U$C Gets Endowment for Athletic Director; Begs Question What Morgan Center Isn't Doing
by Bellerophon on May 15, 2011 6:00 PM PDT
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A few days ago, U$C announced that ol' Ethical Pat would be getting a new job title. He's no longer the Director of Athletics; rather, he's now the Charles Griffin Cale Director of Athletics. That's right folks: just as UCLA has the Stanley M. Zimmerman Endowed Chair in Economics and Finance or the David G. Price and Dallas P. Price Chair in Law (there's actually a ton, if you're curious, you can see the full list here), U$C now has an endowment for their athletics director:
The Charles Griffin Cale Director of Athletics’ Chair at USC has been endowed in perpetuity by Chuck and Jessie Cale, USC senior vice president for university advancement Albert R. Checcio announced today.
The gift, the amount of which will remain private, is the largest endowment gift ever received by the USC athletic department.
"We are deeply grateful to Chuck and Jessie Cale for endowing this important position, which is at the very heart of our athletic program," Checcio said. "Their visionary support will ensure that USC Athletics continues to succeed at the highest levels in the world of intercollegiate athletics."
"All of us in the USC athletic department sincerely thank Chuck and Jessie Cale for their generosity," said USC athletic director Pat Haden, who will be the first holder of the Charles Griffin Cale Director of Athletics’ Chair. "This landmark gift will not only positively impact all USC athletic directors in the years to come, but it will enable us to reallocate resources and funds to much-needed areas such as student-athlete scholarships and recruiting.
As much as it pains me to say this, this is something the Trogans are absolutely killing us in: whoever they have in their marketing department is absolutely killing it. Whether we like it or not, in spite of sanctions and a national consensus that U$C is the Miami of the West (cheat, deny, lie), they have built not only a strong national brand, but they have gotten their alumni and fan base fired up.
Kind of ironic that their marketing folks are so on top of their game, and yet their compliance folks were asleep at the switch. But, I digress.
Of course, for Bruins, the stark contrast is obvious: despite sanctions, despite having a basketball team that was only an also-ran at their peak (Westbrook owned Mayo in college and his team owned them again in the NBA, but I again, I digress), and languishing behind the Bruins in total number of national titles, they have a fired-up alumni and fan-base.
UCLA has just as large of an alumni base. The fan base has the potential to be crazy huge (especially given what we know about how the UCLA brand is a smash-hit in Asia). And yet, we are seeing no innovation from Morgan Center. The chumps across town are cashing in, literally, allowing them to reallocate funds to other purposes (for them, probably upgrading golf-cart rides back to Range Rovers).
Dan Guerrero and Morgan Center, on the other hand, seem to just be sitting on their hands, struggling to raise sufficient capital to fund the renovation of the most storied basketball arena in history.
GO BRUINS
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
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just want to point out
that these donations/chairs/etc are all a result of the DEVELOPMENT offices at the schools, not the marketing dpts.
I only say this because I know that the marketing staff, rightfully so at times, gets a lot of heat for some of their work, but in a situation like this dealing with gifts and donations to the athletic programs, the onus really lies on the development staff to get their act together.
Two points in response
1. Whatever office/division/segment of Morgan Center it is, whatever you want to call it, the fact of the matter is that we’re way behind the curve on this. That’s inexcusable.
2. So, instead of one dysfunctional unit (what I colloquially called marketing), in reality, we have two: development and marketing. Because, let’s be real, marketing has totally failed to effectively leverage the UCLA brand in the same way other schools have. With the immense advantages we have (Los Angeles media market, Southern California climate, tradition of athletic and academic excellence), that’s also inexcusable.
Both chalk up to complete Morgan Center FAILS. Which, in turn, is another example of a Dan Guerrero FAIL.
by Bellerophon on May 15, 2011 10:18 PM PDT up reply actions
oh i agree
i just wanted to show that it was the responsibility of the development office to get these big donors, but ya your response summarizes what my point was
by uclabruin34 on May 16, 2011 11:49 AM PDT up reply actions
Honestly, what do you expect from Bruin alumni?
This is snapshot of Morgan Center sentiment toward alumni.
From the UCLA Athletics Facebook page announcement that Morgan Center is returning to the ‘09 announced COC ’L’ shaped student seating.
Josh Low: I’m glad that Bruins Nation did some internet organizing on this. But why did it take a bunch of guys who graduated from the school 10-15 years ago to get this done? Where were the current students when they were getting rolled?
UCLA Athletics response?
UCLA Athletics Josh, this move was brought about by the USAC voting this past week. We care very deeply about our student population and their vote brought about the change. Current students were the driving behind this change back to the original ’09 plans.
I don’t have to highlight any part of their response. It is clear they care nothing for what the Alumni felt or how we responded in our petition. I would go a step further and say they didn’t care how the student body felt either. They were simply caught in an indefensible position once the vote had been tallied. These same alumni that Josh Low talks about, the 10-15 year recent grads are tomorrow’s donors.
I for one would not donate a dime to UCLA right now. Not the Athletic Department and not my own School of Film and Television. They are doing a terrible job of sustaining the good will of the people that matter the most: The alumni, who will always outnumber the students and quite frankly spend/donate more.
Morgan Center’s abject failure is abject.
The best thing you can do for your children is to love their mother. John Wooden
You're spot on
All of these issues go hand-in-hand.
Morgan Center fails to realize that their shortsighted, money-first approach, in reality, has serious financial repercussions. By systematically alienating alums and students, they are not planning for the future. In goes hand-in-hand with their complete inability to effectively build any excitement around our programs.
by Bellerophon on May 15, 2011 11:04 PM PDT up reply actions
You guys post as if Morgan Center gave a crap about what anyone thinks.
Mr. Inept is running things, so by definition there is never anything to announce. They have the Great Liar spinning whatever it is they choose to talk about. Block is happy. The students are happy. There is no negative publicity. So things perk along – business as usual.
Think how things would be with a very visable boycott. How about if the entire crowd (well, I guess you would have to exempt the visitors (which would be the majority if we played Fresno State (I leave the link to the smart people) got up and left in the middle of the first quarter? How about the entire student section facing away from the field and being absolutely silent. What a message that would send. It wouldn’t change how Morgan Center thinks, but it might at least make Ananias uncomfortable denying that it happened.
Well, I'd say
that they do give a crap, given their recent backpedaling episodes. The problem is that they think they already know what anyone thinks before asking…
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
I still say they could care less about anything other than keeping their jobs
You could take any of 100 or so contributers here in the BN and put them in charge of UCLA athletics and things would happen. Incompetent heads and lying heads would roll. Marketers who know how to market would be put in charge of marketing (a novel approach.) People who know about subjects that those in charge didn’t know about (e.g., how to renovate Pauley) would be approached and would have their ideas listened to. Our new AD would face up to Block and say “Hey, Chancellor – either support me or fire me” and he would do so in a letter signed by major donors. Our new AD could establish instant credibility (and set a new precedent) by being proactive on even one subject.
Or to describe it another way, he would pull a George Costanza. He would do everything the opposite of the way Guerrero is doing it.
That sort of approach would show an attitude of giving a crap. What has guerrero done? Well, he reversed a course regarding student seats which should never have been taken in the first place. It’s like a career bank robber pointing out what a great record he has by telling the judge about several banks he didn’t rob.
We thought CTS was stealing his pay, but no one is stealing his pay with as much chutzpah as Dippety Dan. To me, he is the epitome of the bureaucrat.
by Fox 71 on May 16, 2011 8:55 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
The Rick was booed after the horrible showing against Sanctioned Cheaters.
You could tell he was shaken.
Problem is, how to boo Guerrero or Harlan? They know better than to appear in front of the mob. Especially if the mob is at a televised event.
The best thing you can do for your children is to love their mother. John Wooden
Think you're painting with a little too broad of a brush
As there are certainly divisions within UCLA that are deserving of donations, including but not limited to: Alumni Scholarships, Mattel Children’s Hospital, (or really, virtually any medical/research facility on campus), and of course, the Spirit Squad.
by insomniacslounge on May 17, 2011 2:53 PM PDT up reply actions
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