“Ken Starr, of all people, should have taken action sooner to prevent sexual harassment and assault against female students, and Art Briles should have been terminated long ago”. And Athletic Director Ian McCaw has been sanctioned and placed on probation.
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The board appointed David Garland, former dean and professor at Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary, as interim president.
“To those victims who were not treated with the care, concern, and support they deserve, I am profoundly sorry”, Starr said in the statement. He hopes it will also give more sexual assault survivors the courage to speak out without fear of retaliation from the University. Baylor regents released a summary of the findings, but did not publicly release the report in its entirety. What contents of an investigative report led to this?
The 23-page report highlighted university-wide problems, but also honed in on specific misdeeds inside the football program. The actions were taken without regard to the safety and well-being of the rest of the campus community, the summary said.
Baylor Head Football Coach Art Briles will be fired from the university, according to media reports later confirmed by the university. Board members were briefed on the report earlier this month. “We were sad and angry”. Horrified at just how far some school officials had gone to protect players accused of rape.
The university experienced one of the worst college sports scandals ever after a men’s basketball player murdered a teammate in 2003, with a subsequent investigation revealing drug use and payments to players, resulting in harsh N.C.A.A. penalties.
Baylor would not confirm those reports in the day after the news broke. One victim has sued the university, saying it was deliberately indifferent to her allegations against a former player who was eventually convicted of sexually assaulting her. ESPN has reported that five women told police that Elliot either raped them or assaulted them between 2009 and 2012. I didn’t want to be right.
Starr released a statement of his own on Thursday afternoon “expressing heartfelt contrition for the tragedy and sadness that has unfolded”. Baylor University’s board of regents says it will f… The job, they said, focuses on “development and religious liberty”.
Briles’ career at Baylor has been marked by the school’s rapid ascension into the national football elite.
Until Thursday, Baylor’s public response had been limited. As pressure mounted, the university released a series of statements and letters.
During the lengthy and ultimately unsuccessful complaint process, she wrote, she “felt more like a nuisance than a person whom a crime had been committed against”. “But I retain full confidence in our Student Life professionals”.
After her case was dismissed for lack of evidence, the alleged rapist graduated and was allowed to work in an office near where her academic-program office was located, Ms. Mundhenk wrote.
In outlining how the school failed victims of sexual assault, investigating law firm Pepper Hamilton found Baylor had little interest in educating its administrators about Title IX, and a school ill-equipped to handle allegations of sexual assault fairly and impartially. Baylor then went 7-6 and played in its first bowl game in 16 years in 2010.
“The football program failed to identify and maintain controls over known risks, and unreasonably accepted known risks”, the report concludes.
The harshest critique was reserved for the leadership of the athletic department, and most notably its football team, which “hindered enforcement of rules and policies, and created a cultural perception that football was above the rules”.
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The report offers 10 pages worth of recommendations for the university.
