Fordham: I didn't make this up

[xudash]

God bless Fordham fans:

One of them wrote to Fordham's President and decided to share his note and the Prez's actual response - - -

Dear Fr. McShane,

I am writing to you today to voice my extreme disappointment with the way the Men’s Basketball season has unfolded. As you may recall, myself and many other alums were incredibly excited after beating St. Johns earlier in the season. However, despite the encouraging start to the season the team has gone in the complete opposite direction and the program overall looks very disorganized from top to bottom.

The IZOD experiment has been a complete disaster, with four blowout losses and crowds less than the average attendance this season at the Rose Hill Gym. I can see no positive outcomes from Fordham’s relationship with the IZOD Center. I can assure you that I will not be attending any future A-10 conference games scheduled in that arena, as a recent article in the Bergen Record suggest is happening.

What is most disconcerting however, has been the Athletics Dept lack of professionalism and oversight regarding the basketball program. Our games at the IZOD Center were hardly marketed at all, and the radio spots that were done were factually wrong and ran uncorrected. To schedule additional conference games at the venue after this season’s results shows ineptitude and laziness on the part of Frank McLaughlin and his staff.

Simply put, Mr. McLaughlin and his staff need to go. After over 20 years on the job, it is clear that Mr. McLaughlin and his staff are incapable of running a successful athletic department in line with a world class Catholic University. A university as esteemed and beloved as Fordham should not tolerate failure in any area, much less in athletics which is so visible to a national audience. Fordham is on an incredible upward trajectory and the school’s recent success are fantastic to witness. However, our athletic failings are an embarrassment, reflect poorly on Fordham University as a whole, and will ultimately limit the amount of world renown we will have.

A number of fellow Jesuit and Catholic universities such as Georgetown, Notre Dame, and Boston College have risen to the challenge and used successful athletic programs as vehicles for overall institutional greatness. I will not accept anything less from alma mater.

Sincerely Yours,
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Response: Dear Mr. xxxxx,

Thank you for your note, which I will share with the athletics department so they are aware of your concerns.

JM

-This type of response is really infuriating. Blatantly ignores the point of the email, saying he will pass along my concerns to the athletic dept, the same athletic dept I argued was incompetent, lazy and needed to be removed. Unbelievable.

[Masterofreality]

The exact reason why enough is enough.

F-m is abjectly terrible and will always be so. They are an anchor on this league and an embarrassment.

They and LaSuck HAVE to go. It's been long enough.

[DC Muskie]

Fordham has about $500 million in their endowment. That's really good. Xavier has about $200 million I think.

I was talking to a parent of a current Fordham grad today and they are making a push to get to like a billion dollar endowment, and for whatever reason, athletics don't seem to be a part of their strategic plan. At least that's what I gather.

Kids come to Xavier in some cases because they have seen our basketball team killing it on national television. Not one kid at Fordham went to Fordham because they wanted to go to Rose Hill and watch Xavier runn them off the court.

That's a pretty interesting contrast. Fordham is an outstanding school. Sports has not helped them one bit in that regard. Xavier on the other hand is an outstanding school and sports have certainly helped out.

Things will not change at Fordham. It's as simple as that. One letter from one guy is not going to help. Not helping the endowment double its balance would. But that would never happen. And so nothing will change.

[CinciX12]

That just makes me feel sympathy for the fan. That was a heartfelt, well thought-out argument that was treated as simply something a random guy on the street came up with.

Wow. Just wow.

Good for that guy though. Holding the people responsible for the disaster should be done.

[xudash]

Fordham has about $500 million in their endowment. That's really good. Xavier has about $200 million I think.

I was talking to a parent of a current Fordham grad today and they are making a push to get to like a billion dollar endowment, and for whatever reason, athletics don't seem to be a part of their strategic plan. At least that's what I gather.

Kids come to Xavier in some cases because they have seen our basketball team killing it on national television. Not one kid at Fordham went to Fordham because they wanted to go to Rose Hill and watch Xavier runn them off the court.

That's a pretty interesting contrast. Fordham is an outstanding school. Sports has not helped them one bit in that regard. Xavier on the other hand is an outstanding school and sports have certainly helped out.

Things will not change at Fordham. It's as simple as that. One letter from one guy is not going to help. Not helping the endowment double its balance would. But that would never happen. And so nothing will change.

A little homework reveals the following:


Fordham enrolls more than 14,600 undergraduate and graduate students in its 10 Colleges and Schools.
2008 Endowment numbers = $437 million (so it could have bounced back since then).


"Xavier on the other hand is an outstanding school and sports have certainly helped out. " -- Truer words have never been typed.

[Blueblob4life]

complete slap in the face of a concerned member of the Fordham community. all valid points and they are dismissed without a second thought and not even given a real rebuttal or set of counter points.

As rough as UDump has had it, at least they've had some success but mediocrity clearly isn't limited to them alone. Those guys up in NY just don't care at all. If they have any message boards, they had better be circulating that around and making plans to write more letters at the very least.

What person would want to go into that situation if they do get a new AD? No support from the administration but some of the best talent out there that can be tapped? I mean really, talk about wasted opportunities.

[XUFan09]

Fordham has about $500 million in their endowment. That's really good. Xavier has about $200 million I think.

I was talking to a parent of a current Fordham grad today and they are making a push to get to like a billion dollar endowment, and for whatever reason, athletics don't seem to be a part of their strategic plan. At least that's what I gather.

Kids come to Xavier in some cases because they have seen our basketball team killing it on national television. Not one kid at Fordham went to Fordham because they wanted to go to Rose Hill and watch Xavier runn them off the court.

That's a pretty interesting contrast. Fordham is an outstanding school. Sports has not helped them one bit in that regard. Xavier on the other hand is an outstanding school and sports have certainly helped out.

Things will not change at Fordham. It's as simple as that. One letter from one guy is not going to help. Not helping the endowment double its balance would. But that would never happen. And so nothing will change.

They're doing very well as an academic institution and were one of my top choices for grad school. If I had got in (I didn't :-P), I would have probably only attended one specific game every other year though. He makes a good point that strong athletics can help the rest of the institution. I hope Tom Pecora really gets that team to respectability. If I recall correctly, they are a young team and the new coach has really improved the energy of the team, so here's hoping to a top 150 team next year. That would be a 100-team jump in RPI in a season...

[Masterofreality]

Fordham has about $500 million in their endowment. That's really good. Xavier has about $200 million I think.


At New York City prices, that would mean that Xavier is better off net, net.

Doughnut in New York- $2.50. Doughnut in Cincy- $.50.

[An X Fan]

I don't consider the president responding and sending to the athletic department inappropriate. It would be great for a basketball message board for Fr. McShane to respond with an in-depth response, but the 1,000 emails he likely gets every day from fans about basketball, alums about their alumni chapter, parents about their kid's English grade, prospective students about their application... in addition to his actual job as president of a large, quality university in New York City - frankly, it's simply not possible. He has to trust the people of the university to handle their work.

That said, Fordham athletics suck and they should be contracted from the Atlantic 10.

[PM Thor]

Could you imagine a Fordham if they actually invested in their athletic department, namely basketball though?

Wow, a NYC school (other than St. Johns) with an actual basketball program? Holy crap, they could be really good just drawing off of their local talent. It's such a freaking waste, and the Fordham administration are buffoons for not seeing how a viable basketball program would up their prominence not only locally, but nationally. They have an untapped stage, and they don't recognize it.

I HATE dayton.

[CinciX12]

Could you imagine a Fordham if they actually invested in their athletic department, namely basketball though?

Wow, a NYC school (other than St. Johns) with an actual basketball program? Holy crap, they could be really good just drawing off of their local talent. It's such a freaking waste, and the Fordham administration are buffoons for not seeing how a viable basketball program would up their prominence not only locally, but nationally. They have an untapped stage, and they don't recognize it.

I HATE dayton.

That is what I always think too. You could finish 6th in this conference by just stalking playgrounds and finding kids no one else knows about.

Granted a few would be arrested for various felonies and you'd have a team GPA of 0.05, but as long as you anticipated that you'd do fine.

[SixFig]

Granted a few would be arrested for various felonies and you'd have a team GPA of 0.05, but as long as you anticipated that you'd do fine.

It worked for UC under Huggins didn't it?

[Blueblob4life]

It worked for UC under Huggins didn't it?

I see what you did there

[nuts4xu]

Fordham could use a program like we have at Xavier....

but then again, that could be said about 300 other division 1 men's basketball schools.

If FU put as much effort into their basketball program as we have come to experience at Xavier, I am quite sure they would be able to hold their own in this league.

But they don't, and they will always be quite shitty.

[CinciX12]

It worked for UC under Huggins didn't it?

Meaning Mick Cronin could easily win the A10 with them.

[xu05usmc]

That is what I always think too. You could finish 6th in this conference by just stalking playgrounds and finding kids no one else knows about.

Granted a few would be arrested for various felonies and you'd have a team GPA of 0.05, but as long as you anticipated that you'd do fine.

So let me guess, most inner-city kids are felons and too stupid to read? Makes sense, I grew up in Avondale, will have a phd in a little over a year, and served in the Marines. This type of ignorance just blows my mind. Even when said tongue in cheek it still pains me that people think it would be funny.