Back in March, when James Gallogly was selected by Oil Overlords to be the next president of the University of Oklahoma, he had these words to say about “the unique human being” he was replacing – Oklahoma political legend / opportunist David Boren.
That’s sweet. Gallogly brings up a good point. It’s hard to replace a person like David Boren, especially when you want to destroy him!
In case you missed it, that’s the message / warning Gallogly allegedly sent David Boren after the former Governor, Senator and well-connected icon of the Oklahoma establishment openly questioned some of Gallogy’s statements about financial challenges.
The relationship between OU President James Gallogly and his predecessor, David Boren, has crumbled amid threats and feuding over the financial status of the university and other issues, according to multiple sources within the university community.
Before he took office, Gallogly was critical of the university’s financial status in a June 19 OU board of regents meeting. Boren countered with a letter on June 20 to the Transcript, defending OU’s finances and stating a significant part of the university’s debt was bonded debt with scheduled payments.
Following the publication of that letter on June 20, Gallogly told a senior OU administrator to deliver a message to Boren: “You tell him that I am the meanest son of a bitch he has ever seen, and if he ever crosses me again, I will destroy him.”
Wow. Those are some tough words! Nothing says “mean son of a bitch” more than threatening to “destroy” a feeble 77-year-old man for writing a letter to the newspaper.
After the Norman Transcript story dropped, Gallogly and other OU officials disputed the report:
University of Oklahoma President James Gallogly has denied ever sending a threatening message to his predecessor David Boren.
Speaking to The Transcript at the OU Board of Regents meeting shortly after a story on the matter broke Tuesday, Gallogly denied telling Boren to never cross him again, and that if he did, he would destroy him.
“I have never threatened David Boren,” Gallogly said. “That is false.”…
Speaking to the Transcript Tuesday, Gallogly said there was a message at that time to Boren to stop reporting incomplete information regarding OU’s finances. In a meeting about that issue, Gallogly said there was some “strong language,” but again denied that he said anything like what has been reported.
“He was informed by the head of the Board of Regents to stop putting out incomplete information,” Gallogly said.
Regardless of what strong language he did or didn’t use, you can’t blame Gallogly for being upset. He’s the only person who should be releasing incomplete, misleading information about the University to the media. Boren definitely broke unwritten protocol.
Gallogly also question why the Transcript ran with the story:
Gallogly also referred to the report as “silly,” and asked a Transcript reporter if they wondered why people were making such accusations now since the event happened six months ago.
“Why does this come up now?” he asked. “Apparently that was just before I took office, why does that come up now. Did you ever ask yourself that? I wonder why they made that up now?”
“Why does this come up now?”
As a guy who has routinely worked with informants and whistleblowers, some of which wait years before coming forward with news tips and accusations, there are lots of possible answers to Gallogly’s questions. Here are three possibilities…
1. The informant was worried about being outed as the source, and wanted to let some time pass before coming forward.
2. It took a few months for the informant to realize Gallogly is a petty dick who relies on threats and intimidation to get things done, and released the news in an attempt to expose it.
3. David Boren is still a powerful, beloved and petty figure in Oklahoma political and media circles, and has a large network of supporters that are determined to make Gallogly’s tenure at OU absolute hell. This is probably the most likely option.
–
If that is actually Gallogly’s faux, tattered, frat boy baseball cap, OU is in worse shape than I thought.
While I’m not a 100% Boren fan, OU needs to get rid of Gallogly. I DETEST these types of ‘trump entitled’ individuals. Someone should tell him he’ll never fill Boren’s shoes. That’ll cook him.
When someone drops his mask and shows you who he really is, believe him the first time.
Why would the OU regents hire Chainsaw Jim Gallogly, a supposed “turnaround expert,” to turn OU around following the most successful presidency in its history? Must we destroy everything good in Oklahoma that isn’t an oil well?
We’ve got a bidnessman governor-elect, and bidnessmen serving as presidents of our two major state universities. Is business the only skill that Oklahoma values?
Well said Graychin, I agree 100%.
Gallogly can suck it with the fake tough guy routine…
I am guessing by destroy Boren he means all the sexual assult allegations against Boren in the #metoo climate?
Last I heard the University of Oklahoma had an endowment of $1,560,000,000.00. I don’t think the financial situation is as dire as some would have us believe. I think it’s more a matter of business people working in the public arena and thinking they can still cut their way to success.
Oh, and one other thing. There’s a difference between being an arrogant penis and being a mean son-of-a-bitch. Bigly.
He’s a mean son of a bitch if/when he’s fighting with his wallet, bet if he took one straight to the chin followed by an uppercut to his scrotum he’d wimper like Trump when people won’t play nice and agree to pay for a wall he swore Mexico would pay for.
Like my Grandpa used to say, tough people don’t need to tell they’re tough, you figure that out pretty damn quick.
Gallogly cleaning up the obvious creampuff over the top waste for friends/family who’ve gotten jobs over the years is one thing, but to think he can remake upper education funding and operations overnight is beyond arrogant, it’s also borderline criminal negligence.
Lol. A dick punch will get you every time.
Back when he was selected, I said here he was a no-good SOB. I was & am right.
When a company hires a new CEO, the first thing that happens is the new CEO destroys the reputation of the old CEO. Then, they start firing everyone they can in the name of “cutbacks” due to the budget mess the last guy left. Finally, they tank the company and sell everything for profit.
This is why we need to keep executives out of public office and educational institutions.
+ 1000
You couldn’t be more wrong. New leaders rarely trash their predecessor. It’s a very poor technique and it’s the reason why this story is relevant.
V.I. –
After your kind response to my earlier comment, I must sadly disagree with yours. Perhaps WGS should have been more clear that his comment applies most specifically to those who would turn around a troubled for-profit company.
The behavior of a new “leader” towards his predecessor depends on the leadership style of the new leader. Is his style that of building teamwork and consensus? Or is he a slash-and-burn “turnaround expert”? If he made his bones as the latter, as Gallogly has, trashing his predecessor and the predecessor’s work is necessarily what he is all about. He may not show this foolishly with verbal trashing. But when he starts firing the top management team members wholesale on day one, how can that be perceived as anything but a rebuke to his predecessor?
Slash-and-burn may be exactly the right approach in a troubled for-profit company, or in a change of political administration from one political party to another. But it’s all wrong in an effort to “turn around” a great state university that is completing a highly successful presidential term in times of diminishing State funding. Of course good fiscal management is vital to the health of a great state university, but unlike in a for profit company it is far from the ONLY consideration. I fear that money is the only thing that matters to Gallogly, and perhaps the only thing that he even understands based on his life’s experience.
Like I said in my earlier comment, we in Oklahoma seem to care only about the values of people who know how to make money. The state is run by people who only care about making money, i.e. our oil barons. I hate seeing those values dominate the governance of OU.
Damn, Graychin, that’s some deep shit there, and it’s well written, and you make a sound point. Despite our rocky introduction a few posts ago about the weather debacle, I’m starting to take your comments seriously. Unlike many people on this obscure social blog, you actually make logical comments. Well done.
Thank you, my friend. Respect for you as well.
Wonder how long it’ll take the fracking genius to figure out OU has no stock to pump and dump for a killing?
In the era of President Trump it seems to be the thing to do is to trash the previous administration. President Boren should be recognized for his dedication to the State of Oklahoma and University of Oklahoma.
That said, there is still excess baggage that can be cut. There is still changes that can be made to run the University efficiently. I appreciate President Gallogy efforts to rein in spending and reward the faculty and staff.
I’m a current OU staff member. Haven’t yet seen the rewards reach staff, except for Gallogly’s skipping out halfway through our Fall Staff Forum because he had to jump out of an airplane or by announcing two weeks before Christmas that there will be more layoffs after the new year (but not giving any additional detail.
Sources: https://www.normantranscript.com/news/local_news/high-anxiety-gallogly-does-little-to-soothe-job-security-fears/article_661d74b0-b5cc-59dd-b123-c335c4809ce0.html; http://www.oudaily.com/news/ou-president-james-gallogly-confirms-more-layoffs-after-holidays-does/article_81eaad1a-fd9d-11e8-bc2a-fbeedc431aa3.html.
There are a lot of things to not like about David Boren, but it is undeniable that OU was a nothing more than a 3rd tier state university with a once-great football program when he took over; it is now a first tier research university with a great football program. Gallogy has no experience in running a university or working in government. It’s showing. And even though Boren is an old man, he’s still the most connected person in Oklahoma. I wouldn’t cross him if I were Gallogly.
It’s not a first tier research university, that is a fallacy. The meteorology dept is a top flight research institution due to the NWS Severe Storms Lab, but what other real research is done there? The geology and petroleum people are decent, but get past that and there isn’t much research in Norman.
It’s a fallacy in your opinion. Soothsayer was most likely referring to the fact that OU garnered Tier 1 status through the Carnegie Classification in 2011.
It’s not an AAU member. That’s all you need to know about how the university is viewed by other institutions of higher learning. Members include the likes of KU, UT, A&M, Iowa, missing from the list OU.
During the Boren’s tenure it was all about window dressing. Paying out of state students who preformed well on the PSAT, but didn’t necessarily have great HS GPAs. Why was OU #1 per capita in National Merit Scholars b/c they paid the most for them and they are meaningless metric.
The new administration announced a plan to increase faculty pay for the first time in 7 years and cover fees for middle income Oklahomans. If it mean some Senate staffers who were not qualified to run a major institution were shown the door, so be it.
If OU had any hope of being invited to join the 60 members of the Association of American Universities, we can kiss that goodbye in the foreseeable future of the Gallogly Administration.
OU is a R1 Carnegie institution and has been in US News’ tier one rankings. Granted all rankings are flawed and some (like US News) are completely bogus. Nevertheless, they are based upon reputation. Boren dramatically increased OU’s reputation and endowment. AAU membership is highly political and no Oklahoma university will ever likely gain membership, regardless of how good it may or may not be.
No AAU, no top tier classification
I say fuck boren he has been a political hack making his living off the tax payers for 50 years ! crappy governor worse senator ,remember he voted to give away the panama canal and as president he milked the university as long as he could , fudging the numbers to make him look good. o u is a second rate school athletes are more important the research and accademics! look at all the ex jocks selling used cars in the norman area … perhaps we need a tough sob with the chainsaw to cut away the fat from many years of mismanagement and lies even downright fraud ..
Henry Bellmon voted for the Panama Canal Treaty. That was before Boren was a senator.
Fuck Boren for what Henry Bellmon (a Republican) did?
I have ten dollars that say jon dough is a Trump voter, his opinions formed my misinformation.
I can’t comment about OU’s research “tier status”…but I do think most Oklahomans are just fine as long as the football team is winning. Who cares about the academic stature of the university anyway, right? Just bring home a football National Championship because that’s all that matters.
I know that you are being ironic, but your comment is all too accurate in reality.
David Boren values / valued education. Too many Oklahomans and their leaders do not.
maybe, but DB also went out of his way to have a winning football team. IF DB really cared about education he wouldn’t have sunk Seminole into the awful dog fight that has gone on in that community because he didn’t want the HS he walked the halls of abandoned.
Fun fact, apropos of nothing:
Did you know that Clay Bennett is married to Edward L. Gaylord’s daughter?