After being removed as President of Baylor University for the handling of multiple alleged sexual assaults involving the football program, the University’s Chancellor is stepping down from his new job.
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The shake up comes as the university board of regents reviewed the findings from Pepper Hamilton, a lawfirm hired to investigate the school’s response to sexual assault.
“We need to put this terrible experience behind us”, Starr told ESPN.
“We were horrified by the extent of these acts of sexual violence on our campus”, said Richard Willis, chair of the Baylor Board of Regents. ESPN reported that Ian McCaw has resigned as Baylor’s athletic director, football coach Art Briles has suspended with a reported intent by the school to fire him, and several other officials have lost their jobs already. Mark Schalbach of ESPN adds that Starr will remain a professor at Baylor’s law school.
Snyder did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. He and Briles have faced sharp criticism about whether the school ignored allegations of assault by football players.
According to that report, Baylor prioritized football over campus safety, failed to educate campus administrators about Title IX and did not handle complaints fairly and impartially.
Starr said repeatedly during the interview that he accepts responsibility for what happened at Baylor, while also insisting that he was “behind the veil of ignorance”.
Baylor’s mess, the one the Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated school got itself into by turning blind eyes and wagging fingers to women who accused the school’s football players of sexual assault, isn’t almost settled.
The report was highly critical of Baylor, saying some victims of sexual assault were intimidated or retaliated against for reporting the crimes.
Starr told ESPN that he didn’t think the school had a problem until the August 2015 conviction of football player Sam Ukwuachu, who sexually assaulted another student. He called Briles a “player’s coach” who only “wants the best” for the young men.
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Among the firm’s findings was that football coaches and athletics administrators at the school in the central Texas city of Waco had run their own improper investigations into rape claims and that in some cases, they chose not to report such allegations to an administrator outside of athletics.
