Hours after Baylor announced that coach Art Briles was going to be fired, in response to an investigation into the school’s response to allegations of sexual assaults by students, the Bears lost a key member of their 2017 recruiting class.
Advertisement
Athletics director Ian McCaw was put on probation, and Ken Starr lost his title as the university’s president.
Mr. Starr was stripped of his title as university president but will remain Baylor’s chancellor and a professor at the law school.
It also recommends “restorative remedies” to the university.
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 also released Thursday the main findings of a withering report by a law firm that reviewed the school’s handling of such cases and found, among other things, that administrators denied that the university had a sexual violence problem and failed on several levels to investigate claims.
“The choices made by football staff and athletics leadership, in some instances, posed a risk to campus safety and the integrity of the University”, the report said. In one case, they retaliated against someone for reporting a sexual assault, it found. And especially after it was determined that athletic department leadership failed to identify and to respond to a pattern of sexual violence by football players. Board members were briefed on the report earlier this month. “We were sad and angry”. At Baylor, he was known for running out with the football team before games.
The external investigation to which Starr refers came about following the media firestorm that was kicked off upon Ukwuachu’s conviction.
Last year, he was convicted of sexually assaulting a Baylor student. I didn’t want to be right.
Hernandez’s complaint said that while she was a student at Baylor, she was raped by Tevin Elliot.
Those feelings were echoed by students who organized prayer vigils and protests this year.
Hernandez said the lack of response from school officials left her felling “just being completed ignored and sort of pushed under the rug”.
Others were openly critical of the university’s actions. The school’s announcement Thursday states that Starr will “transition to the role of chancellor” and that Dr. David Garland has been named interim president. When asked about that on Thursday, the regents took pains to say out that Starr “no longer has any operating responsibilities within the university”. The board said it would not identify them.
An anonymous source who allegedly has a lot of knowledge of the matter believed the Baylor Board of Regents did not view the actions of Briles, Star and McCaw as necessary to reprimand due to the fact the football program has reached a huge amount of success in the Big 12 conference.
“We were horrified by the extent of these acts of sexual violence on our campus”, Baylor regents chairman Richard Willis said. The winning and the publicity it brought to Baylor made it so. (Quoting from a Baylor press release).
Starr, 69, had a long and at times controversial career in public service before moving into academia. Oakman is alleged to have raped women, and is alleged of a case of domestic violence which happened prior to Oakman transferring to Baylor however Briles knew and covered it up in order to not have to suspend the defensive linemen. Coaches involved themselves in criminal and disciplinary matters that “reinforced an overall perception that football was above the rules, and that there was no culture of accountability for misconduct”.
The report offers 10 pages worth of recommendations for the university. Starr initiated the Pepper Hamilton report that ultimately forced him out.
Advertisement
Any such changes will follow Baylor’s move in February to increase funding for counseling staff and sexual assault training for staff and students.
