AU diversity officer says firings were racially based


DAHILL

DAHILL

Well-Known Member
http://www.al.com/sports/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/sports/1108376143261630.xml

AU diversity officer says firings were racially based
Monday, February 14, 2005
By PHILLIP MARSHALL
Times Sports Staff pmarsh9485@msn.com
AUBURN - Keenan Grenell, the top diversity officer in Auburn University's administration, said Sunday night he believes assistant athletic director Eugene Harris and associate athletic director Stacy Danley lost their jobs last Thursday because they are black.

"Absolutely," Grenell, Auburn's interim assistant provost for diversity and multicultural affairs, said in an interview with The Huntsville Times. "There was no rationale given by the athletic director other than their jobs were eliminated."

Athletic director Jay Jacobs announced last Thursday that Harris, assistant athletic director for special projects; Danley, associate athletic director for external affairs and Olympic sports coordinator; and marketing coordinator Marvin Julich had been relieved of their duties because their jobs had been eliminated.

Grenell, Auburn University Senator chairman Willie Larkin and representatives of other community and university black groups will address their concerns in a press conference this morning.

"We don't want to call it a protest," Grenell said. "It's an information-sharing session. The community has to know what is going on."

Grenell said he will address diversity concerns within the athletic department and the university as a whole.

"The African-American community is outraged about this," Grenell said.

Grenell said he twice told Jacobs, who succeeded David Housel as athletic director on Jan. 5, he was making a mistake. He said David Wilson, vice president for university outreach, also told Jacobs he was making a mistake.

"They were not dismissed because of performance," Grenell said. "There was no legitimate justification. He couldn't rationalize it on Thursday and he couldn't rationalize it on Friday."

Grenell, Harris, Danley and Larkin are all members of "100 Black Men," a local leadership group. Last month, Harris received the Henry Harris Trailblazer Award.
 



Know all of these fellas. Grenell is a Kappa from Mississippi and finished Tougaloo College. His daughter finished Jackson State and was a cheerleader there and his son is attending Bama State. Harris is also a Kappa who coached with Cliff Ellis for his entire coaching career before moving to the administrative side. Danley played at Auburn who just built a new house and welcomed his third child into the world last month. David Wilson finished 'Skegee and has applied for the presidency at many HBCUs, while Willie Larkin is an Omega and has been at AU for a long time. We're all members of the new chapter of the One Hundred Black Men.
 
I really started this post because Eugene Harris is my uncle (dads brother) from Scottsboro, Alabama. He was one of the first Black basketball players at Florida State University. He had been, Cliff Ellis' top assistant for years at Clemson then followed him to Auburn.... he later took the administrative posistion because he said that he didnt want to be involved with "dirty" recruiting. He has told me plenty of times that there is no such thing as "clean" recruiting at the (major) D1 schools. Him and Pettaway are real good friends, I really wish we could add him to our staff, but he was making probably 2 times more than Pettaway while at AU. I think he is about to get back into coaching now.
 
Everytime an incident happens at Auburn the black athletes are told to ignore it. Now that blacks have been fired in the Department of Athletes, I would personally like to see them boycott the athletic programs until these guys are rehired. It is not like Auburn isn't making money on athletics, by expanding the stadium, moving the Iron bowl from B'ham and other resources. Therefore, if the black athletes were to strike these guys would be rehired by the end of the week and the AD would be gone. If they tried to punish the athletes for striking then they could transfer to other schools. Auburn has a serious problem but they do not care.
 
MightyDog said:
Everytime an incident happens at Auburn the black athletes are told to ignore it.

......Auburn has a serious problem but they do not care.
Click to expand...

Thats it in a nutshell.
 
I learned that the new AD, Jacobs work his way up from Strength Coach to the now AD. Therefore, he cannot have this much power to act on his own. When the diversity officer is not aware of a change that will eliminate the jobs of black employees, then the Interm, boardmembers and other top officials have sanction this decision. But I mentioned my suggestion last night about the players striking, but I was told the black players would not do it because of the other pocket money they receive.
 
MightyDog said:
Everytime an incident happens at Auburn the black athletes are told to ignore it. Now that blacks have been fired in the Department of Athletes, I would personally like to see them boycott the athletic programs until these guys are rehired. It is not like Auburn isn't making money on athletics, by expanding the stadium, moving the Iron bowl from B'ham and other resources. Therefore, if the black athletes were to strike these guys would be rehired by the end of the week and the AD would be gone. If they tried to punish the athletes for striking then they could transfer to other schools. Auburn has a serious problem but they do not care.
Click to expand...

To put a long story short, I have heard some things like these about Auburn for years.
 
Therefore, if the black athletes were to strike these guys would be rehired by the end of the week and the AD would be gone.
Click to expand...

I don't have to know anything about Auburn to know that this would never happen.
 
Everything that's being said about Auburn is basically true. Just ask your mothers and fathers about the school's past. Well! apparently it still shows. And also remember that UA has less students attending their school than AU. But, UA has a larger black enrollment than Auburn.
 
HORNETSWARM said:
........And also remember that UA has less students attending their school than AU. But, UA has a larger black enrollment than Auburn.
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BAMA always have had a larger black enrollment than Auburn, and probably always will. Thats another problem I have with Auburn. They can find black athletes to go there but they can't find black students who are not athletes. :smh:

But don't get me wrong now, cause BAMA has issues too. :(
 
TSU/BAMA said:
BAMA always have had a larger black enrollment than Auburn, and probably always will. Thats another problem I have with Auburn. They can find black athletes to go there but they can't find black students who are not athletes. :smh:

But don't get me wrong now, cause BAMA has issues too. :(
Click to expand...

thats simply because of LOCATION..... what ORDINARY Black person wants to go to school in the middle of NOWHERE in the country in Alabama..... If Alabama wasnt in Tuscaloosa and was in Cullman or somewhere else country, it would be in the same boat. UAB has more Blacks than UA or UA just because its in Birmingham.
 
DAHILL said:
thats simply because of LOCATION..... what ORDINARY Black person wants to go to school in the middle of NOWHERE in the country in Alabama..... If Alabama wasnt in Tuscaloosa and was in Cullman or somewhere else country, it would be in the same boat.
Click to expand...

I most strongly disagree with you here DAHILL. If what you say is true, then there would be very few black students at Troy State University. Don't they have a large black student population and ain't Troy State in the country?
 
TSU/BAMA said:
I most strongly disagree with you here DAHILL. If what you say is true, then there would be very few black students at Troy State University. Don't they have a large black student population and ain't Troy State in the country?
Click to expand...

I have been to Troy State PLENTY of times, my best friend in college was from Troy.... the ONLY Blacks they have down there are ones from those small communities around the city.... all the Blacks knew each other before they went to college.... Troy, Brundage, Pike County, Luverne, etc.
 
The timing of this is intresting, less than 2 weeks after the end of the football recruiting period. This could get ugly for Auburn if these men aren't rehired and the story starts to gain national attention.
 



I very rarely speak to anything about Auburn. Just read it mostly. But I get the impression that some folks are posting as if "stuff" doesn't happen at other schools, only at Auburn.

also Dahill
DAHILL said:
..... what ORDINARY Black person wants to go to school in the middle of NOWHERE in the country in Alabama.
Click to expand...
ummmm, let's see,
you can get to Tuskegee (or should I say TU ;) ) in 10 minutes
Columbus in 30 minutes
Montgomery in 45 minutes
Atlanta in a lil over an hour

Auburn, the largest $chool in Alabama, aint exactly some remote place far from everything.
 
mighty hornet said:
I very rarely speak to anything about Auburn. Just read it mostly. But I get the impression that some folks are posting as if "stuff" doesn't happen at other schools, only at Auburn.

also Dahill

ummmm, let's see,
you can get to Tuskegee (or should I say TU ;) ) in 10 minutes
Columbus in 30 minutes
Montgomery in 45 minutes
Atlanta in a lil over an hour

Auburn, the largest $chool in Alabama, aint exactly some remote place far from everything.
Click to expand...

thats the MIDDLE of the woods.... if you have to drive 30 minutes to civilization... that is the middle of the country. and common now SKEGEE.... the Skegee people drive to AUBURN to find things to do.
 
Dahill,
Notice that I said 10 minutes from TU. (the school) If Skegee is anything like it used to be, then being that close to it is a good thing.

And sure, Auburn aint some booming metropolis LOL, but it does have a student population of over 20K. So, at least there are some things there that would at least make it qualify as being part of "civilization".
 
mighty hornet said:
Dahill,
Notice that I said 10 minutes from TU. (the school) If Skegee is anything like it used to be, then being that close to it is a good thing.

And sure, Auburn aint some booming metropolis LOL, but it does have a student population of over 20K. So, at least there are some things there that would at least make it qualify as being part of "civilization".
Click to expand...

Tuskegee doesnt even have a Wal Mart... they HAD one but they had to close it down due to employees stealing everything out of it. TU has a KFC, Taco Bell, and Burger King, and a Chicken Coup.... everything else is TREES.
 
you still missing my point

I know aint schit in Skegee as far as stores and businesses, but back in da day, Skegee was loaded with candy. A lot of it!!!! LOL

LMAO@ the Wal Mart going out of business.
I remember when it was new
 
I agree with Mighty Hornet, on this one.

Trust me, Auburn's lack of black students ain't got NUTHIN' to do with its location.

Period.

As MH pointed out, Auburn might even have a better location, strategically, than Bama does. Auburn's problem is its perception among black people. And these recent incidents at Auburn prove that perception is reality.
 
When I think of Auburn University, I think of the fraternity party where some white kid dressed up in a KKK uniform holding up a noose and another white kid in blackface and afro wig with a purple T-shirt that had the greek letters of Omega Psi Phi. It wasn't so much that the incident occured that bother me as much as it was when I was listening to a local talk radio show in Montgomery and how the callers brush it off like the kids did nothing wrong and the reason why blacks got upset was political correctness.

It was at that point I realize that there are truely two seperate worlds out there. If a similar incident occured mocking Jews, I think the issue of political correctness wouldn't have came up.
 
I'll keep this short and simple for you: If you are Black and don't catch, or run with a football or tackle somebody with the football then Auburn really doesen't want you around there. You notice I didn't include throw with run and catch. But, as long as they can pay the athletes without getting caught we will continue to go there. I really can't decide who are the biggest racist; Ole Miss in the 60's or 21st century Auburn.
 
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