Baylor said last week it would begin the process to fire Briles, who transformed the moribund football program into a national power, after an independent report found administrators mishandled sexual abuse cases involving football players. He said the report, which he noted was prepared by non-independent law firm Pepper Hamilton, “has not been shared with me directly, despite my full cooperation with the investigation”. He indicated that the investigation, “supports the conclusions that the board has already drawn”.
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Also Thursday, Nita Chaudhary, co-founder of UltraViolet, a national women’s advocacy organization, said in a statement, “University administrators and athletic staff – including Kenneth Starr, are responsible for the safety and well-being of the students, and must be held accountable when they deliberately hide and cover-up instances of rape and sexual assault”.
“I think that ignorance about the issue of sexual assault on college campuses has to be willful”, said Natalie Webb, a doctoral student in Baylor’s religion department. “We need to put this terrible experience behind us”.
Baylor President Ken Starr leaves a terminal at a Waco airport on May, 25, 2016, in Waco, Texas.
Kenneth Starr is resigning as chancellor at Baylor in the wake of a huge shakeup at the university, but he will continue to teach in the law school, the former school president told ESPN’s Joe Schad on Wednesday. Since that day, Starr has also resigned as chancellor and McCaw has stepped down.
The takeaway is that Briles will say he was NOT the primary enabler. “We need to be honest”.
A press release by the Baylor Line Foundation distributed online states: “The Baylor Family deserves an unvarnished, complete accounting of the facts about how these events were handled”.
Baylor fired Briles last week amid a sexual assault scandal that allegedly involved multiple football players.
We recognize this is a tumultuous time for Baylor, most importantly for our current and former students and victims of sexual assault.
“After 38 years of coaching, I have certainly made mistakes”, said Briles in his first statement since resignation, “In hindsight, I would have done certain things differently”.
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OCR is now investigating 192 colleges and universities for their handling of sexual violence under Title IX. Director of Athletics Ian McCaw was expected to oversee changes in the football and other sports programs, but resigned. The Bears went 10-3 and beat North Carolina in the Russell Athletic Bowl in 2015, Briles’ final season.
