RV leaving UNT?

[the green rokemi]

a friend of mine who is working for the University left a message for RV to call back about making an appointment to meet. when he called back he said he was leaving and that they would make sure that my friend was taken care of....(and it was not in the context of leaving for the day nor leaving on vacation)

This post is not meant to start a rumour, has anyone heard this or has the board already discussed this?

[HoustonEagle]

Please tell me this is not true! Can anyone confirm?

[LoveMG]

Please tell me this is not true!  Can anyone confirm?

I think it's a bad rumor until someone confirms this or I hear RV say it. While I expect RV will leave someday for a bigger program, UNT has a lot of positive things happening right now with football and the new Athletic Center to begin. I can't think he would want to leave unless he got an offer too good to turn down. I hope this isn't true.

[grad88]

Please, let this just be a rumor. I expected RV to leave in about 3-4 years along with DD. I HOPE this is not true.

[IronMan4]

Didn't we have this same rumor last spring?

[grad88]

One more comment about this. The only reason that I could see RV leaving is because the UNT community is such a divided community with little hopes for it to ever unify the way other diverse campuses do. UNT has a very unique history with respect to its dominance of the Arts on this campus.

After working IN Development as a Dev Officer, I saw first hand the divided nature of this campus (from a faculty/staff perspective). It truly saddened me after having been a student on this campus years prior. Trust me, there are many elements of hatred toward athletics on the UNT campus. We have discussed this in great detail over the last few weeks, so I won't get it started again with any specific comments. I will just say that I am sure that RV has been taken back by the amount of antagonism at UNT regarding athletics and why such a large public school with such great potential, refuses to unify around its athletic programs. It must be the most frustrating thing in the world to try to motivate such an enormous sleeping giant that refuses to fully wake out of its slumber. There are many of us that ARE awake to the need for us to take the next step, but there are MORE in the UNT community that would just as soon that the giant go back to sleep.

This hopefully is JUST a rumor, but something in me says that it may be true.

[GMoney]

grad88, I couldn't say it any better...ditto!

[UNTLifer]

I can see where he would get frustrated, but things are starting to change. I just don't see how this could be true. We finally have an administration in place that supports athletics, our football team is beginning to win more consistently and is recruiting better, we are gaining in recognition, and we are about to embark on a huge facility upgrade. I would hate to think that RV would let a few disgruntled "neighbors" and a few faculty members run him off. Maybe these faculty members should move along. It would save UNT $$$$ to bring in supportive, newer, and younger faculty members.

If RV has chosen to leave, then he doesn't have the backbone I thiought he did. I hope this is wrong.

[grad88]

"...If RV has chosen to leave, then he doesn't have the backbone I thought he did. I hope this is wrong...."

Let me explain something here about RV. I was working in Development when the Athletic Vote was knocked down. I was in several subsequent meetings in which RV was there. That No-Vote was a No-vote to bigtime football, and RV was more than a little disappointed, and frankly shocked and angry.

It may be years before the economy gets back on track and there is the REAL potential for serious fundraising toward a new stadium. I think he saw the vote as our only real, legitmate opportunity to go forward in a big way.

RV is very upwardly mobile. He may see this as his best opportunity to leave on top. I could see him going to be an Asst AD at a MAJOR program or the AD at C-USA type school that has a unified campus community toward athletics-which UNT may never have.

He has backbone and a brain. Most of this school did not deserve him.

[UNTLifer]

I know part of this business is moving on to bigger and better, but I am would like to see RV finish what he has started here. Maybe things aren't moving as fast as he, and many of us, would like, but does that mean it is time to bail out? I hope this is just a rumor.

[meanrob]

gmg

[NT80]

NOOOOOOooooo! Someone put a clamp on this rumor. Now is not the time for UNT to be losing one of it's version of the "triplets" (RV, Pohl, BOR). We are finally climbing out of our 20-year hole.

RV would not just bail on us without a much better job lined up. As far as the Athletic Fee, the BOR corrected some of the loss and we managed to get 2/3 of it installed.

Maybe tomorrow at the scrimmage and recruit-video meeting we can get the straight scoop.

[the green rokemi]

I am hoping that this is only a misunderstanding because what my friend heard is what they heard and maybe RV said what he did not realizing the tone of his speech...I am wondering if he is leaving for personal reasons and not necessarily for another job....

[EagleMBA]

I feel gutted...I feel like I took a Mike Tyson low blow...say this isn't true.

[grad88]

Mean Rob,

He has a president and BOR that are cheerleaders-which is certianly better than what we have had in the past, but cheerleading is not enough, without money. RV has done everything he has done with very little recourses, and with a campus climate that is ANTAGONISITIC to his and our goals. The vote failed because several departments rallied against it. I heard the talk at meetings of many development officers from various schools and colleges at UNT that are against athletics at UNT-especially any notions of going big-time and diverting (it doesn't really, but in their minds it does) any money from other areas toward athletics. Those Dev Officers are anti-athletic because their deans are anti-athletic. When Deans are anti-football, the faculty is the same, and don't think for one minute that they don't influence students to their cause and contribute to the overall lethargy that exists on this campus. That is just the climate that UNT suffers from, and I have seen it from the inside. I was there when I heard some of these Dev Officers celebrating that the vote had failed. So, I AM going to give you this "anti-athletic crap" because I know without a shadow of a doubt that it is true.

Some have been awakend at UNT for the positive (or at least they see there is finally hope) but many others have become more solidified than ever against athletics and RV. When RV attends faculty/staff council meetings with these folks on a regular basis, don't you think it would finally get a little old-especially if you have other offers at places where you don't have to deal with this stupidity?

[meanrob]

I took the post down but you addressed none of the questions in my post.

What department is to blame for that list of problems?

[grad88]

Ok Mean Rob, athletics is to blame, if you want to be technical about it. BUT, I have been there and watched higher level staff (I'm not talking about the line staff at the computers at the front desk) who are doing 2 and 3 jobs try to maintain some degree of order and organization. They were overworked because they were trying to do TOO MUCH WITH TOO LITTLE.

I personally have never had any trouble with my season tickets and I feel like I have always been served well. Maybe yours is an isolated experience.

If there is an Athletic problem in the way of organization, it is due to the lack of recources that they have for what they are trying to do-which is take the program to the next level. RV has done the best he could, and any school that gets him will be very lucky.

[Travis]

Anti-athletics is found everywhere.... Even at the BCS schools...

i don't see that as a legitamite reason.. i truly hope this to be a rumor and only that. But progress isn't over night and we are only beginning to see what could be HUGE for this university...

support will come...it doesn't happen over night.

[meanrob]

I give up. I can't fight your excuses.

I'm sure RV and the athletic department will be glad to know you expect so little from them.