Fred Oien article

[Jacks#1Fan]

Re: Fred Oien article

Here it is:

Linky

Thanks EP...I couldn't find it where it was at yesterday, and when I did an archive search of President Chicoine interview, it gave me a "no results" answer. I'm glad you found it, because I hope all posters who still think he was "let go" will read it and decide whether they want to believe President Chicoine lied.

[TeaJackrabbit]

Re: Fred Oien article

Anyway, President Chicoine was asked point blank whether there was another reason for Fred retiring, other than his own wish. The President said, point-blank, there wasn't. Now all of you can think what you want to think...if you think the President is lying, you can continue to look for another answer. I think this was the Argus' last whack at SDSU's retiring AD when they couldn't find the smoking gun they wanted to find...so may he live in peace with the knowledge that he did a great job (even if critics didn't like his management style)....

Honest question(s) here.....then why do you think Fred vacated his office immediately? Why wasn't he present for the ladies NCAA run? Why wasn't he present at the Summit tourney? Why did he work from home the last few months? Why did have no input, after 20 years as AD, as to who would replace him? Why was he basically invisible after he announced he was soon retiring?

Fred didn't go out in the fashion that someone who spent 20 successful years guiding and building and trailblazing a program should. I am very, very, very thankful for what he has accomplished, but no matter your allegiance to Fred Oien, you can't simply bury your head in the sand and tell yourself it's all about the Argus hoping to smear Fred or about former employees attempting to get even.

[Evolution Prime]

Re: Fred Oien article

If you would like to discuss things even further with the immortal Stu Whitney, go here:

Link-a-roo

[JimmyJack]

Re: Fred Oien article

If you would like to discuss things even further with the immortal Stu Whitney, go here:

Link-a-roo

Stu raises some good questions (and some dumb ones)... all questions we'll never be able to answer. So.... nothing to see here. Move it along.

[bigticket1]

Re: Fred Oien article

Honest question(s) here.....then why do you think Fred vacated his office immediately? Why wasn't he present for the ladies NCAA run? Why wasn't he present at the Summit tourney? Why did he work from home the last few months? Why did have no input, after 20 years as AD, as to who would replace him? Why was he basically invisible after he announced he was soon retiring?

Fred didn't go out in the fashion that someone who spent 20 successful years guiding and building and trailblazing a program should. I am very, very, very thankful for what he has accomplished, but no matter your allegiance to Fred Oien, you can't simply bury your head in the sand and tell yourself it's all about the Argus hoping to smear Fred or about former employees attempting to get even.

I think you would find that in a major administrative position like this,that the out-going person usually has little or no input in who their replacement will be.

[yoteforever]

Re: Fred Oien article

AD Oien is a publically paid and recognized official of the state of South Dakota. Mr. Oien must have been a highly controversial figure, and obviously was a strongly driven man.

My guess is to be an Athletic Director today, those are charecteristics that probably come with the title. You certainly don't want an AD that has no backbone because then you get a program running amuck. An AD has to be stern, yet fair, with his/her coaches. They need to manage the athletic program as if it is like any other business. How many managers/business owners are wall flowers? Very few, and if they are, they don't last long.

It is unfortunate that Mr. Oien had to pay the ultimate price of job loss probably due to his actions outside the arena of SDSU athletics. Right or wrong, that is how it is today, public figures live in glass houses. As one not closely connected with SDSU athletics, and making comment on the job he appeared to do, I would have to have given him a good grade. It appears that SDSU has made the transition and done it fairly well. I don't look at your budgets or deficets, but since there doesn't seem to be much public outcry, I would have to assume that Mr. Oien did you well.

I think it is time to stop talking about it, for nothing more can come of it. Let this serve as a reminder to all public employees especially in the so-called "limelight", that unfortuantely for you, people are watching, and some of those people want you to make a mistake so they can pounce on you.

I think it would now be fair for a final story to be written on Mr. Oien that spins all the good things he did, not only for SDSU, but for the state of South Dakota as well.

As a Coyote fan I am saying it is time to drop this subject, move on, and welcome your new AD to South Dakota. I hope that Mr. Sell will serve the interests of your institution well, as well as the people of South Dakota and surrounding areas that SDSU touches and affects. Welcome to Brookings Mr. Sell. Best wishes and good luck.

[Rabbitlivinginverm]

Re: Fred Oien article

Honest question(s) here.....then why do you think Fred vacated his office immediately? Why wasn't he present for the ladies NCAA run? Why wasn't he present at the Summit tourney? Why did he work from home the last few months? Why did have no input, after 20 years as AD, as to who would replace him? Why was he basically invisible after he announced he was soon retiring?

Fred didn't go out in the fashion that someone who spent 20 successful years guiding and building and trailblazing a program should. I am very, very, very thankful for what he has accomplished, but no matter your allegiance to Fred Oien, you can't simply bury your head in the sand and tell yourself it's all about the Argus hoping to smear Fred or about former employees attempting to get even.

He was present at the Summit League Tourney. Unless it was somebody that looks excatly like him and goes by the name Fred.

[Nidaros]

Re: Fred Oien article

If you would like to discuss things even further with the immortal Stu Whitney, go here:

Link-a-roo

It appears now that we have a faulty president leading SDSU, at least in Stu's mind.

Good luck Stu, you might have bitten off more than you can chew here.

[JackJD]

Re: Fred Oien article

Honest question(s) here.....then why do you think Fred vacated his office immediately? Why wasn't he present for the ladies NCAA run? Why wasn't he present at the Summit tourney? Why did he work from home the last few months? Why did have no input, after 20 years as AD, as to who would replace him? Why was he basically invisible after he announced he was soon retiring?...

I was not going to post any more in this thread. However, I have a problem with posts like the foregoing. The questions posed by TeaJackrabbit are not honest questions (merely proclaiming them "honest questions" just doesn't work). At least one is based on a false premise (which I know from personal knowledge) and, since TeaJackrabbit asked one question without knowing the underlying fact, then there is some likelihood the remainder of his "questions" are based on conjecture -- no personal knowledge of the "fact" on which the question is based.

Questions like those do not merit any attention and they cause harm because they imply or suggest a fact that may not be true (and in the case of one of the "questions", is not true).

Illustration: I had a buddy in college who regularly made jokes using "questions" having no basis in fact. He'd walk into a public place and spot someone he knew and ask in a loud voice a question which implied some outrageous underlying fact: "Hey, you still sleeping with your sister?" It always got a laugh.

The problem with such questions on this thread is they're not funny and they cause harm by giving false impressions.

And now I'm going to leave for work in my old vehicle, knowing full well that I'm being judged a misfit by some because I like my old vehicle. I am planning on having pie at lunch.

[SD-STATE]

Re: Fred Oien article

Does it really matter if Fred Oien stepped down on his own or was basically told to by President Chicoine? Fred is done now and SDSU has a new AD. If Fred's conduct had become too much of a problem, then it's obvious that he was asked to step down and lay low. It was handled in house and problem was solved. We are talking about a man with some personal issues, maybe/apparently those personal issues started to affect job performance. We are not talking about embezzlement or fraud of public money here. I happen to believe that a man's personal business is his own and nobody else's. Maybe the Chicoine thinks that way too and doesn't think going into great detail about someone's suspected faults warrants public disclosure. Now a person could call that weak or ineffective leadership on the university president's part, but I see that as a sign of integrity and strength. The long and short of it is that there was potentially a problem, problem was ultimately solved, problem was of such a nature that it does not warrant public consumptiom. Unless there is a million dollars missing or physical abuse and harrasment in the work place found, banging one's desk with a fist or yelling loudly at an employee isn't one of those, then I don't care.

[Jacks#1Fan]

Re: Fred Oien article

Honest question(s) here.....then why do you think Fred vacated his office immediately? Why wasn't he present for the ladies NCAA run? Why wasn't he present at the Summit tourney? Why did he work from home the last few months? Why did have no input, after 20 years as AD, as to who would replace him? Why was he basically invisible after he announced he was soon retiring?

It is comments like these that really drive me up a wall on this board. I find the posting of comments when the poster knows literally nothing about the situation...well, maddening. Simple questions...simple answers: The employee notified his employer he was going to resign, because he had decided the timing was right (biggest assignment concluded successfully and he was worn out). He calculated the amount of leave time available (a lot since his job rarely allowed personal time) which left his resignation date several months down the road. He took the advice of his mentor, a former AD, that when you leave the job, you walk away and stay away until a new person has your job and can establish his own standing...and you don't meddle in your employers search for a replacement. End of questions...end of answers...and end of this thread for me. (Supporters will continue to question the "questions", critics will continue to question the "answers" so further conversation is fruitless.)

P.S. Fred Oien was at the Summit tournament. And I know he is already looking forward to being a Jackrabbit fan beginning with tailgating next fall. And Stu Whitney (yeh, JJ, like all this was Terry's doing...when there is no doubt where his boss has been and is on this "non-story") will continue to be the Stu Whitney we all know.

[RabbitObsessed]

Re: Fred Oien article

I find the posting of comments when the poster knows literally nothing about the situation...well, maddening.

Well, I hate to break it to you, but I think you just defined "internet message board."

And just because one of Tea's questions is false, doesn't mean the rest of his are invalid. That's bad logic.

[Nidaros]

Re: Fred Oien article

I have not had the opportunity to sit down and have one on one conversations with Fred like I once did, and maybe more often before 1990, and before he was AD. I learned a great deal from these conversations about athletic adminstration. I think it is fair to state that his precessor Dr Forysth helped groom Fred for the AD position and he did an excellent job. Fred got his advanced degrees out east and I want to say they were the same instittutions where Jack Frost got his but might be wrong on that detail, but I know Fred thought a great of deal of Rueben "Jack" Frost, the quiet and thoughtful Norweigan from North Dakota.

My point is that Fred was groomed to be an AD under a D2 classifications and since SDSU is now a D1 member with a completely different number of responsiblities, I tend to think he felt he should not have imput in his successor, and it was one for the an appointed committee to make. Also consider when Reggie Christiansen left SDSU last spring, Fred backed off in hiring a new coach, and I think he probably was thinking retirement in making that decision. Plus he an able assistant Richie Price to turn the program over too.

So when you consider the historical background, to me this is a very unfair question and shows the lack of histroical background by both Stu Whitney and Terry Vandervec. Since Terry did not as I recall make an issue of Fred absence in the choice of his successor, I will let him off the hook on that matter. My problem with TV is the sources that were included in his article.

TeaJackrabbit is a fan like me and no doubt has a number of questions on how sausage is made(adminstration of the athletic department.) so his questions are understandable, but certainly, as are mine questions subject to challenge by someone else on this board.

I think there are a few things that can be discussed without involving Fred's personal life. He is a human just like you and I and these past few years have not been easy ones for him. Was he responsible for his actions in and off of the office? Yes. That part is undefendable and I dont try to defend him.

I do appreciate all that he has done as an AD, and if he was less than direct then we would not have made the progress to date that we have. Look south, it cost USD a half million in settlment damages due to the Title IX law suit settlement, and it was the result of bad decisions or no decisions by Jack Doyle. So be thankful we have had a passionate Fred Oien as our AD for the past 19 years.

[TeaJackrabbit]

Re: Fred Oien article

He was present at the Summit League Tourney. Unless it was somebody that looks excatly like him and goes by the name Fred.

I never saw him there but I do remember someone on here saying they spotted him. I guess I was asking why he wasn't present at the Summit Tourney in an official capacity.

[jackmd]

Re: Fred Oien article

Just tell them at the county office you want organizational plates and then pick up your stickers ($30 i think) at the little building on the side street across from the alumni center.

You can also call the alumni center and they will mail the decals to you.