Lowder is CEO of Colonial Bank, and the headquarters is in Montgomery. The bank is far more reaching than just Alabama, though. I looked at their website, and there are ~300 branches in AL, MS, GA, FL, TN, TX, and NV. I think that $200K a year is a gross underestimate. He gave more than that to Bob Riley's governor campaign. Its kind of funny because a lot of people are asking that Governor Riley step in and do something about it, but Lowder has him in his back pocket, too. Its a real mess. Morgan, give us a little credit. We know that Auburn fans dont support any of this. Also, this is a football forum. Most everything we talk about is in regards to football.
Lowder manipulated the Legislature to appoint a three man group to appoint Board of Trustees members. All three of the governor's appointees (he has the sayso in who gets on the appointment board, and indirectly, who gets on the Auburn Trustee Board) were later detailed to have complicating and hamstringing financial entaglements, with Lowder holding the ends to all the strings they're entagled in. So, in essence, a Governor who let's Lowder's money cloud his better judgement appoints pro-Lowder individuals to the three main appointment board, who are in turn put under Lowder's financial influence. Those three, in turn, will obviously not put anyone on the Auburn Board of Trustees who will be an anti-Lowder voice or entity on the Plains. Lowder's money allows him to control those who would seek to control him. It's a vicious power struggle... The book that I mentioned earlier says is best... The head of the journalism department, and a staunch supporter of the student newspaper which exposed all the corruption and political intrigue involved in all of the complex financial webs Lowder weaved around those who would have influence or the ability to keep him far removed from the Athletic Program, stood up and tried to fight against Lowder in public. Lowder responded by trying to fold the Department of Journalism into an entire other department at Auburn, in an attempt to basically remove the department, and the base of power the professor was using as a pulpit to combat the Little Emperor. He would have also done away with the independent nature of the Plainsment (The name of the Auburn student newspaper). In a public forum with Lowder and Lowder minions in attendance...The man in question-Jerry Brown, an AU graduate, and former head of its Journalism department, who left because of the Lowder jaundiced eye-stood up and said... "They are peckerwood Machiavellis, ravenous rubes, toads and sycophants, feckless fobs, and duplicitous dons-all stereotypes crazed by sports, small-mindedness, and a pathetic lust for power." I couldn't have said it better myself...
Its kind of hard to "sack up" to a man who puts the most amount of money into the school. Trust me, if I had the money/power/position/gender to "sack up" and ask for his head on a platter I would. But the problem is that there are only a handful of people who would be able to do that. And the Auburn faithful are out there campaigning as hard as they can to those select few because of the fact that they want the man out. And I do give you guys credit, thats why I come over here and post. WAR DAMN EAGLE!!
Morgan, I was only talking about Lowder and his puppets, NOT Auburn fans in general. What you guys need to do is get the next 10,000 richest Auburn backers, get some cash piled up, and take the university back. You can go to the governor and the university president and say, "We want Lowder out of having anything to do with Auburn University, and if he's not, we will not give another dime to this school. He wants to control every facet of it, let him pay for all of it!" Lowder may be rich and powerful, but every person in this world has limits to their power and wealth. How long could Lowder keep Auburn afloat if he were the only guy giving serious bread to the university? Maybe two years tops, before he bankrupted himself. Letting him go unchallenged only makes things worse.
This kind of thing has already started happening on a small scale at least. Plenty of AU contributors have already said they werent giving their money this year. Even the students themselves tried to rid the school of the man a couple years ago. They organized a major protest/walk-out. It caused a minor stir and got some press attention, but that was about it. The whole thing is just an embarassing mess and Id like to just blink and make it all go away, but its not going to change the way I feel about Auburn. WAR DAMN EAGLE!!
BLAH, BLAH, BLAH ... all that's important to LSU is this ... Auburn remains ... DESTABILIZED & WEAK ... a victim at its' own hand. And, with Alabama still reeling from NCAA sanctions ... we're gonna have continued recruiting success in Alabama ... Lotsa good work to be done in Alabama
Wait a second MOrgan, did you say you were the wrong gender to "sack up"? Now we all REALLY like you!
I know LSU has better things to think about this week, but that didnt stop somebody from starting this thread. Someone obviously cared enough to bring it up, and it wasnt an Auburn fan. WAR DAMN EAGLE!!
