the permanent job.
It has been known for months that the governor wanted fundamental changes at
Auburn - both on the board and the administration. Insiders told him he
would never get the votes to remove Walker.
But he did. And he did it on his timetable. Riley is also determined to
change the board. And it is changing, radically and quickly. Three new
trustees will be considered by the Alabama Senate next month.
Dr. Richardsonıs seat on the board of trustees is now vacant, leaving
another position to be filled. The vacancy caused by the death of Jimmy
Samford leaves still another seat on the board. Golda McDanielıs term ends
next year.
Trustees Jack Miller, Golda McDaniel, Earlon McWhorter, Jimmy Rane, Byron
Franklin, Bobby Lowder and Paul Spina seemed rather lonely and, isolated
sitting around the big table. It was obvious that Riley was in total control
and they knew it. Even Boss Lowder.
In fact, it was obvious that Auburnıs woes have been occupying he governorıs
mind for some time. He had done his homework well.
He had been bombarded by the Auburn faithful for months to get involved with
the vexing situation. He has been involved, working quietly behind the
scenes.
He had met with Bobby Petrino, the former Auburn football coach that Walker
wanted to bring back to Auburn to taker the place of Tommy Tuberville. He
had meet with the Louisville athletics director. He knew all the backroom
shenanigans that had gone on. He knew the promises that had been made. And
he knew of the lies that had been told. Those involved soon learned that he
had the upper hand.
Riley had lengthy talks with his legal advisor, Auburn Alumni Association
leaders and Wednesday he sat across a table in his office with President
Walker.
The die was cast. In 48 hours, McWhorter, president pro-tem of the Auburn
board was in President Walkerıs Samford Hall office delivering the bad news
- it was time for the president to go, the first in a long line of
sacrificial lambs to be slaughtered in an apparent effort to save McWhorter
and Lowderıs power base on the board.
On Thursday, Sen. E.B. McClain was in the governorıs office again promising
a quick hearing and confirmation of new trustees.
Bob Riley is now captain of this ship. Heıs calling the shots for the board.
Heıll lead the entourage when the university next meets with its accrediting
agency.
He'll make the commitments and the promises to SACS. Heıll ask for a simple
list of what has to be done and when. He plans to implement them quickly and
his goal is to have the University off probation well before the timetable
set by SACS, possibly as early as this summer.
Richardson said he will be open and honest with faculty, students and alumni
- and the press. He wonıt have his remarks filtered through PR people.
And faculty, alumni and students will be deeply, deeply involved, respected
and appreciated in the presidential search. Riley promises that. I believe
him.
(A side note: Was there a bomb threat associated with the trustees meeting
Tuesday? Nope, but the grand ballroom where the trustees meet was thoroughly
sniffed out by a bomb-sniffing dog because the governor of the state was
going to be there. I thought it was a stray looking for a fire plug.
The tab for the chartered jet to bring some trustees to the meeting came to
$4,532.97. Three busy trustees couldnıt drive to Auburn. On board were Paul
Spina, John Blackwell, Byron Franklin, Golda McDaniel and Goldaıs father.
David Housel, Auburn AD, will be the next to go. Heıll first appear before
the NCAA in February. He will resign or be fired.)
(Paul Davis writes a Sunday column for the O-A News. He may be reached at
pauldavis@bellsouth.net)
Paul Davis
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