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The Charleston Vanderbilt Club had a very nice and well attended meeting with the Chancellor last night. He is the right guy to lead Vanderbilt and the message is "we want to be iconic" and not try to be "Harvard of the South." Most of his comments were about how to achieve this status and progress in that journey, but he did in his remarks say: "one of the areas we have not done well in is athletics: we have under-invested and not given our athletes a chance to compete at the highest level." This is why he invested $100 M of University money in improving facilities and why he was pleased to report the "one-Vandy" campaign has surpassed goal of $300 M in the relatively short time it has been running. He was quite explicit: "Vanderbilt is about excellence and we have not had nor supported athletics to achieve that." In response to questions about athletics he said we were working on NIL, but that we, in being iconic, want the athlete who is superb, but understands he/she need a great education. He made the case that Vanderbilt is recruiting the type of player who has 3 choices: Princeton, Vanderbilt and Florida State. Vanderbilt is the right choice for this athlete, not Princeton because the competition and coaching will not develop the athlete to possibly make the pros, not Florida State because the education will not lead to optimal academic/societal growth, and Vanderbilt because it is the best of all worlds. He said therefore Vanderbilt is competing with Duke, Stanford and Northwestern for the athletes we need. He said we are working on building a strong NIL foundation, but that our athletes will not be as concerned with that as the Florida State ones. He understands that in football we need to be going to bowl games, in basketball and baseball the NCAA with championship goals, and NCAA championships in all the other sports - mentioning tennis, baseball, golf and, of course, bowling. The bottom line is he is working very hard to fix the problem that athletics is in. He likes Candace and a number of our coaches. He believes that the NCAA blew the transfer and portal and that the only fix for that now is congressional action to level the state playing field. As for college athletics he expressed concern about the future - said it would take all night to discuss it, but that Vanderbilt will compete at the highest level because it is good for the entire University.

This guy is easily the best Chancellor I've experienced from messaging and understanding the landscape around him. He is spot on regarding athletics and he is spot on with regards to ideological neutrality in education. With time he could be regarded as our best ever. He is refreshing.

Gordon Gee is the president of West Virginia University. Perhaps our baseball teams will meet in a Super Regional.

buffy wrote: ↑Thu May 18, 2023 8:17 am This guy is easily the best Chancellor I've experienced from messaging and understanding the landscape around him. He is spot on regarding athletics and he is spot on with regards to ideological neutrality in education. With time he could be regarded as our best ever. He is refreshing.

I haven't followed him too much on the academic side, but if he is pushing for ideological neutrality on that front, he has my vote. I'm pretty liberal, but kids in college need all kinds of ideas and college is a great place to be exposed to them. Three cheers for that!

I think the Chancellor has looked at the Vanderbilt Athletic soap opera and said..."This is ridiculous!" "Why do we want to have a third rate athletic program, yet try to be world class in everything else we aspire to do". He's a change agent and has a vision of what Vanderbilt can be.
It's very refreshing.

I have 4 comments:

1. First (and most importantly) I think his comments are spot on.
2. Almost as importantly, I hope the achievement of some of his athletic goals occur in my lifetime (I'm in my mid-70's).
3. I think his use of FSU rather than a comparable SEC school was tactful.
4. Yes, he undertsands the importance that NIL will play in the attainment of his stated athletic goals, but why has it taken us (Vandy) so long? It seems that we are late to the party, and therefore will have to play "catch-up" for a few years. See number 2 above.

Gee made the same point about excellence, but never seemed able to get the money invested into athletics.
Zeppos talked a good game about “building the rocket ship “, but seemed to lose steam after the scandal.
I like what I’ve been seeing and hearing with the new chancellor.

Vandy does always seem to be last to pick up on things like this. And, we are the “smart” school.

I was a big fan of Alex Heard for reasons that are irrelevant. But I also had a confrontation and private meeting with Jess Neely, when he was AD, over athletics. CDD get's it better than any Chancellor I have have known or in my lifetime (age 72)

Chancellor commended Candace multiple times.