At LSU, The Truth Hurts, Thanks Mr. Lipsey

[LSUDad]

It’s unfortunate that the focus on leadership performance at LSU often only occurs regarding athletics. We must get beyond the current controversy in athletics to see the real problem at LSU.  We need new leadership at the top. Both King Alexander and Joe Alleva were hired during the Jindal Administration. The new leadership at the Board of Supervisors has inherited this problem. They now must act quickly to remove Alexander and Alleva. This should be followed by the appointment of a strong interim LSU President and interim LSU Athletic Director not interested in a permanent position and the hiring of proven Flagship quality leaders through a national search. 

In a 2013 vote of no confidence relating to the selection of King Alexander as President-Chancellor of LSU, the LSU Faculty Senate warned us that the 2013 board was making a mistake. They noted that graduation rates at the school Alexander left, Cal State Long Beach, were lower than those at LSU and that school had not reached the doctorate-granting level that LSU's Flagship Campus had achieved due to hard fought reforms. The LSU Faculty Senate also noted that King Alexander had never been a tenured full professor at a major research university. LSU's aspirations "to be recognized as one of the top research universities in the U.S. are inconsistent with the proposing by the LSU Board of Supervisors of a nominee for President-Chancellor who has never been a tenured full professor at a major research university," the resolution said.

When the decision to hire Joe Alleva as LSU Athletic Director in 2008 was announced, folks were similarly concerned. “Nan Keohane (Duke President) made a terrible choice when she selected Alleva as athletic director in 1998," wrote well-respected sportswriter John Feinstein in a 2007 column for the Washington Post. Fresh off the very public mishandling of the Duke Lacrosse scandal, somehow it was determined that Alleva was the best choice for LSU. Will Wade is the third basketball coach Joe Alleva has hired in just 10 years. Clearly it would be viewed nationally as insanity if Alleva were to continue as Athletic Director if Will Wade returns to coaching at LSU. In the much more likely event that LSU is now forced to hire a fourth basketball coach in eleven years, it would be viewed as more insane for there not to be a new Athletic Director in place to make the next hire. Either way, only the ultimate in denial will keep Alleva at his job, so there should be no delay in replacing him immediately with a respected interim like Skip Bertman. We cannot stop there. We must immediately remove the leadership of LSU responsible for and directing Alleva’s actions. As important as our Tigers are to us, the damage King Alexander is doing goes well beyond sports.

Sports are important for income, donations, and overall enthusiasm, but the overall status of LSU as a Flagship is much more important. Joe Alleva’s actions at Duke were predictive of the current issues in LSU athletics. His boss King Alexander’s lack of qualifications and lack of performance through his stay at Cal State Long Beach were predictive of damage he would do to our Flagship at LSU. As we move from one scandal headline to another, we have now passed the point where the Board of Supervisors must remove King Alexander and began the search for a qualified Flagship leader. 

The latest example of Alexander's lack of leadership was the bizarre Alexander and Alleva joint official press release stating that holding out basketball player Javonte Smart “does not suggest, in any way wrongdoing”. Then what does it suggest?  Why was it done? Clearly these folks are not ready to handle public relations for a high school, much less a internationally known Flagship. Sadly, there has just been so much more, and it’s time to end it now. In sports alone we have seen the disastrous leaked courting of Jimbo Fisher followed by the joint Alexander/Alleva bizarre 3rd quarter "unfiring" of Les Miles, the embarrassing Tom Herman football offer debacle, unnecessary and costly extensions and raises to several underperforming coaches and so much more. The incompetence has lead to dissatisfaction from major sports and academic donors that has severely affected fundraising. Only a few years ago LSU chancellor O' Keefe raised 786 million on behalf of LSU. The current leadership has reduced that to a relative trickle. 

As students pay ever increasing tuition and fees to pay for 85 million in recreational expansion and a “lazy river”, the Baton Rouge Advocate recently revealed the following about the LSU Library: “When Gov. John Bel Edwards and a delegation of state lawmakers toured LSU’s Middleton Library earlier this year, they found a leaky basement, ragged furniture, bubbled and cracked wallpaper, rooms that flood so often from the rain that a vacuum is kept out to clean up the mess.”

The death of Max Gruver has now been followed by arrests of nine DKE members whose abuses were not dealt with by the LSU personnel whose job was to find them.  They had to be exposed by national DKE officials not even on campus. The responsibility rests with King Alexander, whose own incompetence has been duplicated in many hires. Alexander placed  Mari Fuentes-Martin over Greek life when she came from a campus with no Greek system. It was pointed out numerous times during the search process that hiring someone who had no experience with a Greek system to run student affairs at a university with a large Greek system was a serious mistake. These are much more serious matters than sports. These matters involve systematic criminal abuse, physical, and mental damage. Alexander’s administrative hire Kurt Kepler left January 15 only to be replaced by Maria Fuentes-Martin who herself was suspended less than a month later with other top administrators.  Then the suspended administrators were “fully exonerated” by this regime within weeks. The administration is still claiming that the report "fully exonerating" these employees was all verbal so they can refuse to tell media and the public what happened. Anywhere else this would be unbelievable. It is completely unacceptable.

The Board of Regents has also approved an audit regarding King Alexander's unilateral and undisclosed changes to admissions practices at LSU that we exposed in August following media reports. These subjective standards he has unconstitutionally launched lack needed transparency and objective audit points. The recent major national news story involving bribery by some of the most powerful and wealthy at universities across America shows why objective standards are required. It is clearer than ever that that such subjective practices open the door for corruption and undue influence. Children of major donors or with political influence can now be admitted to LSU based on a subjective review of an essay and their "personal qualities" by LSU staff. This subjective review makes it impossible to question admissions decisions that may be completely inappropriate. It opens the door to corruption and undue influence.

King Alexander had no experience appropriate to his selection to run a major research university with a large Greek system and top tier sports programs. LSU will continue to face these problems and headline after headline until we have quality leadership at the top. We call on the new leadership at the LSU Board of Supervisors to quickly remove King Alexander and Joe Alleva form their current positions and replace them with nationally recognized interims while appropriate permanent leadership is selected. Many qualified folks are available for these interim roles.  Whatever the choices are for interims, both Alexander and Alleva must now be removed. 

 

Richard Lipsey

LSU Tiger

Put Louisiana First

 

[LSUDad]

Before there was Cabelas, Gander Mountain and Bass Pro, there was Steinberg’s in Baton Rouge. That’s the Lipsey Family. More on this:

The history behind Steinberg’s Sports Center Part II

In 1949 a young columnist named Robert “Bob” Scearce temporarily lost his fulltime job at the Morning Advocate and started working part time at Steinberg’s. Bob Scearce was an impassioned outdoorsman in fishing and hunting and after seeing how prominently the surplus items connected to hunting and fishing, he convinced Joseph Lipsey into adding fishing gear and outdoors supplies which included rods and reels, hunting guns, and sporting goods items to the store. And that‘s how the sporting goods store began. Thus Bob Scearce played a major role in Steinberg’s entry into the sporting goods business.

The name Steinberg’s Hide and Fur Company remained and about 1953 Bob Scearce was hired by the fledgling WAFB TV as the first sports announcer. Subsequent to that Steinberg’s sponsored a television program The Great Outdoors hosted by Bob Scearce that aired every Friday on WAFB TV. With the introduction of Beachcomber Bob Scearce’s program, Joseph Lipsey, Sr. changed the name of the outdoor section of the store to Steinberg’s Sports Center. From that point on, the sports center operated in one part of the building while the hide and fur department continued in another part.

The sporting center, in the intervening time, was featured in about two thousand square feet of the building while the hide and fur and surplus portion of the store persisted in another sector of the facility. The first section continued going under the name Steinberg Hide and Fur Company and at the same time the latest segment of the company went under Steinberg’s Sports Center.

“It was a big building and it had a common wall dividing it in the middle. But the smell was so pungent because of the raw hide and raw fur in the other side of the building that when people would come into the retail side of the building they would say ‘whew’, that’s ‘Stinkberg’ Hide and Fur Company”. Richard Lipsey laughed as he told the story.

“These hides and furs were stretched and dried and hung until they were placed in boxcars and sold to furriers and tanneries throughout the country”, said Lipsey.

Back in the early 1950’s Joseph Lipsey, Sr. met a man named Claude Manning from Fort Worth, Texas and the two began a merchandise buying group. Quickly, two men grew to five or six within a year and each year the assemblage grew and grew to where there are now about 250 members. This co-op that Joseph Lipsey, Sr. helped to create, established a better buying power in the sporting goods industry and this same collective body now represents about 1500 sporting goods stores throughout the nation.

The purchase capacity gave all the stores the ability to expand into virtually all sports and athletic products. The extension even included the snow ski business which became quite popular at Steinberg‘s Sports Center in a city that rarely sees snow. Southerners, subsequently, became more and more interested in purchasing ski equipment here and traveled to snow resorts in places such as in Colorado. This interest created another industry in Baton Rouge in sports items.Hitherto, Joseph Lipsey, Sr. was known to be kind, generous, and hard-working. Richard speaks highly of his Dad and obviously adored and loved him.

In Richard’s words, “He was a handsome, good looking guy. He was an ardent outdoorsman, hunter and fisherman. He was just absolutely terrific working with people. Everybody respected him. He and Mother passed on one of the great things that when you take away from a community you have to give back to it. Mom and Dad were both great civic leaders and gave to others. Dad would give kids jobs and give them their first breaks and he would give them something if he had to, to get them started. He was a very generous person.”

Because of all the innovative ideas Joseph Lipsey, Sr. incorporated into his company, Steinberg’s increased with great success. Moreover, and because of the failure of the nutria experiment, the hide and fur trade began to decline. And at the same time, the popularity of the great outdoors swelled with the seasoned broadcasts of Beachcomber Bob Scearce’s outdoor program on WAFB TV and, therefore, Steinberg’s Sports Center became a well-liked shopping spot in Baton Rouge when it came to camping, fishing, hunting and athletic supplies.

As stated earlier Richard Lipsey is the second son of Joseph and Anna Bendersky Lipsey. Richard’s Dad Joseph Lipsey, Sr. died in 1973 at age 68 and His Mom passed away in 1981 at 76. Joseph, Sr. was active in the business and throughout the community with the Rotary Club, The Boy Scouts of America, The Chamber of Commerce, and United Way. He died shooting skeet on the back of a boat in the Caribbean Sea. Although Richard’s Mom Anna Lipsey didn’t take a role in the business, she was quite energetic as a civic worker all over Baton Rouge and, of course, as a mom.

Both Lipsey sons were born in Selma, Alabama. Richard was born October 7, 1939 and Joseph, Jr. was born in September of 1934. Both of them worked at Steinberg’s while they were growing up. They graduated from University Laboratory High School in Baton Rouge and they also got their degrees from LSU.

Joseph, Jr. worked at the store for a short while after he got out of the service and subsequently moved to Alexandria, Louisiana. He is now a retired businessman at age 76.

Meanwhile, Richard received an Army Commission from LSU in 1961 and after leaving Fort Polk he was assigned as assistant to Major General Philip C Wehle in Washington, DC. Lieutenant Lipsey was there during the time of the assassination of John F Kennedy and was in fact selected to be one of the few to actually witness the autopsy of the president. Lipsey was responsible for watching the body of President Kennedy and years later he had to describe to the House Committee on Assassinations what he witnessed in that procedure. Importantly, this puts long-time Baton Rouge resident Richard Lipsey’s name in the annals of American history.

[LSUDad]

More on the Kennedy Assassination:

Baton Rouge man recounts JFK autopsy and mentor who brought him to history's front row

Updated Nov 20, 2013; Posted Nov 20, 2013

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Gallery: Richard Lipsey shares photos of his experience planning JFK's funeral

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By Chelsea Brasted, columnist, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

Two men waited in a parked sedan outside Steinberg's Sports Center in Baton Rougewhen Richard Lipsey got to work Jan 18, 1978. It had been a little more than 15 years since John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas -- 15 years since Lipsey signed National Security Act documents swearing he wouldn't talk about what he'd witnessed that day.

The two men got out of the car wearing smart business suits and approached Lipsey.

"Are you Richard Lipsey? Were you a lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1963? And were you in Washington? And did you watch the autopsy of John F. Kennedy?"

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

The men, who came on behalf of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, followed Lipsey inside, where for the first time he recounted exactly how he'd heard the news that the president was shot, how he'd spent the afternoon preparing for the arrival of the body, how he'd helped the medical technicians at Bethesda Navy Hospital wipe it down and how, exactly, he'd stood alongside Jackie Kennedy and a select group of weary, grieving White House aides during a private 4:30 a.m. mass the next morning.

It was the first time Lipsey had really thought about what happened that day. He knew he couldn't talk about it, so not thinking about it seemed an easy option.

"They really caught me cold," Lipsey said. "It was very difficult at the time to go through that again with them and try to identify exactly what they wanted, and they were kind of leading me on."

The recounting opened a kind of Pandora's box inside Lipsey. It was the spark to ignite his own desire to figure out exactly what happened that day. Was it Lee Harvey Oswald who shot Kennedy? And if it was, did he act alone?

It was just after his usual lunch break on Nov. 22, 1963. Lipsey sat in a car parked outside Maj. Gen. Philip C. Wehle's house when the news came over the radio that Kennedy had been shot. Lipsey ran to the door, where Wehle met him on the way out. They'd heard the same news, and they both had snapped into action.

It was time to go to work.

As aide to Wehle, the commander of the military district of Washington, D.C., Lipsey had a front row seat to a tumultuous time, including Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic march just months earlier. Lipsey knew that at any minute Wehle could be called upon to escort a high ranking dignitary to meet the president, or he might have to help plan the funeral for former aging presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower or Harry Truman. But this was different.

Lipsey had served as sometimes-social aide to Kennedy, had shaken his hand numerous times after briefing Kennedy on various visitors, and the pair had developed a friendship.

"He was a hell of a guy. A very smart man," Lipsey said.

When Kennedy's body arrived around 6:30 p.m., he accompanied Wehle and Jackie Kennedy to Bethesda Naval Hospital. Wehle and a stoic Jackie Kennedy went upstairs to begin the gargantuan task of planning a presidential funeral, and Lipsey was given the task of guarding the door.

"Nobody touches that body except the doctors, and no unauthorized person enters that room," Lipsey remembered Wehle saying.

Lipsey helped the technicians when he was asked, helping to transfer Kennedy's body to the autopsy table, wiping it off and watching the calm, slow process of photographing the entry and exit points of the bullets. Sometime that night, Lipsey chowed down on a burger and Coke while watching the autopsy from the student's gallery above. Later, Lipsey would help to dress Kennedy in the suit his wife had chosen before closing the casket.

The body was moved to the White House in the dead of night, and Lipsey sat in on the private mass a priest gave before dawn. Jackie Kennedy asked everyone out of the room, and though he never knew what happened then, Lipsey is fairly certain he was one of the last people to ever see Kennedy's body before his burial.

The following days were a torrent of planning, securing and organizing the funeral procession. He stood next to Wehle and the Kennedy family as they made their slow walk to the Capitol from the White House. He later led Princess Grace Kelly to the grave-site, not understanding why Jackie Kennedy wouldn't see her.

There are many things Lipsey doesn't understand that day, and he doesn't suppose he'll ever figure them out. What he does know -- and he's certain of this -- is that it was Lee Harvey Oswald who pulled the trigger.

After delving into the mist in 1978, Lipsey slowly learned more and more about what happened that day. He remembered hearing the Boston accent of an FBI agent who'd been outside the autopsy, found him and read through the agent's report.

"The more I started thinking about it, the more I was able to put the picture together myself," Lipsey said.

He read the conspiracy theories, he looked at the photographs, he watched the Oliver Stone movie and he read the books. It all comes down to one thing: He's certain Lee Harvey Oswald did it.

"This guy was a nut, and he was going to show everybody," Lipsey said. "Everybody thought he was nuts, but he was going to show everybody that he can pull off the big one. ... Everybody has a theory about who put him up to it. Maybe they did? But there's just no evidence that ties him to any particular group."

Lipsey estimates he has told his story about a dozen times, but only to select groups, ones he feels a certain connection to. He won't go on national TV, though he has been asked often, and he won't speak to just anyone. He prefers to avoid the spotlight, but he acknowledges the importance of passing his story down to new generations.

In recalling the story, Lipsey doesn't feel any acute sadness or catharsis. Instead, he recognizes how lucky he was to have known Wehle, the major general who pulled him out of the group at what was then-Camp Polk, brought him to Washington, D.C., and mentored him.

"It makes me step back and think about how much I appreciated Gen. Wehle," Lipsey said.

As for the day Lipsey stood witness to one of the saddest and most portentous moments in American history, he looks back on it with equanimity.

"It doesn't overwhelm me," Lipsey said.

[LSUDad]

Can’t promise anything just yet. 

[LSUDad]

Ok Will Wade seems to have a new Attorney... looks like this is the guy.

 

https://www.nixonpeabody.com/en/team/thompson-steven-j

[LSUDad]

Still early, but it’s going down. Getting some reports from within. Let’s see how this one plays out. 

[LSUDad]

6 hours ago, LSUDad said:

Still early, but it’s going down. Getting some reports from within. Let’s see how this one plays out. 

LSU reinstates basketball coach Will Wade

Updated Apr 14, 8:20 PM; Posted Apr 14, 7:40 PM

 

 

 

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Gallery: LSU basketball coach Will Wade

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By Amie Just, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

LSU has reinstated basketball coach Will Wade, the university announced in a statement Sunday evening.

Wade denied any wrongdoing in his Friday meeting with LSU and NCAA officials, according to the statement. LSU’s athletic department convened on Sunday and decided to reinstate him.

“Coach Wade’s explanations and clarifications offered during the meeting, absent actual evidence of misconduct, satisfy his contractual obligation to LSU," LSU athletic director Joe Alleva said in the statement.

No concrete details about the meeting were previously released, outside of a short statement from an LSU spokesman saying that no resolution would be achieved on Friday. 

Wade was suspended for 37 days — since March 8 — after media reports detailed a wiretapped conversation between Wade and former Adidas consultant Christian Dawkins. The conversation recorded by the FBI that includes Wade openly speaking about a “strong-ass offer” he made in the recruitment of current LSU guard Javonte Smart in 2017.

The suspension didn’t arise from the reports themselves, but rather how Wade had been suspended and his former counsel declined to meet with LSU and NCAA officials regarding those reports.

Since Wade was placed on suspension, LSU won the SEC regular season title outright, lost in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament, and then advanced to the Sweet Sixteen before falling to Michigan State under the direction of interim head coach Tony Benford.

LSU’s regular season title was the first for the program since 2009. The Tigers’ run to the Sweet Sixteen was the first in 13 years.

“I regret the circumstances that prevented me from meeting with the University sooner,” Wade said in a statement. “I wish I could have addressed these issues when the University first requested a meeting, and I’m grateful they gave me the opportunity to do so last week.”

[LSUDad]

Thanks Mr Lipsey. 

[LSUDad]

Nice write up...

 

LSU confirmed late Wednesday that Alleva will no longer be athletic director.

"Alleva is stepping down from his current position and is transitioning to a new role as special assistant to the president for donor relations," Ernie Ballard of University Relations said in a release. "Alleva will continue to serve in his current role until a new athletic director is named." 

Prominent Baton Rouge businessman, LSU donor and Tiger Athletic Foundation founder Richard Lipsey had previously confirmed Alleva's ouster to the USA TODAY Network.

 

Lipsey, recently head of the board of higher education in Louisiana who started the Tiger Athletic Foundation (TAF) in 1987 as a fund raising arm of LSU's athletic department, said a change has been needed.

 

 

 

"It's time for Joe to retire," Lipsey said. "He has done some good things at LSU, but he has made several missteps. He never talked to prominent supporters. He never thanked people. It's time to move on. I think most people that care for LSU would agree."

[LSUDad]

Nice write up: 

 

 

https://thehayride.com/2019/04/richard-lipsey-the-necessary-housecleaning-at-lsu-isnt-done-yall/