Email to Board of Trustee's director

#1
Ericvol2096

Ericvol2096

Quiz'N'Vol
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#1
I sent a very detailed email to the board of trustee's director yesterday and received his response today. It is below.

Mr. xxxx, I consolidated your concerns with some others that I received and asked Chancellor Cheek to respond. For your information, I am attaching that response.

The proposed action of the board that you reference has to do with reporting responsibilities for the development staff at the athletic department and I believe the action proposed is a proper alignment of that structure.

Thanks for your interest in UT and the Vols. Don
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The message from Cheek is below.

Dear Vice Chair Stansberry:

First, allow me to state emphatically that I support comprehensive excellence at the University of Tennessee, in both athletics and academics.

It is critically important that our teams have the ability to compete for championships. As the leader of this campus, I support the athletic mission 100%. I know that winning championships and competing at the highest level lifts the national profile of the University of Tennessee. This translates into an excited fan base, more and better students, and more enthusiastic alumni.

I appreciate the support and passion of our fan base; it’s what makes it great to be a Tennessee Vol. I am a Volunteer and I am a committed fan, I want to win championships. I fully support the leadership of Dave Hart. I am committed to giving him the support and resources he needs to be successful.

I would like to address some of your concerns about whether we are at a competitive disadvantage regarding academics and admissions. Each university has its own set of unique admissions policies; however, I have consulted with other SEC schools, and our policies ARE consistent with our competitors. We do have procedures in place that allow us flexibility in admissions.

It is also important to support our student athletes once they are admitted. We have a full array of academic support services at the Thornton Center, which is solely dedicated to the support of our student-athletes. This support includes tutoring, a writing center, a math center, and counselors. We do everything possible to make sure our student-athletes are not only successful on the playing field or court, but also in the classroom.

The athletics department gives about $6 million a year to support academic scholarships and debt service on parking garages. Most of these commitments were made under previous administrations. Dave Hart and I continue to examine these commitments and we will do the right thing to make sure the budget for athletics is healthy moving forward. However, the payments on debt service are obligations to long-term bonds and they are commitments we can’t modify.

Let me close by stating that I am committed to comprehensive excellence in all that we do and anything less is unacceptable. I am also committed to doing things the right way. You may not always agree with every decision that is made, but know that I value your feedback and hope that you will continue to support our great university.

Sincerely,



Jimmy G. Cheek
Chancellor

Cc: Joe DiPietro
President, University of Tennessee System
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Make sure everyone lets it be known that we demand a healthy athletic department and football program at the University of Tennessee.

Hopefully something is done about this Friday at the BOT meeting.
 
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#5
#5
why waste your time emailing this and posting. scripted reply (if real) blah blah

do you not think they've heard this 1 million times and are addressing the issues? That they really have time to reply to all of these e-mails personally? Let them do their job.
 
#10
#10
knoxtnguy said:
why waste your time emailing this and posting. scripted reply (if real) blah blah

do you not think they've heard this 1 million times and are addressing the issues? That they really have time to reply to all of these e-mails personally? Let them do their job.
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Because I wanted to let the BOT President know that we will not stand by and let the athletic program fail.

Here was my original email from yesterday.

Don,

I am a lifelong University of Tennessee fan, an avid donor and an alum from the class of 2007. I grew up in East Tennessee and have been attending games at Neyland since I was able to walk. The past five years I have watched the Athletic Department and the University slowly deteriorate. I have still supported the program and done everything in my power to back the coaching staffs, players and admin. But now comes the time where changes need to be made for my support to continue. These changes need to be made for the betterment of the Athletic Department.

Friday you will be voting on the structure of the Athletic Department financially within the University. The specific amendment you will be voting on is below.

Amendment of the UT-UTFI affiliation and services agreement to change the reporting line for athletics departments personnel at UT Knoxville

As the head of the board I hope you realize that the Athletic Department should be a free standing entity within the University with the power to allocate the funds they bring in accordingly. The current structure has led to nothing but negative results for the AD and the University. This needs to be changed.

After this change is made I hope the powers that be of the University know that we need to bring in a major coaching improvement that can build back our football health. A healthy football program means a healthy University of Tennessee. If we invest in our program we will see that investment pay off. If we make a lackluster effort and investment into our football program we will get a lackluster program and lackluster results financially and on the field.

I want the best for the entire school, state, and University and the changes I have mentioned above are what needs to transpire.

Thank you and I hope you will support these ideas at the BOT meeting on Friday.

Go Vols,


Eric
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It probably won't do anything but at least they know the donors (albeit it small donors) are restless.
 
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#11
#11
So can we ask him how our best cornerback, who would have been eligible to play at Florida, got caught up in red tape, and was unable to join the team? He says that there are policies in place to allow for "flexibility in admissions"

Get that loser o-u-t o-f h-e-r-e!
 
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#12
#12
Jackson_Harris said:
So can we ask him how our best cornerback, who would have been eligible to play at Florida, got caught up in red tape, and was unable to join the team? He says that there are policies in place to allow for "flexibility in admissions"

Get that loser o-u-t o-f h-e-r-e!
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Exactly his letter is full of fail.
 
#13
#13
I appreciate you sending this e-mail and sharing it with us eric. You've been around long enough to know to disregard the hate that comes with posting things like this. :good!:
 
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#14
#14
Personally I feel bad for the professors at UT that get stuck in the middle (at least this use to be the case). Several people from the AD Dept would bug them about athlete grades.
 
#15
#15
I am sure the Cheeks would reply and agree with your assesment, before Hart even grades Dooley. This is all bogus.......why don't you just say that your not happy with CDD performanace and stop trying to translate the same message 1000 different way. OK, we get it........you don't like the UT Football Coach.....enough said. Your opinion to the BOARD is worth squat.
 
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#16
#16
FlyFishnVol said:
I am sure the Cheeks would reply and agree with your assesment, before Hart even grades Dooley. This is all bogus.......why don't you just say that your not happy with CDD performanace and stop trying to translate the same message 1000 different way. OK, we get it........you don't like the UT Football Coach.....enough said. Your opinion to the BOARD is worth squat.
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One person's opinion to the board is worth squat. However, thousands and thousands? Far better to try and take action than sit on a message board *****ing.
 
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#20
#20
FlyFishnVol said:
I am sure the Cheeks would reply and agree with your assesment, before Hart even grades Dooley. This is all bogus.......why don't you just say that your not happy with CDD performanace and stop trying to translate the same message 1000 different way. OK, we get it........you don't like the UT Football Coach.....enough said. Your opinion to the BOARD is worth squat.
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If you use your reading comprehension skills it reads as if Don the BOT President is responding to a large group of people at once saying he agrees with our point and has brought it up to Chancellor Cheek. He then attached Chancellor Cheek's response to the email he sent to us so we could read what Cheek said back to him.

I am sure that 1,000 of fans letting the BOT President know our displeasure won't have any affect at all on how he presents this issue at the BOT meeting on Friday.

:blink:
 
#22
#22
FlyFishnVol said:
I am sure the Cheeks would reply and agree with your assesment, before Hart even grades Dooley. This is all bogus.......why don't you just say that your not happy with CDD performanace and stop trying to translate the same message 1000 different way. OK, we get it........you don't like the UT Football Coach.....enough said. Your opinion to the BOARD is worth squat.
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#24
#24
I would scan the actual document on here if I could but it is saying the file is too big.

It has Cheek's signature on it.
 
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