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USC administration accepts blame for Darla Moore screw-up

I was very optimistic when Caslen was hired that we had a Non-Political person that wasn't going to be a liberal Admin type. I still don't know those answers, but I have been told first hand by a BOT member that he is socially inept and completely out of touch relating to others. This Moore situation doesn't surprise me now knowing what i've heard. This is the type thing he would shrug off as unrelated to leading the university. I suppose as a military guy, you don't have to develop social interaction skills.
The BOT member you know was much, much kinder in his remarks about Caslen's ineptitude than the two I know.
 
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The political persuasion mostly trashing Caslen here would have been defending him or ignoring this entire situation if he was an appointment of their political ilk. If anyone is not of the same political leaning and trashing Caslen now, then its easy to understand why they are getting run over and ground down on their side.

Be honest, all of these political disputes on this board have to do with your political leaning. There is apparently no right or wrong in this society. There's only right and left. The same mob of posters shows up on the same sides of all these issues.

When there is poor performance, like this, its hard to take your "rush in and rip em up" strategy as anything more than your distaste for the other political group. Try being fair and honest all the time when it comes to politics, please. Other wise, as your opponents adopt your tactics, we will have all lost any credibility in any corner of our society to assess poor or good performance, even when we recognize it.
 
The political persuasion mostly trashing Caslen here would have been defending him or ignoring this entire situation if he was an appointment of their political ilk. If anyone is not of the same political leaning and trashing Caslen now, then its easy to understand why they are getting run over and ground down on their side.

Be honest, all of these political disputes on this board have to do with your political leaning. There is apparently no right or wrong in this society. There's only right and left. The same mob of posters shows up on the same sides of all these issues.

When there is poor performance, like this, its hard to take your "rush in and rip em up" strategy as anything more than your distaste for the other political group. Try being fair and honest all the time when it comes to politics, please. Other wise, as your opponents adopt your tactics, we will have all lost any credibility in any corner of our society to assess poor or good performance, even when we recognize it.

Republicans: "Democrats are socialists. Democrats are child molesters. Lets secede from the Union! Democrats are stealing the election! Democrats are destroying our Democracy!"

*US Capital is assaulted by conservatives spurred on by the Republican baseless rhetoric. People die as a result*

Republicans, in the face of backlash: "we must be united now and not be so divisive..."



uscmustwin: "here's my version......."
 
Republicans: "Democrats are socialists. Democrats are child molesters. Lets secede from the Union! Democrats are stealing the election! Democrats are destroying our Democracy!"

*US Capital is assaulted by conservatives spurred on by the Republican baseless rhetoric. People die as a result*

Republicans, in the face of backlash: "we must be united now and not be so divisive..."



uscmustwin: "here's my version......."
Republicans don't have a clue how to mount an effective collective attack, but you show us once again how to tear apart an individual poster as part of your defense. I attack ideas, you guys destroy your opponents one by one. And thoroughly enjoy it.

I would feel kind of bad about that. And I'm not going to play that game with you and the rest of your attack crowd, so yall waste some more board space chewing me or others up.
 
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So looks like University leadership finally put out a statement admitting the Darla Moore situation is true and was a huge error. I thought all you folks with the knee-jerk defense of our at times incompetent leadership and questioning if Mrs Moore's account of that happened could possibly be true would be interested in seeing it.

Also, the quote below from the article is very damning to Caslen...making it appear that he slow rolled any university response to be personally petty.

"Caslen and board chairman Dorn Smith knew about the death of USC mega-donor Darla Moore’s mother a day before the April 3 funeral but failed to share the information"


Caslen and crew are dolts. Nobody, at any other “flagship”, would screw the pooch this bad.
 
Again, like the men's basketball situation, its too little too late and the damage is already done. At least they finally owned up to it. Now the real question is, will all those people that were tripping on themselves to discredit Darla Moore here also admit they wrong in assassinating her character as well.
That's looking like a big fat NO. 😒
 
Republicans don't have a clue how to mount an effective collective attack, but you show us once again how to tear apart an individual poster as part of your defense. I attack ideas, you guys destroy your opponents one by one. And thoroughly enjoy it.

I would feel kind of bad about that. And I'm not going to play that game with you and the rest of your attack crowd, so yall waste some more board space chewing me or others up.

OK lets go at this from another direction. First, regarding Caslen. I had no earthly idea what political affiliation the other candidates for the USC President's job held. Never looked into it. But judging by the faculty and most of the BOT at the time, Caslen was way down the options of possibilities.

But then Calsen gets pushed through the others - NOW, this is where the politics came rushing in. People wanted him because "black Americans kneeling in front of the flag disrespects soldiers", and Caslen was a soldier. Never mind all of that fact had to do with many reasons why he was NOT prepared nor experienced enough to run a public state university - a military academy, yes, but that's not who we are. This isn't The Citadel we were talking about.

THEN people made an uproar over people of color not being given a fair chance for the job. And that started the "people of color not represented on the USC BOT enough" discussions, and the POLITICS of the whole thing exploded. It became conservative vs liberal, Republican vs Democrat, white vs black, man vs woman.

And the ugliest of all that were proudly displayed here on this forum.

So NOW, we have the fiasco between Darla Moore and USC boiling up all over again. The "uglies" are all rushing back to display their flaming misogyny, and yes, their POLITICS.

So here comes - no, not YOU personally, but your "idea" - that while the cause of the infection festers and remains, that we should NOT bear malice against the infection, but simply cosset the inflamed wound. Leave the infection in place, to continue to infect. When it was that thinking that allowed for the infection to be inserted into the host to begin with.

But despite your noble advice for the Gamecock posters to NOT "tear down" Calsen as a result of POLITICS, I couldn't help but note that NOWHERE in your pleas was the same advice for Darla Moore's side, even though it has been MOORE who has been torn at far, far more then Caslen has been since this fiasco came to public light.

That's just too obvious, friend. But good try. Just be careful in the future to not try SO HARD......
 
PR Rule One: When you are correct, you have nothing to "walk-back." You simply hold your ground.

That’s not true. Even times when you’re right, it may not be popular in the court of public opinion. Seems like they put the ball back in Darla’s court as best as they could.
 
Moore is understandably upset. I don't agree with blaming her for any of this. She deserved better. In my OP, I did not defend Caslen, if you really read it, I said it was poor performance. I simply attacked the notion of a political test for every discussion of just about any issue. And I did not take sides. Try it. Respond non politically from now on. I will make you a deal. I will gladly do that.
 
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OK lets go at this from another direction. First, regarding Caslen. I had no earthly idea what political affiliation the other candidates for the USC President's job held. Never looked into it. But judging by the faculty and most of the BOT at the time, Caslen was way down the options of possibilities.

But then Calsen gets pushed through the others - NOW, this is where the politics came rushing in. People wanted him because "black Americans kneeling in front of the flag disrespects soldiers", and Caslen was a soldier. Never mind all of that fact had to do with many reasons why he was NOT prepared nor experienced enough to run a public state university - a military academy, yes, but that's not who we are. This isn't The Citadel we were talking about.

THEN people made an uproar over people of color not being given a fair chance for the job. And that started the "people of color not represented on the USC BOT enough" discussions, and the POLITICS of the whole thing exploded. It became conservative vs liberal, Republican vs Democrat, white vs black, man vs woman.

And the ugliest of all that were proudly displayed here on this forum.

So NOW, we have the fiasco between Darla Moore and USC boiling up all over again. The "uglies" are all rushing back to display their flaming misogyny, and yes, their POLITICS.

So here comes - no, not YOU personally, but your "idea" - that while the cause of the infection festers and remains, that we should NOT bear malice against the infection, but simply cosset the inflamed wound. Leave the infection in place, to continue to infect. When it was that thinking that allowed for the infection to be inserted into the host to begin with.

But despite your noble advice for the Gamecock posters to NOT "tear down" Calsen as a result of POLITICS, I couldn't help but note that NOWHERE in your pleas was the same advice for Darla Moore's side, even though it has been MOORE who has been torn at far, far more then Caslen has been since this fiasco came to public light.

That's just too obvious, friend. But good try. Just be careful in the future to not try SO HARD......
You know it was bad when one of our top candidates who was our own Provost (Joan Gabel) was named the President of the University of Minnesota, an AAU member as one of the top 65 research universities in the country....a recognition we have been attempting to obtain since the days of Dr. Palms. And, yet, we hire an individual who wasn't originally one of the candidates on our list and who didn't even have the credentials and accomplishments our own search criteria required him to have.
 
That’s not true. Even times when you’re right, it may not be popular in the court of public opinion. Seems like they put the ball back in Darla’s court as best as they could.
I don't think her reaction is at all unpopular in the court of public opinion....not based on the messages and e-mails one Trustee has been receiving since the news broke. The University's reaction, or lack thereof, is what has been unpopular......very unpopular.
 
I don't think her reaction is at all unpopular in the court of public opinion....not based on the messages and e-mails one Trustee has been receiving since the news broke. The University's reaction, or lack thereof, is what has been unpopular......very unpopular.

That's what I said... Even though the university isn't wrong for not sending condolences public opinion can make it seem that way.
 
Not only is Dr. Dorn Smith a practicing physician in Florence but Dr. C. Edward Floyd is a very prominent retired Florence doctor. The football building at Williams-Brice is named for him and his wife. I'm sure he would have known about Darla Moore's mother passing away. Get this.....he has been a member of the USC Board of Trustees since 1982! You would be amazed at how long some members have served. They are elected and re-elected time and again by the legislature and many times have no opposition. It all depends on your station in life and who you know in the legislature. Let's put it this way....you or I would have no chance of defeating them.
 
Then the university must also be wrong for every donor they don't send condolences?
🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ Mrs. Moore has given your Institution 75 million, she was publicly dissed by Nikki Haley, was ignored by Froghorn Leghorn, totally dismissed in presidential search, Caslen made no outreach to her when he took office and then having knowledge of her Mother’s death, chose not to reach out until way too late and then was only going to send a letter(probably would arrived today or Monday)

She is richer, smarter, kinder and more well connected than anybody who has been pissing all over her. AND SHE IS WORTH HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS THAT SHE COULD POSSIBLY GIVE TO YOUR INSTITUTION. YOU DON’T SEND CONDOLENCES!!!!! YOU GET YOUR ASS OVER THERE ASAP
 
The political persuasion mostly trashing Caslen here would have been defending him or ignoring this entire situation if he was an appointment of their political ilk. If anyone is not of the same political leaning and trashing Caslen now, then its easy to understand why they are getting run over and ground down on their side.

Be honest, all of these political disputes on this board have to do with your political leaning. There is apparently no right or wrong in this society. There's only right and left. The same mob of posters shows up on the same sides of all these issues.

When there is poor performance, like this, its hard to take your "rush in and rip em up" strategy as anything more than your distaste for the other political group. Try being fair and honest all the time when it comes to politics, please. Other wise, as your opponents adopt your tactics, we will have all lost any credibility in any corner of our society to assess poor or good performance, even when we recognize it.
That is quite a cop-out. The guy was literally unqualified. His political leanings were like a footnote in the whole thing. Students and faculty weren't upset at his consideration because of his supposed place on the political spectrum. He is a fish out of water. Don't dumb this down and "both sides" it.
 
Would Clemson allow swamp monster politicians to appoint the same type of stooges at leadership positions that UofSC does? Just asking.....no need to answer, because I know the answer.

one college competes for National titles in Football. The other can’t make a bowl. We deserve better.
 
Do you have an issue acknowledging that there are people more important than you? The situation isn't about you, and it is not at all complicated. Any institution of importance has to play the game.
At least you’re willing to admit it.

But yes, I have an issue telling a student his or her mother dying wasn’t important enough because he or she isn’t worth a billion dollars.
 
At least you’re willing to admit it.

But yes, I have an issue telling a student his or her mother dying wasn’t important enough because he or she isn’t worth a billion dollars.
Dude, you're being melodratic and disingenuous. In the eyes of the university, there are priorities. Does this really need to be explained?
 
It’s actually a testament to how little genuine drama we’ve had at USC that this little misunderstanding with Darla has caused such a kerfuffle. It’s like folks are starving for something to be dramatic.
 
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That is quite a cop-out. The guy was literally unqualified. His political leanings were like a footnote in the whole thing. Students and faculty weren't upset at his consideration because of his supposed place on the political spectrum. He is a fish out of water. Don't dumb this down and "both sides" it.
Nice effort to make this hire seem such an outlier. Ugh....not so much. Good hire, bad hire, never was my point. My original point is those who scream so loudly in anger at politics being involved are often the most political. Right? I'm all for getting the politics out if everything, but you and I and all of us here can only do our part. That would be a start. Meanwhile, among those who have say so....

 
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Nice to effort to make this hire seem such an outlier. Ugh....not so much. Good hire, bad hire, never was my point. My original point is those who scream so loudly in anger at politics being involved are often the most political. Right?

Where to begin. Everything is political, your job, your marriage, your church, the school you attend, the school you didn’t get into.
Yes those who scream about politics are probably the most politically aware and involved.

Yes Caslen literally was unqualified under the requirements of the position. Yet he got an interview. He was deemed not qualified and not hired.
Foghorn Leghorn and the legislature ham fistedly coerced another interview. That grievously split the board.
Yet into this discord all Caslen did was raise his hands and do a victory lap. He was the woman who replied to Solomon, “Go ahead cut the baby in half, as long as I get mine.”
His ego wanted the job so badly that any damage he inflicted on the University in pursuit was an acceptable path to power.
 
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Nice effort to make this hire seem such an outlier. Ugh....not so much. Good hire, bad hire, never was my point. My original point is those who scream so loudly in anger at politics being involved are often the most political. Right? I'm all for getting the politics out if everything, but you and I and all of us here can only do our part. That would be a start. Meanwhile, among those who have say so....

I have no idea what road you're going down or how it is germane to this situation. Again, the criticism of Caslen and the process in which he was selected should cut across political lines, and it seems to. Your broader point may be partly true, but it is quite a flippant deduction of what is actually going on.
 
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At least you’re willing to admit it.

But yes, I have an issue telling a student his or her mother dying wasn’t important enough because he or she isn’t worth a billion dollars.

You're the guy working in the entry-level mail room at a big corporation, getting pissed off that you and your fellow entry-level mail room clerks aren't allowed to go participate in the weekly manager's meetings, that are occupied by department/division managers who have worked their way up the chain of command for years if not decades, and chaired by the CEO/Exec. Director/corp. owner who put in millions if not hundreds of millions and perhaps his/her lifetime to get to their position of title.

You're leading your brethren mail-room clerks in saying that YOUR voice means as much as those managers' voices, and should be taken into consideration right beside the voices of those others, as your brethren mail-room clerks stare back at you with wide eyes, frozen expressions, and the foul taste of pure fear on their breath.....
 
I agree that the university administration dropped the ball on this one. BUT the person I really feel sorry for is the poor guy married to her. Can you imagine being hitched to someone with the personality of a rattlesnake?
 
The comparison of this debate and today's partisan political discourse is interesting. In both, one side fails to get that truth is not an either/or thing. People here who want to argue one side or another personally attack people saying something else without stopping to realize that they could both be right. That Caslen screwed up doesn't mean that she is not an overly-entitled pain in the ass. (Again, my theory - total speculation - is that this has been ongoing and didn't come out of nowhere and someone at USC leaked this thinking it would bury her). This is like the 2016 and 2020 elections where people would argue that "Candidate R isn't a ________ because Candidate D is a _________." So if you're a supporter of another university, you come here to learn that our biggest benefactor is a diva, the administration and board are incompetent, and some of the alumni here can only speak in non-sequitors. Yeah, we're looking real good.
 
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It’s actually a testament to how little genuine drama we’ve had at USC that this little misunderstanding with Darla has caused such a kerfuffle. It’s like folks are starving for something to be dramatic.

As I recall, you were one of the posters with accusations that Mrs. Moore was not being honest about the situation. Now that the President of the university has acknowledge the shocking error and how damaging it is, you come with its no big deal. Ok.
 
The political persuasion mostly trashing Caslen here would have been defending him or ignoring this entire situation if he was an appointment of their political ilk. If anyone is not of the same political leaning and trashing Caslen now, then its easy to understand why they are getting run over and ground down on their side.

Be honest, all of these political disputes on this board have to do with your political leaning. There is apparently no right or wrong in this society. There's only right and left. The same mob of posters shows up on the same sides of all these issues.

When there is poor performance, like this, its hard to take your "rush in and rip em up" strategy as anything more than your distaste for the other political group. Try being fair and honest all the time when it comes to politics, please. Other wise, as your opponents adopt your tactics, we will have all lost any credibility in any corner of our society to assess poor or good performance, even when we recognize it.

Everyone always wants to both-sides any political topic but sorry, you can't both-sides this Caslen ordeal at USC. The abuse of power political influence to get Caslen jammed into this process and ultimately into this job exclusively came from the political right. It does not matter how you vote, those are just the facts.

And so now we are here with an incompetent leader, but at least McMaster and his stooges in Washington (at that time) got their political payback.
 
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Everyone always wants to both-sides any political topic but sorry, you can't both-sides this Caslen ordeal at USC. . . . . .
Ah yes, when someone tells you that you can't think the way you do. Another stellar debate tactic. This is embarrassing folks. And the worst part is that it is a perfect example of what I am talking about. If A is true, then you cannot be allowed to believe that x is true.
 
You're the guy working in the entry-level mail room at a big corporation, getting pissed off that you and your fellow entry-level mail room clerks aren't allowed to go participate in the weekly manager's meetings, that are occupied by department/division managers who have worked their way up the chain of command for years if not decades, and chaired by the CEO/Exec. Director/corp. owner who put in millions if not hundreds of millions and perhaps his/her lifetime to get to their position of title.

You're leading your brethren mail-room clerks in saying that YOUR voice means as much as those managers' voices, and should be taken into consideration right beside the voices of those others, as your brethren mail-room clerks stare back at you with wide eyes, frozen expressions, and the foul taste of pure fear on their breath.....
I applaud you for being honest in your feelings that an individual’s value as a person is purely based on their net worth.

I believe it runs completely contrary to the purpose of an educational institution and feel most faculty would agree.
 
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