<p>Lol. The following is the lame excuse from the university… I wonder how long it took them to come out with this one…</p>
<p>"The awkward audio of University of Michigan President Mary Sue Colemans remarks during the halftime of the Saturdays football game resulted when she attempted to slow her speech to deal with significant feedback from the stadium public address system.</p>
<p>She, absolutely, had not been drinking alcohol. I want to underscore that point in the strongest possible way.</p>
<p>All day long Saturday, President Coleman was attending events related to the launch of the Victors for Michigan fundraising campaign. No alcohol was served at those events.</p>
<p>At the stadium President Coleman hosted a non-alcoholic reception for alumni and donors in the president’s box in the stadium.</p>
<p>Her recognition at halftime was unexpected and the wireless microphone she was using is not one with which she had any prior experience. There was significant wind, feedback and, even under the best conditions, the sound is distorted in the stadium when a wireless mic is used.</p>
<p>She struggled with the feedback and tried to adjust to the sound delay and the reverberation by slowing down her words.</p>
<p>She had hoped to communicate her gratitude for the recognition and her enthusiasm for Michigan.</p>
<p>It was an unfortunate set of circumstances that led to the audio distortion.</p>
<ul>
<li>University Spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald"</li>
</ul>
<p>Even if Fitzgerald is right, the perception that the president was drunk has already been established among the campus community. I doubt most will believe him readily.</p>
<p>I hope she was drunk instead of other dire possibilities A dear friend of mine was accused of drinking at inappropriate time and drinking too much. She had bulbar presentation of ALS instead. I still cringe at how people were so nasty and quick with the accusations. She has since passed away.</p>
<p>Oversensitive much? Playing by probability, which do you think is more likely? A drunk coleman or a neurologically impaired coleman?</p>
<p>The point remains, even if she did have a health issue, especially a neurological one at that. If that’s the case, she should immediately be relieved of her duty, and should not be made available for any public speeches that could embarrass the university, ever.
Like it or not, the university is a billion dollar enterprise. We can’t have a mentally impaired captain at the helm.</p>
<p>Eh, maybe I’m one of the few to actually believe the university, but I actually do think it was the feedback. The high latency wireless mic in addition to the delay from the stadium speakers could most certainly be a little disorienting, especially when you aren’t expecting to speak and are coming up with stuff on the spot. I’ve actually experienced a similar phenomena (but on a much smaller scale) myself, and I didn’t even realize how weird I sounded until I looked back at a recording. </p>
<p>I hope she was drunk because at least that would be an explanation as to why she sounded like she was talking baby talk. The whole presentation (jersey and all) was cheezy beyond belief.</p>