Last updated on 05/19/2014
That was at Providence College. Very detailed story in the Providence Journal, here. (A VP then weakened the disciplinary board’s decision.)
Meanwhile, at UO? The Duck cover-up continues. The day after UO President Mike Gottfredson got the EPD investigation report – 52 days after the alleged assault – he gave it to his Athletic Director Rob Mullens, and dismantled the faculty committee charged with oversight of athletics. Four days earlier he’d announced he would ignore a faculty Senate resolution calling for a review and an open search to replace UO Faculty Athletics Representative Jim O’Fallon.
Gottfredson, who is also a noted criminologist, never showed the EPD report to UO Police Chief Carolyn McDermed. She only found out about it from the newspapers.
This interesting Daily Emerald interview with a new UO basketball recruit talks about the thoroughness of Coach Dana Altman’s recruiting efforts. At least from the model FERPA guide at ed.gov, nothing would have prevented UO from simply asking Providence College for a copy of the disciplinary records for Brandon Austin, as a potential transfer student.
Why did the athletic department and UO admissions let him on campus without doing this? Because he was a top 50 basketball recruit. Still no confirmation that heavily redacted Special Assistant to the President and Athletic Director Lorraine Davis was in charge of vetting Austin’s transfer to UO.
EPD would have given an unredacted copy to the UOPD immediately, on request. Then the allegations would have had to go into the UOPD crime log. So somebody with a lot of knowledge of the reporting rules made sure McDermed didn’t make that request. When the request came from Geller instead of UOPD, EPD had to redact it first. This was one reason for UO’s unconscionable delay in action.
I think this is correct. The crime logs – I think they are updated daily – would not contain identifiable information about the victim or the alleged assaulters, but they would at least have listed the type of the alleged crimes.
The UOPD logs are at http://police.uoregon.edu/content/campus-daily-crime-log
Ahh yes, but even the VP at that school, somehow reversed the suspension & decided he could stay, just not allowed to play basketball for 1 year. I think these are athletic based decisions, Austin was a prized “top 50 in the nation” player, which is probably why Altman & the athletic dept. decided they could write off his sexual assault charges, to potentially win games in the future– he had to sit out for 1 year due to NCAA rules. Any way you slice & dice it, the U of O botched the handling, intentional or not. Hard to believe it was not intentional, when you look at the timelines & see all the (basic) reporting & communication gaps or lies. This is a mess & I am glad the students are calling them out on this. Cleaning house still seems in order.
“I think these are athletic based decisions, Austin was a prized “top 50 in the nation” player, which is probably why Altman & the athletic dept. decided they could write off his sexual assault charges, to potentially win games in the future– he had to sit out for 1 year due to NCAA rules.”
You’re getting to the heart of the matter when it comes to athletes breaking the rules or laws. Somehow, Altman and Co. justified (or were sanctioned to justify) Austin’s transfer year where he sat out as payment for alleged sexual assault, not suspecting he’d be stupid enough to barf on the second chance and bring two others with him. Gottfredson, Geller, Mullens, and the hapless Altman, are left to pay for their allegiance.
This brings into question the current recruiting focus for UO Men’s Basketball: win quickly and at any cost which means picking up transfers and any graduated players with some remaining eligibility. This isn’t Altman’s true style.
Rhetorically speaking, where do you suppose this blind policy of “haste makes waste”, no matter the cost, originated?