conferencing and career services for alumni—Sloan described the catalyst for the new office’s creation as being Baylor 2012. “The structural changes that led to Dr. Lofgren’s appointment to this new position support the community-building goals of the ten-year vision,” Sloan said. On that same day, June 12, 2002, several other BAA employees resigned (along with Lofgren) to accept positions in the new Office of Alumni Services. The BAA board of directors and remaining staff members had no prior knowledge of this new department until Lofgren’s announcement in a staff meeting that morning. In the words of one former employee in attendance at the meeting, “it certainly felt like an ambush.”
“Microsoft them” These actions came as no surprise to Dr. Stan Madden, who helped craft university strategy as Sloan’s vice president for university relations prior to leaving that position in early 2003. “Robert asked me once what I would do if I wanted to get rid of the alumni association. And I said, ‘I would do a Microsoft,’” he told the Line. “What Microsoft has found is that any time they have a competent competitor who has found a market and if they can’t buy them, then Microsoft has enough money to do what the competitor does but just give it away until the competitor can’t afford to do it anymore, and then Microsoft can control the market. [With alumni relations] I wanted something where we would have a way of keeping people involved from birth to death, and I didn’t know if the alumni association, just because of the way it was set up, would ever be a part of that. But Robert literally wanted me to build another one just like it—put them out of business.” The Microsoft idea, Madden adds, began as a joke. “Our original conversation about the Mircosoft strategy was held regarding the NoZe Brotherhood. Robert really resented some of the material in the Rope about him. The hotter the environment got, the more he resented the NoZe satirizing the situation. I told him once that if he could not tolerate the NoZe, he could always organize a parallel group. As nobody knew who they were, they could easily be replaced. That was where the discussion actually began. Later, when we were talking about the BAA, I said, ‘Microsoft them,’ alluding back to that earlier discussion. I was joking when I said that, but that’s exactly what happened.” Public statements made by Sloan and other Baylor officials, however, were distinctly more polished. In the “Conversation with the President” column in the spring 2003 issue of the Line, Sloan discussed the changes he had made in Baylor’s approach to alumni relations. “We have had a very supportive relationship with the alumni association down the years, and I believe the alumni association continues to serve a very important function for the university. But from our point of view, it was a question of the alumni association—as primarily BaylorAlumniAssociation.com
Timeline: BU and the BAA (cont.—) ation of the association’s access to the alumni database, the use of the Baylor Alumni Association name, and office space in the alumni center, which the association had previously agreed to share with the Office of Alumni Services. July 2003: BAA sponsors “A Baylor Family Dialogue,” during which two opposing panels discussed questions in four categories: finances, academics, leadership, and institutional values. Sept./Oct. 2003: Two opposing nonprofit corporations are chartered in response to concerns about President Sloan’s leadership: Friends of Baylor and the Committee to Restore Integrity to Baylor (CRIB), whose stated mission, in part, was to advocate for “a leadership change at the top.” February 2004: Sloan and the BAA sign a “Services Agreement,” outlining the services that the BAA would perform for Baylor and the fees that Baylor would pay for those services as a reimbursement of direct costs for services rendered. October 2004: Regent chair Will Davis creates Special Committee on Alumni Relations to consult with and advise Sloan on any issues concerning the BAA. The committee would become more visible during the Lilley administration. January 2005: After continuing controversy and two votes of no confidence by Baylor’s Faculty Senate, Robert Sloan announces he will step down as president of Baylor University.
President: Bill Underwood (Interim: seven-month term) Term: June 2005-Dec. 2005 “You’re supposed to have disagreement (continued on page 13)
spring 2014
THE BAYLOR LINE
11