Laura E. Seay, a 2000 graduate of Baylor who posted an open letter criticizing its response to the assaults, said Thursday’s developments marked “a sad but important day” for the university. Starr will leave the position of president on May 31, but the school says he will serve as chancellor.
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Art Briles has been fired by Baylor amid a growing controversy over how he handled rape accusations involving his former players. “As a result, no action was taken to support complainants, fairly and impartially evaluate the conduct under Title IX, address identified cultural concerns within the football program, or protect campus safety once aware of a potential pattern of sexual violence by multiple football players”. Defensive end Sam Ukwuachu, a transfer from Boise State, was also convicted of sexual assault and defensive end Shawn Oakman is now being investigated for sexual assault. “In those instances, football coaches or staff met directly with a complainant and/or a parent of a complainant and did not report the misconduct”. “Our students and their families deserve more, and we have committed our full attention to improving our processes, establishing accountability and ensuring appropriate actions are taken to support former, current and future students”.
The university is removing Ken Starr from the presidency and is firing football coach Art Briles. After Ukwuachu was convicted past year, Starr sent out a press release that, while lamenting the woman’s suffering, declared that “By God’s grace, we are living in a golden era at Baylor University”.
Specific shortcomings were found within the school’s football program.
University leadership was also slow to enact federally-required student conduct processes, and administrators failed to identify and eliminate the hostile environment toward victims, the report found.
Hernandez’s complaint said that while she was a student at Baylor, she was raped by Tevin Elliot.
Is Briles the only Baylor official who will lose his job?
The release of the report and actions announced by Baylor were stunning to Stefanie Mundhenk, a former student who wrote a viral blog post previous year expressing frustration about how the university treated her after she reported being raped by a fellow student.
Hernandez, of Yorba Linda, California, says she is pressing on with her federal lawsuit against the school.
January 23, 2014: Tevin Elliott, a 2011 Big 12 honorable mention as a sophomore defensive end for the Bears, is convicted of two counts of sexual assault and sentenced to 20 years in prison. In the past year, there have been multiple reports of other alleged assaults and women who said the school did nothing to help.
Seay, an assistant professor of government at Colby College in ME, helped draft a critical letter to Baylor regents this year that received more than 1,000 signatures. At least seven other woman have publicly come forward to say the school ignored their sexual assault allegations.
February 18: Federal statistics show Baylor did not report a single instance of sexual assault from 2008 to 2011, a finding that stands in sharp contrast to other private and public schools that made multiple reports over the same period. “Perhaps so. Our independent investigation will soon reveal if opportunities exist for improvements in the way we respond to allegations of sexual violence”.
The university says it intends to fire football coach Art Briles and remove President Kenneth Starr from his post amid questions about the handling of assault complaints against athletes.
Ken Starr, who zealously pursued charges against a sitting US president in a White House sex scandal, was stripped of his job as president of Baylor University on Thursday after a scathing review found that under his leadership, the school did little to respond to accusations of sexual assault involving members of its vaunted football program.
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The university said in a statement Thursday that it had suspended Briles “with intent to terminate”.
