griz4life said:
what a tragedy. Coach pflu is screwed and the griz are worse for it all too. I know a lot of people who think engstrom is a terrible failure because he'll never measure up to cruzado, which is true. But really he's a miserable failure because he does more damage than good, which makes him the worst kind of leader. if he only did no harm, engstrom could be a mediocre joke for 10 years and few would care.
is that Peggy kuhr related to the newspaper editor who got caught up in that spokane parking garage scandal? must be her kid.
The entire University is paying for Royce Engstrom's mistakes now, having to make multimillion budget cuts in all departments because of a shocking decline in enrollment.
Engstrom thought that firing Pfugrad who, as the article points out, did more for conduct education for the athletes than any coach, likely, at nearly any other comparable school. But, that DIDN'T cover up what Montanan's read about the Saudi incident.
The perception that a wealthy, Muslim student got extra-special treatment, even protection, while the assaulted females received no justice at all, followed by the inane press release that the Saudi's student's return home was "all for the best," was an extraordinarily offensive episode at the University of Montana. If a poor, white kid from Harlowton had committed violent rape and assault on campus, twice, was not charged, and had merely been "sent home," followed by a statement that it "was best," it would have been the scandal of the century in the University system. An absolute outrage. I cannot imagine another University President anywhere who would not have been fired for that incident.
It is an inescapable suspicion that turning on the athletic department was a calculated effort to distract from that despicable incident.
Subsequently, Engstrom absolutely failed to defend the University regarding allegations of rampant sexual assault on campus, which was entirely untrue. UM and Missoula have some of the lowest assault and rape statistics of comparable schools and cities in the nation. There was very good statistical data to that effect, and yet, Engstrom did nothing to challenge the allegations raised by hysterical reporting in the Missoulian. He did absolutely nothing to push back against those allegations, even though well-armed with very positive statistical evidence that Missoula was, in fact, highly supportive of victims, had far more resources available on and off campus than virtually all Universities of comparable size and similar-sized towns, and yet Engstrom remained strangely silent.
He refused to defend his University.
Parents, who look at where their children go to school, naturally had to take his cowardice seriously. There must be something, a lot, to the allegations, if the University President remains silent on such serious charges.
His bizarre attempt to "show a spine" by firing Pflu -- blaming one of the good guys by implication -- stands in marked contrast to his awesome lack of spine when it came to defending the University of Montana against false and scurrilous charges.
The University suffered one of its largest non-war enrollment declines in its history. Every department now has to pay the price, every student now has to pay the price, for that man's perfidy.