Editorial: Athletics Department unwilling to discuss bad news, yet asks for student support
Less than two weeks ago, the Central Michigan University Athletics Department welcomed a new volleyball coach. We’re interested to see where Mike Gawlik will take the program.
We’re also interested in knowing what happened to the team’s previous coach. We asked, but did not get any answers from CMU Athletics or its director, Dave Heeke.
That’s a problem.
Coaches are university employees paid with public dollars. When one is suspended or fired, the public is owed answers – no exceptions.
Heeke cites a “fundamental belief” in protecting the privacy of employees as the justification for withholding details on an investigation into former coach Erik Olson’s conduct. A Freedom of Information Act Request revealed Olson was potentially engaging in “unprofessional behavior toward student-athletes." He resigned before the investigation could provide a conclusion.
A culture of secrecy exists within the department. CMU’s coaches, athletes and students deserve better than to be shut out when something bad happens in the department.
The most recent example of Heeke’s unwillingness to explain his decisions comes in the form of a coach who resigned.
Olson was put on a paid leave of absence on Oct. 6.
The department still hasn’t given a reason as to why Olson was put on leave, inviting the community to rely on imagination and speculation.
This way of doing business is nothing new for the Athletics Department.
On the day of the Chippewa football team’s Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit, we learned punter Ron Coluzzi left the program. Before the game, CMU Athletics never informed the press or fans that he had. They never offered an explanation why.
A season earlier, star running back Thomas Rawls was withheld from the team’s home game against Syracuse. A CMU spokesman told reporters not to ask questions about Rawls after the game or the postgame press conference would be ended.
CMU Athletics officials usually have no interest in talking about bad news. Yet, the department is forthcoming with information when it benefits them.
Ex-head golf coach Tom Beidleman was fired three weeks before the Rawls incident.
CMU Athletics held a press conference on Beidleman’s firing and provided the media with plenty of documentation (two binders worth of e-mails and other damning documents) on what led to the coach’s firing – a man they hired and then called a liar.
When Heeke hired John Bonamego as football coach, the department hosted an elaborate press conference welcoming him at the CMU Events Center.
Subsidized to the tune of roughly $21.1 million by the university, Heeke has plenty of resources to spend on feel-good stories during the last few years.
The Athletics Department has built an in-house quasi-media organization, complete with a full-time staff writer for its website to spread only positive news about CMU sports.
But when it comes time to answer specific questions about why a player leaves or a staff change was made, Heeke’s staff is unwilling.
This is symptomatic of a larger effort to paint the university in an always-positive light. Call it the “PR-ing” of CMU.
There is never a lack of "good news" stories on CMU's website, but the potential auctioning of the university’s public broadcasting assets is passed by the board of trustees without public discussion.
Silence breeds suspicion.
We are not calling for CMU and its officials to burn former employees or open the university up to potential litigation. But students, faculty and staff should not be left in the dark for no reason.
Olson is gone. It’s time to break the precedent of mystery and tell people why.
Heeke, because of his department’s high profile and big budget, faces constant and intense scrutiny. Heeke is good at his job and, like most of his administrator colleagues, we think he wants the best for CMU.
In fact, Heeke often says his chief responsibility is building a “championship culture.”
That culture is based on integrity. Integrity is never being afraid to be accountable, open and honest.
The silence that continues to surround the Olson suspension and resignation doesn’t live up to the standard Heeke sets for his department’s “championship culture.”
What’s worse: It doesn’t meet the standard Heeke should set for himself.
