EDITORIAL: Bryant President Gittell Got Burnt by Playing the Numbers With Grasso

EDITORIAL: Bryant President Gittell Got Burnt by Playing the Numbers With Grasso

Ross J. Gittell assumed the Presidency of Bryant University in July of 2020.

By then, Jared Grasso had two seasons under his belt as the head coach of the Bryant Bulldogs Men's Basketball Team. So he inherited Grasso, but soon after he knew what he had.

Since then, it has been the tale of two realities.

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First, there was the winning -- Grasso's Bulldogs won. We all love to win, and Dr. Gittell seemed to love a winner. Big crowds, alumni interest, and an admissions office loving the results.

For Gittell, classically trained as an economist, the numbers did not lie.

Then, there was the chaotic Grasso, complete with brawls and a team that on multiple occasions was splashed across the tabloids.

We are not talking about the Smithfield tabloids; we are talking about the New York Post and TMZ.

It was a team that was often out of control.

When Gittell was named to the presidency at Bryant, his press release stated that he was  “highly regarded in economic and policy circles for his economic analysis and forecasting.”

Well, his data was off.

According to Adam Smith, who is considered the father of modern economics, the three laws of economics are:

Law of self-interest.
Law of competition.
Law of supply and demand.

So Gittell's "Smithsonian" approach was warped. He got the self-interest part right, and maybe even a bit of competition correct, but the law of supply and demand may not be so apropos.

The economic laws did not calculate the basic rules of decency, reputation, and fair play.

Gittell holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard University, a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Chicago.

He has an impressive lot of academic achievements, but in retrospect, he and Bryant might have been better served with a degree in maintenance — ordinary clean-up, because now there is a big mess to deal with.