17.05.12

Opening comments: “Probably in a couple of weeks we will have an announcement about our new Dean of Vet Med, and I assume that you’ll all be back?

“Being the president of the university has aspects that are among the best jobs in the world. There are also things that are among the most difficult that I’ve had to do, and one of those is letting good people go from their positions.

“I met with Paul Kowalczyk yesterday and told him that I was making a change in the athletic director position. Paul is a man of immense integrity who has worked very hard on behalf of Colorado State University. I consider Paul Kowalczyk a friend, but as I’ve watched where Ram athletics are going, I have become concerned about the signal that we are sending to people who view Colorado State University, and form opinions about our university, through the lens of athletics.

“Colorado State is proud of our reputation as a university. We’ve worked hard and earned that reputation. We didn’t become one of the most productive research universities in the country by saying that we had too small a faculty. We didn’t narrow our race-based graduation gaps to one of the lowest in the country, or beat our predicted graduation rates by saying that our pockets weren’t as deep as many other institutions. We haven’t come through the last three years with, I think, an improved reputation, three years of record enrollment, three years of record research funding, and looking to complete the university’s first campaign ahead of schedule and over budget, by saying that it would be difficult to do those things. We accomplished all of those things by setting high standards, by working hard, and by holding ourselves accountable. And, I think those are the same things that I expect from Ram athletics.

Source: CSURams.com