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Professor Freyd files Clery Act complaint over cover-up

5/15/2014: Steve Duin in the Oregonian:

When Freyd’s research indicated that 46 percent of the women dealing with unwanted sexual experiences felt betrayed, and further traumatized, by the institution where those incidents occurred, she said, “I felt it was my duty to go to the president and say, ‘We have a problem.'”

Freyd first met with Gottfredson in March 2013. “He seemed open to hearing what we had to say.  He expressed willingness to work with us,” she said. His follow-through, however, was lousy.  …

I think Freyd’s phrase “institutional betrayal” perfectly captures how UO handled all of this, and how the institution, and many of its administrators, are still trying to cover up how badly they blew it.

It’s our university, not Mike Gottfredson’s, and so we are going to fix it. He can continue to bloviate for a while, but we are moving on.

And lets make the next search an open one. Here’s a breaking story from Chemetka CC on why that matters.

5/15/2014: Josephine Woolington has more in the RG.

Jennifer Freyd, a nationally known expert in sexual assault trauma, wrote in an email to federal officials this week that the university did not comply with the federal Jeanne Clery Act, which requires colleges and universities that participate in federal student financial aid programs to report information about alleged crimes on and around their campuses.

The law — named in memory of a 19-year-old college freshman who was raped and murdered in 1986 by a fellow student in her dorm room at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania — requires schools to report in a timely manner certain “Clery” crimes, which include violent crimes such as murder, manslaughter and rape. It also includes other sexual offenses, such as fondling and use of a date rape drug.

Schools also have to include in a daily crime log all alleged crimes — including robberies, assaults and burglaries — that are reported to campus police.

5/14/2014: Reporters not impressed with Gottfredson’s timeline effort

From CBS Sports:

The closed investigation into an allegation of rape against three former Oregon players has brought about protests on campus and national criticism toward the school’s athletic department for how it handled the situation.

A lot of the issues with who in power knew what and when have come with skepticism. If you haven’t yet, read our Gary Parrish on all that was wrong with the reasonings offered by Ducks coach Dana Altman at his explanatory press conference last Friday.

With all the disparagement against the school, Oregon on Tuesday released a timeline of the events. The account below is the school’s latest explanation for why the players named in the explicit police report continued to play in games despite an ongoing investigation.

6 Comments

  1. Anonymous 05/14/2014

    Gottfredson said something about not being able to comment on students or student-athletes unless mentioned first by the media? Clarification?

    • uomatters Post author | 05/14/2014

      Hmm. Altman and the other coaches routinely out their players.

      As at the Friday news conference, where Altman said that none of the three players named in the gang rape allegations had received sexual assault prevention training.

      • Anonymous 05/14/2014

        That’s true. But in today’s speech, Gottfredson said something about only being able to comment on issues the media exposed first?

  2. JoJo 05/15/2014

    Dear dummies, it is a law called FERPA that you should all be familiar with. Universities infamously twist FERPA so they can shield themselves from records requests. If you really want to point blame then you should point it at the lawmakers.

    • Senator James Buckley (not really) 05/15/2014

      My FERPA law was not intended to help universities hide information about sexual violence. Nor does it. This law does not need to be changed. Your President needs to be changed.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_L._Buckley

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