What a distrubing and sad commentary on UNM’s GPSA. Locksley is not teaching anything positive to “his young men” by sticking around; however, they will more clearly understand the benefits of status and political pull.

I think someone has found out that Locksley’s contract has a buy out clause in it. He stinks a coach, is pathetic as a human being, not to mention a disgrace to his race. Unless all members of his race have gone “gangst’a” and condone this type of behavior, in which case he’s just rectal orifice.

I wonder how supportive they will be when a UNM faculty or staff person expresses the same behavior.

I wonder how M. Touson would have reacted if Locksley was white.

What a sad, sad day for the UNM community… The actions of this coach have done nothing but bring shame and discredit to an already weak football program.

I am not talking about the alleged problems he is having in legal battles elsewhere, I am talking about his absolute lack of respect for a fellow human being.

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Locksley should resign. He has no chance for redemption.

It is laughable that an argument presented in favor of not dismissing Locksley is that his “young men” will learn a valuable lesson about recovering from mistakes. What else will they (and the rest of the community) learn? That it is acceptable to physically batter a colleague who you disagree with? That you can get away with things in the athletic department that would never be tolerated in any of the academic or administrative units on campus? The most valuable lesson that anyone could learn from this sad scenario is that violence and intimidation of any kind (be it sexual or physical) in the workplace are not tolerated in our society, period.

I am dismayed that the supposedly progressive GPSA would fail to see this – and by a gaping margin! 15 for mollycoddling a batterer of subordinates – 0 in favor of indignation and just punishment. Even the Albuquerque Journal’s informal poll of the readers of the sports page (hardly the most progressive population out there) has 65% or respondents supporting dismissal and 20% in favor of suspension.

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To all who are displeased with the resolution the GPSA passed with regard to Coach Locksley’s alleged bad behavior:
GPSA meeting agendas and supporting documents are clearly posted on the GPSA website and the agenda was on our door. Any of you could have attended the meeting and commented during the Media and Gallery portion of our meeting. If you did not, then we didn’t hear you. You need to tell us before we vote. After doesn’t do any good.
If you’re a graduate or professional student: Please contact your Representative(s) and tell him, her or them you are displeased. If your department didn’t have a Representative present, then ask why they didn’t attend the meeting to represent your perspective. If your department does not have a representative, take the opportunity to represent your department at the GPSA Council. Meetings are a blast!
If you’re not a graduate student: Get the ASUNM to pass a resolution that is to your taste.

Come on, Danny! Are you really saying that because nobody asked you to vote against the resolution, you ALL voted for it?!
WTF kind of jack a$$ed logic is that?

It’s called representative government. If you want facism get in your time machine & travel back to a year ago in the USA.

And this is all assuming Danny didn’t vote against – that’s a conclusion you jumped to & nowhere implied in the letter.

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Ok doc, ya got me.
“The GPSA passed the resolution with 13 in favor, none opposed and two abstentions”

In defense of those who did not notify our GPSA representatives of our preferences, the Council Chair did not distribute the proposed language until the morning before the meeting (24 hours 2 minutes before). 24 hours before a meeting may be the official rule, but it doesn’t allow the kind of participation in the process that you point out is ideal. Don’t give us time for input and we won’t give it.

More to the point, though, it is mortifying that 15 of 17 people in the room (graduate students, no less!) found that Coach Locksley’s alleged battery was excusable based on such flimsy grounds as: 1) football is inherently a violent sport and 2) other coaches have done it. Shouldn’t our concern be with improving the world we live in rather than perpetuating injustices with boys-will-be-boys logic.

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15 out of 17 people thought it was excusable for this coach to punch his assistant in the face? Maybe everyone should go punching someone else in the face. Is that excusable too? What’s wrong with you GPSA? If my manager punched me in the face, he’d sure as hell be fired!

Yes, lets all just punch each other. Its all good right, not like anything will happen. I mean, I have watched violent movies, so therefore I’ve seen a lot of aggression in my time. That is a good enough excuse for my actions according to the GPSA.

This is hilarious: http://www.unm.edu/~GPSA/documents/Oct.3agendaandsupportingdocuments_001.pdf

On reading that document, I am even more disappointed than ever before about how this situation was resolved. Because “aggression is part of the culture of football,” it’s ok?!? Just because NFL coach Tom Cable punched his assistant and broke his jaw, it’s o.k. for UNM coach to punch his assistant?!? Because “black men in our society are portrayed as violent and the mainstream US/American media has consistently given more coverage to negative portrayals of black people than positive portrayals” IT’S OK? “Coach Locksley’s termination will likely result in decreasing the enrollment and retention rates of African‐American students,” he can abuse his assistant and get away with suspension of one game and dock in pay? These reasons are ridiculous. African American students are not going to be effected by whether or not the university coach gets fired or not. They’re going to be concerned, like everyone else, about getting a great education. And isn’t J.B. Gerald African-American too? What does that say? And just because an NFL coach got away with doing the same thing, it shouldn’t excuse the UNM coach. And because African-American men are portrayed more negatively in the media shouldn’t be an excuse!

Sheez, no wonder OJ got away with murder..

FYI: The Council Chair can’t vote except to break a tie – read the constitution in that link tik offered up to see for yourself (a 57-page page-turner).

And nice try tik, but the link you posted was the proposed language (a strawman document) and not the resolution that passed. For the truth, try:
http://www.unm.edu/~GPSA/documents/Oct3GPSACouncilmeetingMinutes-DRAFT.pdf – don’t forget to read the meeting minutes while explains how the GPSA Council came to the decision.
(Please note that these are draft minutes that have yet to be approved by the GPSA Council.)

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I’m sorry the excuse, “ “Locksley is not teaching anything positive to “his young men” by sticking around… “ is laughable at best.

To treat a college sport program like a high school / little league program is insulting. Dan Gable did not coach The University of Iowa, Wrestling team to 15 NCAA team titles, because he treated his wrestlers like “young men” he treated them like adults. Some of his practices were anything but “positive.” The same thing goes for any school that wants to play with the “big boys.”

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TZ, when you say the “legal battles elsewhere” have little to do with this example of disrespect for a fellow human being, I’d like to suggest that the legal battles ARE about disrespect for a fellow human being. The loss of temper with Coach Gerald is an additional screwup in less than a year by someone who presumably would, if hired, perform his job with integrity and maturity. I agree with all of your posting except that tiny phrase. Though I would never agree with the termination of a coach for a win-loss record (I don’t care, you see), I agree that Coach Locksley should be fired for cause, as he has performed despicably as a person. Regarding GPSA’s meaningless statement, well, GPSA’s official statements for the record consistently support Power and not the less than powerful. Their speculation regarding political ramifications of firing a staff person who acted outside University Policy and Procedures (e.g., firing this coach would adversely affect recruiting! Really?) certainly shows a lack of integrity among the 13 voting GPSA members. GPSA itself is dependent on Power to allocate some of the state funding to them; so they have to suck up, even if in so doing they themselves show disrespect for fellow human beings. I refer to their support of President Schmidly, of course, since Coach Locksley has no say regarding their funding. But perhaps their support of Coach Locksley indirectly fawns all over Vice President Krebs, President Schmidly and the football-minded Regents. To what end? Well, in my opinion, GPSA members represent only themselves as a small little group, a group fighting for its office space and phone lines, not for graduate and professional students who pay a $25 fee for GPSA’s competent representation. How do other graduate and professional students feel about what I have said?

Football Coach Resolution

Whereas J.B. Gerald filed a police report with the Albuquerque Police Department after an evening staff meeting September 20, 2009 accusing Coach Mike Locksley of punching him in the mouth and cutting his upper lip (Salazar, 9-30-09, ABQ Journal),

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The above posting is from the revised resolution that Danny Hernandez so graciously gave us a link to earlier.

Please note the following points:

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Oh crap; were all going to get screwed, the Lawyers have gotten into the fracas.

Locksley undoubtedly has a “golden parachute” of some type. There is a possibility that there are no strings attached, and that even if terminated for cause – he gets his money. As a result the admin may be thinking that since they have to pay him regardless of whether he stays or goes, he might as well be kept around for an additional Lobo Loser year.

On the topic of manhood vs boys- Locksley has not done or said anything that would be well described as manly or masculine. His personality lacks some sense of flow and perception. His psyche lacks insight but is brimming with callousness and most recently unprofessionalism, i.e. he is “life preserving but not life giving” as they say in masculine circles. He does not appear to be a valid mentor for college age men.

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Thanks for the resolution, TZ. Hey, that’s a pretty poor piece of writing! Loved this part: “It is resolved that given the facts as we understand it, the GPSA does not condone the termination of Coach Locksley’s contract” Looks like the Resolution was prepared by youngsters short of vocabulary. “facts as we understand it?” Does the graduate student population appreciate a resolution on their behalf that lacks grammatical correctness? And since when does GPSA have the authority to “condone” or not condone, and if they don’t “condone” an action, who cares? Will HR reverse its decision because a little group of dissidents said they don’t “condone” Coach Locksley’s termination? GPSA has not taken the time to study “the facts as [they] understand it.” They have not read UNM Business Policies and Procedure (UNMBPP) section 3215 so that they might understand that he, as a Grade 19 staff person, broke “university law” and doesn’t deserve a job of any kind at UNM. Nowhere in UNMBPP are mitigating circumstances such as inconvenience to others listed as a reason not to terminate. Inconvenience to the coach’s family is a more important matter than inconvenience to recruits who have committed since December 08. I think that it goes without saying that a person committing an offense that falls within Termination for Proper Cause guidelines should have thought about his family (or, if you will, the players he recruited) before putting his job on the line with multiple instances of awful behavior. Moving on with the critique of the writing, how dare the GPSA authors say that the Albuquerque Journal’s column sizes regarding items of local news in any way belong in the resolution? It is a snippy aside that warrants a big red “X” by a grading instructor, who would also want to comment with words like “rambling” or “irrelevant” or “poor support of your argument.” Finally, I would point out that following “It is resolved that the UNM Administration communicate that they will not tolerate violence from any member of the UNM community” with lame suggestions that the coach receive no discipline beyond mandatory meetings and mediation hardly fits the description of “zero tolerance” of violence. Thanks, GPSA, for giving the UNM community a document that we can ridicule. Staff morale is not high while we anticipate permissive treatment of the Coach’s termination-worthy transgressions, but once in a while we can laugh about something. Today, you’re it.

Hmmmm, wait a sec, TZ. You are saying that the revised resolution you post is a revision to all this stuff at http://www.unm.edu/~GPSA/documents/Oct.3agendaandsupportingdocuments_001.pdf. They decided to take out all their “Boys-will-be-boys” excuses for the violence and recommendation of suspension? I can’t resist pasting in all that garbage, deleted or not:
Football Coach Resolution
Whereas J.B. Gerald filed a police report with the Albuquerque Police
Department after an evening staff meeting September 20, 2009
accusing Coach Mike Locksley of punching him in the mouth and
cutting his upper lip (Salazar, 9‐30‐09, ABQ Journal),
Whereas the Albuquerque Journal has contacted the GPSA seeking the graduate
and professional student perspective the UNM Administration’s
response to the Locksley/Gerald altercation,
Whereas aggression is part of the culture of football,
Whereas Randy Hanson, the Defensive assistant coach for the Oakland Raiders,
has provided medical records and told investigators that on August 5,
2009 the head coach of the Oakland Raiders, Tom Cable, struck him
breaking his jaw (Associated Press, ESPN.com, 9‐29‐09),
Whereas Tom Cable continues to serve as the Raiders head coach and to date
no charges have been filed, he has not been fired or reprimanded in
any other way, and the NFL has yet to contact Hanson or his lawyer
(Associated Press, ESPN.com, 9‐29‐09),
Whereas the lobo football team is on a 0‐4 losing streak that may have
contributed to the high levels of stress of all involved,
Whereas black men in our society are portrayed as violent and the mainstream
US/American media has consistently given more coverage to negative
portrayals of black people than positive portrayals,
Whereas the Albuquerque Journal dedicated 78 column inches on 9/29/09)
and 155 column inches (A1, A4, B1, & B3) (9/30/09) to the Locksley
situation while a brutal anti‐semitic murder of an elementary school
teacher (9/30/09) received 26 column inches,
Whereas black students have been highlighted in the Daily Lobo Spotlight only
twice in the last two years (Aug. 31, 2009 (Genell Burns) and July 7‐
13, 2008 (Reza Imani),
Whereas this type of portrayal negatively affects the entire black community,
Whereas it has long been rumored that former Lobo Head Football Coach Rocky
Long was named in civil law suits for aggressive behaviors with
student athletes without any consequences and/or media coverage,
Whereas cultural codes differ in different professional environments (eg
lifeguards are not reprimanded for wearing inappropriate attire) and
football is by definition a violent professional environment,
Whereas Coach Locksley has recruited multiple student‐athletes (many of
whom are African‐American) from across the country who remain
loyal and continue to have respect him and his leadership his
termination will likely result in many of these student‐athletes disenrolling
and transferring to other institutions
Whereas Coach Locksley’s termination will likely result in decreasing the
enrollment and retention rates of African‐American students,
Whereas UNM policy states that an assault or battery on another person is
grounds for suspension,
Whereas the GPSA feels strongly that Coach Locksley’s violent behavior should
not be condoned however the punishment should take into
consideration the full context of the situation including the culture of
football, the media propensity towards framing black men in a
negative light, and that previous UNM football coaches have not
suffered any consequences for similar allegations,
It is resolved that given the evidence and the cultural context as we understand it,
the GPSA does not condone the termination of Coach Locksley’s
contract,
It is resolved that the UNM Administration communicate that they will not tolerate
violence from any member of the UNM community and we
recommend suspension Coach Locksley for one game docking his pay
appropriately,
It is resolved that the following additional interventions be considered:
1. Coach Locksley be encouraged to attend and participate in an
anger management program,
2. Coach Locksley be encouraged to meet with local mentoring
groups for black men (i.e. Office of African American Affairs,
Ministry Alliance),
3. Coach Locksley and Coach Gerald participate in facilitated
mediation.

If laws are sausages (as the great democrats Danny Hernandez and Otto von Bismarck claim), it’s pretty clear that this one was fashioned out of some pretty rancid meat. I’d say it was more like trying to make gold out of lead – no gold to be seen, only a sorry document with absolutely no reasonable justification for the stance taken by the GSPA. I cannot understand how the clauses in that document add up to a reason for GPSA’s curiously weak position on the the physical battery of one of UNM’s employees?

How, for example, does the following statement justify Locksley’s administration-by-suckerpunch?
Whereas the Albuquerque Journal dedicated 78 column inches on 9/29/09) and 155 column inches (A1, A4, B1, & B3) (9/30/09) to the Locksley situation while a brutal anti-semitic murder of an elementary school teacher (9/30/09) received 26 column inches?

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