I would note that Conoley was the interim Chancellor/President at UC Riverside before she was appointed at Long Beach, although that may not be a strong argument--because it's UCR and because she obviously didn't get that job. But the CSU Chancellor who hired Conoley was the Chancellor at UCR before he became CSU Chancellor and hired her.
I don't foresee the selection process changing. I do wish that there was a more rigorous performance review process implemented. It was pretty clear 3 years into Conoley's tenure what her weaknesses were, and nothing ever came of it except undeserved salary increases.
Previous Message
While I agree the most important thing is the right person is selected, but the new process is problematic and often leads to not hiring the best candidate. The old process of bringing finalists in to meet staff and have a question and answer session was used for hiring McCray, Maxson, and Alexander. The process was open and one could assess the strengths and weaknesses of each finalist. It resulted in selecting 3 presidents who were sitting presidents at other universities, with high scholastic credentials and executive experience. Some may have preferred other candidates in the process, but it was easy to see why those gentlemen were selected.
Conoley was selected under the new process where a winner is announced, like the lottery or something. Her credentials were that she was the dean of the graduate school of education at UCSB which is laughable compared to those we have hired in the past. And, no one but the search committee knows who were the other finalists, so the public has no idea whether this was an “inside job” or was there something special about Conoley that the rest of us didn’t know.
Long Beach is not the only school to hire an under qualified president in the CSU. Blow-hard Sac State president Luke Wood came from SDSU where he had been Vice President for Student Affairs and Campus Diversity and Chief Diversity Officer. Does that sound like credentials to become a CSU president? Our presidents should come from a pool of candidates such as sitting presidents from smaller and/or less prestigious universities/colleges or provosts from a major university. That’s what it always was until recently when someone determined that it resulted in too many white men getting these positions.
I was told the official reason for the process change is that candidates wanted anonymity in the event they did not get the position. I can understand that logic if we were an Ivy league school or UCLA or USC, where candidates for those positions are typically sitting presidents of major institutions. But for CSU or for LBSU specifically, do you think, for example, if the president of Sam Houston State or Metro State-Denver was a finalist and didn’t get the job, there would be repercussions to that person? I really doubt it.
Previous Message
I don’t think the reporting relationship makes much difference in terms of assessing the decisions or the responsibility/blame. Apel’s background is originally Human Resources, so whether he approves, directs or ignores Smitheran’s hiring decisions, Apel is ultimately responsible.
As for the search, the announced timeline for the search has always been stated as the July Trustees meeting. There used to be a process that involved bringing finalists to campus for two days of meetings/interviews, but that is no longer the case. The successor will be announced at some point during the July meeting, and unless there’s a leak, nothing else will be shared. It’s not ideal, but it’s also not tremendously problematic. Who is chosen is much more important.
Previous Message
lol, I did not say the reporting relationship makes him unaccountable.
what that reporting structure has done has made the assessment difficult, all 3 collectively in the last two years are destroying athletics.
I did say I had given Smitherin some slack to beging with, in part because of that silly 1% requirement, has put shackles on the AD, and also because coming in MOnson had managed to shrivel up attendance and attendance for MBB and left zero to build on.
and yes, in the last 6-9 months it's been a sh&t show from the AD, and with crickets from the State on a PRes successor, (It does NOT take fcking 7 months to select a Pres), with Apel non-existent, Jane out to lunch and out the door and the exit of coaches with Hilt putting reality out there. the AD is flailing badly, at best.
I mean, people on a board can be suggestive of issues, that's always difficult to assess what that means. but that's not concrete or specific until Hilt called him out. hard to believe at this point that there has not been a discussion about personnel issues with Apel at least, and we'll likely never know what that means.
it sucks, Previous Message
Many of the coaches who were here before Smitheran arrived dislike him and don’t trust him.
Don’t understand why you would ever be inclined to give him a ton of slack, or why you think the reporting relationship would make him (or Apel) unaccountable. It’s not a terribly unusual reporting relationship.
Smitheran (some coaches call him Slytherin, after the Potter character), is making the bad decisions, Apel is allowing it (or even directing it), and Jane is oblivious or doesn’t care. They’re all responsible. Previous Message
Was trying to give Smitherim a ton of slack
But this hire is a big red flag that he really does not know how to hire or interview. It s a tough skill to develop
Indicates classic familiarity bias, which is troubling
Hopefully works out
Again this insulation with Apel is horrendous, basically leaves Smitherin not responsible, Apel not responsible, and Jane washed her hands of anything when she set up the stupidity
And it s pretty clear the State has dragged out Jane's replacement meaning another year where no one gets held accountable.
Just sucks big tume Previous Message
Beyond the obvious, I think there's two reasons.
1) Booby was not a high level associate A.D. at SDSU, so he probably didn't develop a lot of professional contacts outside of SDSU. Most of his contacts are at SDSU, so he keeps going back to what he's comfortable.
2) He's probably risk averse or just damn lazy. Doing a "national search" and contacting people for background checks is too much work for him. He'd rather simply rely on contacting the only people he knows in the industry.
Maybe over time, he'll develop more close relationships with other A.D.'s which will be instrumental in future hires.
That said, I hope he got lucky and hired a good coach.
130
Message Thread
« Back to index
on 6/20/2025, 9:58 pm, in reply to "