Kristina Johnson (OSU President)

[Buckerooni]

When one of the “underlings” is related to a trustee, does that change?

I'm no insider at OSU. I was an insider for many years in a similar institution. I can't recall an instance when a complaint went straight to the Board, from a relative. My first thought is that the Board surely got involved much sooner than it would have - if the complaint went through usual, tedious channels, it might have been either shut down by frustrating the complainer to nearly suicidal levels (it was the complainer who left the University, not the alleged perp in those cases) or resolved in some other way, like moving the complainer to another dept.

Even with a complaint against the President, the Board wouldn't likely get involved until usual grievance procedures were followed - unless someone was threatening to release convincing evidence of egregious behavior to the press . . . or, yes, had a relative on the Board.

I'm trying to imagine the situation you describe. Yes, it would have made a difference, depending on how angry, how convincing, and how influential the Board member was. All the usual red tape would have been cut through.

Well, I'm rambling. Either she did something awful and there's convincing evidence, OR, the Board Member is angry enough (and simply believes their relative) and the BoT would rather lose the President than the Board Member (or is afraid of the Board Member's ability to retaliate).

But what was the Prez thinking, treating said-relative so poorly? Did she not know of the underling's connections?

I'm glad I don't work in Higher Ed Admin anymore.

 

[calibuck]

Thump, would very much agree with you - they should - but tOSU (or any organization) will hide behind the 'it's a personnel matter', which of course means that anything that could in any way hinder his or she getting 'blackballed' from the next hiring opportunity will rebound as a law suit against the first organization. There is alot of leeway for divulging information because if an organization uses tax dollars, then what you mentioned would come into play.

In today's climate, if one 'pigeon-holes' complaint, and it's harassment etc, then the person who set it aside will undoubtedly be fired, or otherwise dinged. And of course, the 'court of public approval' is a very harsh one, and if one can get a reporter to do a little investigation (or not as seems to be the case these days), and write an expose', then the bad pub could wreck an organization, or in the case of an Ohio State, cause funding/grants to be withheld. It's all about the benjamins.

 

[Thump]

I'm no insider at OSU. I was an insider for many years in a similar institution. I can't recall an instance when a complaint went straight to the Board, from a relative. My first thought is that the Board surely got involved much sooner than it would have - if the complaint went through usual, tedious channels, it might have been either shut down by frustrating the complainer to nearly suicidal levels (it was the complainer who left the University, not the alleged perp in those cases) or resolved in some other way, like moving the complainer to another dept.

Even with a complaint against the President, the Board wouldn't likely get involved until usual grievance procedures were followed - unless someone was threatening to release convincing evidence of egregious behavior to the press . . . or, yes, had a relative on the Board.

I'm trying to imagine the situation you describe. Yes, it would have made a difference, depending on how angry, how convincing, and how influential the Board member was. All the usual red tape would have been cut through.

Well, I'm rambling. Either she did something awful and there's convincing evidence, OR, the Board Member is angry enough (and simply believes their relative) and the BoT would rather lose the President than the Board Member (or is afraid of the Board Member's ability to retaliate).

But what was the Prez thinking, treating said-relative so poorly? Did she not know of the underling's connections?

I'm glad I don't work in Higher Ed Admin anymore.

Many “underlings” filed complaints.

 

[heisman]

I'm no insider at OSU. I was an insider for many years in a similar institution. I can't recall an instance when a complaint went straight to the Board, from a relative. My first thought is that the Board surely got involved much sooner than it would have - if the complaint went through usual, tedious channels, it might have been either shut down by frustrating the complainer to nearly suicidal levels (it was the complainer who left the University, not the alleged perp in those cases) or resolved in some other way, like moving the complainer to another dept.

Even with a complaint against the President, the Board wouldn't likely get involved until usual grievance procedures were followed - unless someone was threatening to release convincing evidence of egregious behavior to the press . . . or, yes, had a relative on the Board.

I'm trying to imagine the situation you describe. Yes, it would have made a difference, depending on how angry, how convincing, and how influential the Board member was. All the usual red tape would have been cut through.

Well, I'm rambling. Either she did something awful and there's convincing evidence, OR, the Board Member is angry enough (and simply believes their relative) and the BoT would rather lose the President than the Board Member (or is afraid of the Board Member's ability to retaliate).

But what was the Prez thinking, treating said-relative so poorly? Did she not know of the underling's connections?

I'm glad I don't work in Higher Ed Admin anymore.

They were OSHA complaints during Covid, which were all dismissed btw.

 

[Jaxbuck]

Ok, so a much lighter be careful who you piss on story:

When I was in the Army we had a medic NCO who was generally a cockbag to everyone but especially this young female private. Well what Sgt Cockbag didn't know was that sweet little private Suzy Q had some sort of familial relationship with Colin Powell. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell. The kind of relationship where she could pick up the phone and talk to Uncle (or whatever he was to her) Colin. Well, that is exactly what she did.

I had seen the Brigade commander maybe once or twice in my time there and each time he was always driven up in his Humvee. This time I saw him running across a big ass parking lot to our battalion HQ. There he picked up the battalion CO and they beat feet across another parking lot to our company HQ. There, they picked up our Co CO and headed over to the medic station to have a talk with Sgt Cockbag.

There were no niceties involved as the story goes (I wasn't in the medic station at the time and would have run out the back door if I was). Sgt Cockbag was gone that same day. It was the funniest military shit you've ever seen.

Anyway, carry on with the Ellen DeGeneres drama

 

[dragurd]

Ok, so a much lighter be careful who you piss on story:

When I was in the Army we had a medic NCO who was generally a cockbag to everyone but especially this young female private. Well what Sgt Cockbag didn't know was that sweet little private Suzy Q had some sort of familial relationship with Colin Powell. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell. The kind of relationship where she could pick up the phone and talk to Uncle (or whatever he was to her) Colin. Well, that is exactly what she did.

I had seen the Brigade commander maybe once or twice in my time there and each time he was always driven up in his Humvee. This time I saw him running across a big ass parking lot to our battalion HQ. There he picked up the battalion CO and they beat feet across another parking lot to our company HQ. There, they picked up our Co CO and headed over to the medic station to have a talk with Sgt Cockbag.

There were no niceties involved as the story goes (I wasn't in the medic station at the time and would have run out the back door if I was). Sgt Cockbag was gone that same day. It was the funniest military shit you've ever seen.

Anyway, carry on with the Ellen DeGeneres drama

So I have a Marine Buddy. He was a helicopter tech. He told a lot of stories about pulling a sensor or other and taking 10-20 hours to fix it cause some higher up was a cockbag and they didn't want to fly with him.

 

[scarletngray]

If she's leaving bring in Tressel!

 

[Thump]

If she's leaving bring in Tressel!

From your mouth to Ord’s ears!

 

[dragurd]

From your mouth to Ord’s ears!

Should we tell him Ord's going to hit him in the face with a beer bottle?

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

If she's leaving bring in Tressel!

Yeah, let's bring in a disgraced foosball coach whose "academic" experience is at Akron and YSU to run a massive AAU university and research hospital. It would be like putting the guy who runs one of the water taxis on the Chicago River in as Captain of the USS Nimitz.

 

[NJ-Buckeye]

Kristina Johnson is in the portal? who knew?

 

[Buckerooni]

Many “underlings” filed complaints.

Still a very vague picture - even accusations from multiple parties can be swept under the rug, or at the very least, the alleged perp can be given some mercy. I remember a VP with several underling-accusers (hard evidence was light, but there was some evidence, and I was close enough to the situation to know accusations were true). He was told to leave, BUT he was given time to job hunt (it took almost two years, as his reputation began to precede him).

They gave her zero mercy. From a distance, as someone seeing only the public face, I liked her and am very disappointed in this. But all signs point to guilty rather than railroaded.

 

[Steve19]

When I was an Army NCO, we had a really toxic 2nd lieutenant arrive fresh from West Point and two days away from his 5th star in his own mind. He was a real ass. After two weeks of 12 hour a day duty, he decided the day before a major holiday that he needed an inked sign made for his presentation to a visiting general the following week. This is back in the day of the Leroy lettering sets, before computers. The chart concerned the strategic readiness of companies and sections of them and their equipment utilization/readiness in a brigade along more than 20 measures (so more than 500 boxes to fill). We used press on letters for headings but had to ink all the numbers in the table body.

So we set out to complete the chart but found to our dismay that we had created one column too many. Since teams were working by column, the table was almost complete, when we realized the error. We didn't have enough letters for headers, ink for the body or time. So, we created a new column from the few remaining letters...gentlemen, I give you (let's say for now) the SREUZ%.

We made the first few units on the table, who were excellent high scores. He was bright. He got to that last column, coughed and asked for some water while he looked at the table and then complimented the first unit for their strategic readiness and equipment utilization score. He was on a run as he went through the presentation to the 4 Star general , complimenting and encouraging better performance. That was until he hit a patch when a few units actually did well but had a low SREUZ%. Some of these units were commanded by senior officers, who questioned him intensely about the measure and, it would seem, made his life as miserable as ours.

As you might guess, he stormed into the unit demanding answers, at which time one of the guys showed him the page he gave us and...there it was, apparently in his own handwriting on the table he asked us to reproduce. That guy learned an important lesson that day about enlisted men that benefited him the rest of his career, I am sure.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

When I was an Army NCO, we had a really toxic 2nd lieutenant arrive fresh from West Point and two days away from his 5th star in his own mind. He was a real ass. After two weeks of 12 hour a day duty, he decided the day before a major holiday that he needed an inked sign made for his presentation to a visiting general the following week. This is back in the day of the Leroy lettering sets, before computers. The chart concerned the strategic readiness of companies and sections of them and their equipment utilization/readiness in a brigade along more than 20 measures (so more than 500 boxes to fill). We used press on letters for headings but had to ink all the numbers in the table body.

So we set out to complete the chart but found to our dismay that we had created one column too many. Since teams were working by column, the table was almost complete, when we realized the error. We didn't have enough letters for headers, ink for the body or time. So, we created a new column from the few remaining letters...gentlemen, I give you (let's say for now) the SREUZ%.

We made the first few units on the table, who were excellent high scores. He was bright. He got to that last column, coughed and asked for some water while he looked at the table and then complimented the first unit for their strategic readiness and equipment utilization score. He was on a run as he went through the presentation to the 4 Star general , complimenting and encouraging better performance. That was until he hit a patch when a few units actually did well but had a low SREUZ%. Some of these units were commanded by senior officers, who questioned him intensely about the measure and, it would seem, made his life as miserable as ours.

As you might guess, he stormed into the unit demanding questions, at which time one of the guys showed him the page he gave us and...there it was, apparently in his own handwriting on the table he asked us to reproduce. That guy learned an important lesson that day about enlisted men that benefited him the rest of his career, I am sure.

I read an analysis once that the US Army in WW2 needed to wait for all the West Point junior officers to either get killed or promoted out of the way and replaced with 90 day wonders who just wanted to get the job done and go home before it could de-ass its head and start winning.

 

[Jaxbuck]

I read an analysis once that the US Army in WW2 needed to wait for all the West Point junior officers to either get killed or promoted out of the way and replaced with 90 day wonders who just wanted to get the job done and go home before it could de-ass its head and start winning.

I could see that.

I don't think much has changed over time with officers. They are a lot like Dr's in the hospital. The nurses and NCO's make the place run in spite of them even though they think they are in charge.