Selling My Books on the Streets of Brooklyn 5/29 - Heat

Rutgers University is under fire for hiring Julie Hermann as its Athletic Director. 16 years ago she was coaching volleyball at the University of Tennessee. Her players filed a petition complaining of verbal abuse. She eventually resigned. Since Rutgers recently fired its men's basketball coach, who was accused of similar abuse, many have demonstrated outrage. I wondered what she's done in the 16 years since those accusations. Has she been out of work? Has she continued her former behavior? I mean, what exactly is the statute of limitations on the crime of calling players "drunks and whores"? Turns out she's been supervising 20 sports at the University of Louisville. She's served on many community boards, including Frazier Rehab Institute, Metro Parks, Women 4 Women, YMCA, the Louisville Sports Commission, the Kentucky Sports Commission, the Commission on the Status of Women and the Center for Women and Families. She's served on numerous conference committees, the AVCA Hall of Fame selection committee and is the former chair of the NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Committee. She currently serves as president of the National Association of Collegiate Women's Administrators. Actively involved in the Louisville community, she was named a 2008 Woman of Distinction by the Center for Women and Families, a 2004 Ladies of Leadership award winner from the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation, the 2006 Heart of the Community award presented by Women4Women, and in 2008 she received the Mary Kay Bonsteel Tachau Gender Equity Award from UofL. Prior to joining Louisville, she spent one year as an assistant coach for USA Volleyball, helping the National Team to a silver medal finish at the World University Games in 1997. Before joining the National Team, she served as the head women's volleyball coach at the University of Tennessee for six seasons. Under her watch, the Lady Vols improved more than 150 places in the RPI standings and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a decade. Before her time at Tennessee, Hermann spent one season at Northern Arizona. She earned the top post at NAU following two seasons as an assistant at the University of Georgia, where she helped restore the Bulldogs program to national status. Georgia recorded a 70-16 mark in her two seasons and earned a spot in the Top 20. Hermann opened her collegiate coaching career at Wyoming, where she spent two years helping the Cowgirls to the NCAA Tournament and a final eight finish. As a student-athlete, Hermann was an All-Big Eight volleyball player at the University of Nebraska from 1981-84 as the Huskers won four conference championships and four tournament championships. She appeared in four consecutive NCAA Tournaments and earned a pair of top five finishes. She was honored as the FCA College Athlete of the Year and was an FCA national platform speaker.
Almost all of the above was culled from a UofL site, text condensed by me. This woman seems eminently qualified. Have we become such a gutless society that we cannot withstand verbal abuse? Is a person who engages in it never to be forgiven, to be permanently deprived of work even if she/he no longer engages in said behavior? 16 years have passed. She was good enough for Louisville but not for Rutgers? Some people demonstrate more compassion for violent criminals than for what Herrmann allegedly did. Unfortunately, she has defended herself by acting like a politician, saying she doesn't recall the events. What a shame. She should have admitted to her past indiscretions and said she has grown and moved on. Perhaps she was too wary of the unforgiving political correctness that grips college campuses and too much of society in general. The uproar is ludicrous.

It was a great day at the floating book shop. Two of my best customers, Lev and Mrs. Eclectic, showed and bought a bunch of stuff. Several others also made purchases, and I received donations from Ol' Simon, Ol' Smokey, Madeline and Michael, to the tune of 50 books, eight in Russian. Ol' Smokey is cleaning house, having been evicted from his apartment building. Rather than go to a shelter, he will live on the street. His Social Security disability payments were taken away and the annuity he inherited from his sister has run dry. Considering all the fraudsters in our midst, it's puzzling that someone with such psychological problems does not qualify for assistance. Then again, I don't know the whole story.
Thanks, folks.

Vic's 4th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3