Baylor fires president/football coach over dissuading rape victims from reporting assaults

[ctfjr]

Baylor removes Starr as president, will fire coach over rape cases

Who wudda thunk it at a Baptist school

 

[BigBird]

A preliminary reaction to just one small part of the story:

A source told ESPN that Starr could not be easily dismissed because he was, in addition to being Baylor's CEO, a "tenured professor." This, in my opinion, is a bogus excuse that accomplishes three purposes. First, it lets the Baylor board off the hook ("look...see...our hands are tied"); it further fuels the widely held (and typically conservative) public view that tenure, like a unionized faculty, is a corruption of the system. Finally, it also preserves Starr's influence on his campus, if not his entire salary.

As Baylor is a private college, it is unlikely that their tenure rules lack a "morality clause." But Baylor seems to have chosen not to invoke it.

As a retired college faculty member, I can say with certainty that the laws of my state do NOT protect faculty employees from outright dismissal in circumstances such as these. In other words, if Baylor's board wanted to save Ken Starr, let them just say that.

Yes, it is very early to take any legal position on the larger mess at Baylor. One can only imagine the civil suits awaiting in the wings today. But using tenure as a disguise in this matter is rather shallow, to say the least.

 

[ThisJustIn]

Oh, snap: Starr, the former independent counsel charged with investigating Bill Clinton during his presidency, will end his tenure as university president on May 31 and move to the role of chancellor, while remaining a professor at Baylor University Law School

 

[Fairfield Fan]

This is the same university that told Britney Griner not to tell anyone that she was gay. And in fine hypocritical form, the university didn't actually "fire" Ken Starr; instead, it took away his "president" title, while permitting him to retain his title as "chancellor." In other words, horrible failure to deal with campus rapes? Not a biggie.

Baylor's new motto: "Hypocrisy R Us."

 

[HoopsFan21]

This is a school that meddled in a murder investigation for the sake of its basketball program, so I'm shocked, just shocked I tell ya. What is it with schools from Texas? Are athletics that big of a deal there that they are willing to abandon any sort of morality and compliance to get ahead?

 

[Magy Cannon]

Oh, snap: Starr, the former independent counsel charged with investigating Bill Clinton during his presidency, will end his tenure as university president on May 31 and move to the role of chancellor, while remaining a professor at Baylor University Law School

Disgusting.

 

[UConnNick]

This is a school that meddled in a murder investigation for the sake of its basketball program, so I'm shocked, just shocked I tell ya. What is it with schools from Texas? Are athletics that big of a deal there that they are willing to abandon any sort of morality and compliance to get ahead?

The answer is yes, and it's nothing new. The old SWC schools used to engage in a game of gotcha amongst themselves, in an insane football arms race. They'd turn each other in to the NCAA as soon as any particular school enjoyed some football success. That's how SMU got the death penalty.

These are schools with big donors, rabid alumni bases and a state with a huge economy. The big boosters from each school like to brag about what it took to get Johnny Heisman to sign with them. A&M thought they had Eric Dickerson locked up to play there, so he suddenly was driving around in a gold Trans Am. SMU came along and trumped that with a far more expensive sports car. Suddenly Eric reneged and became a Mustang.

A very reliable source indicated to me that Dave Bliss, he of the murder investigation cover-up at Baylor, offered Emeka Okafor a $50K signing bonus to play for the Bears.

Texas represents a collegiate athletics infrastructure that is wildly out of control and has been for a very long time.

 

[Fightin Choke]

An update on this thread: Kenneth Star will NOT take the Chancellor's position at Baylor. Ironically, he said it was "a matter of conscience", but I was pretty sure he didn't have one: LINK

He will continue to be a faculty member. At least there, he can do less harm.

 

[huskeynut]

And don't forget the AD has resigned. This is looking more and more like a major dumpster fire!

 

[Sonofabeach]

Andy Katz Retweeted
Mark Schlabach ‏@Mark_Schlabach 5m5 minutes ago

Complaint against Baylor filed with feds
Complaint against Baylor filed with feds

 

[HoopsFan21]

Does anyone think the NCAA should get involved with this case? We saw how it ended up being a mistake in the Penn State case, but this time it involves student-athletes and helping them stay eligible by avoiding prosecution and prison.

 

[BigBird]

Does anyone think the NCAA should get involved with this case? We saw how it ended up being a mistake in the Penn State case, but this time it involves student-athletes and helping them stay eligible by avoiding prosecution and prison.

If this isn't a "lack of institutional control," then that part of the NCAA rules should just be immediately deleted. Penn State's case involved covering up/under-responding to what we here call a class X felony (in Illinois legal speak). The Baylor situation is at least as bad. The part that will make a very big shock wave before we are done is the accusation that administrators at Baylor actively blocked or punished the reporting of assaults. This would be a significant violation of the (federal) Civil Rights Act. I will defer to those better skilled in this area of law to address it if they choose to. But, if I recall correctly, if Baylor did such deeds, that is a felony.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Does anyone think the NCAA should get involved with this case? We saw how it ended up being a mistake in the Penn State case, but this time it involves student-athletes and helping them stay eligible by avoiding prosecution and prison.

State or federal prosecutors should get involved in this case.

 

[HoopsFan21]

If this isn't a "lack of institutional control," then that part of the NCAA rules should just be immediately deleted. Penn State's case involved covering up/under-responding to what we here call a class X felony (in Illinois legal speak). The Baylor situation is at least as bad. The part that will make a very big shock wave before we are done is the accusation that administrators at Baylor actively blocked or punished the reporting of assaults. This would be a significant violation of the (federal) Civil Rights Act. I will defer to those better skilled in this area of law to address it if they choose to. But, if I recall correctly, if Baylor did such deeds, that is a felony.

Forget the legal/criminal aspect of this for a moment. Speaking strictly from the NCAA perspective, this involved coaches and student-athletes committing crimes presumably for keeping their student-athletes eligible. The Penn State case involved neither as no student-athletes nor coaches were directly involved and/or charged with crimes - just a former coach that's in jail and a bunch of school administrators who have since had most of their charges quietly dropped. I think the NCAA may be a bit gun shy and thus nothing will happen to Baylor like UNC.

 

[BigBird]

Forget the legal/criminal aspect of this for a moment. Speaking strictly from the NCAA perspective, this involved coaches and student-athletes committing crimes presumably for keeping their student-athletes eligible. The Penn State case involved neither as no student-athletes nor coaches were directly involved and/or charged with crimes - just a former coach that's in jail and a bunch of school administrators who have since had most of their charges quietly dropped. I think the NCAA may be a bit gun shy and thus nothing will happen to Baylor like UNC.

HF21, you may well be right. My point is that the commission of a felony by the college is about as out of control as it gets.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Forget the legal/criminal aspect of this for a moment. Speaking strictly from the NCAA perspective, this involved coaches and student-athletes committing crimes presumably for keeping their student-athletes eligible. The Penn State case involved neither as no student-athletes nor coaches were directly involved and/or charged with crimes - just a former coach that's in jail and a bunch of school administrators who have since had most of their charges quietly dropped. I think the NCAA may be a bit gun shy and thus nothing will happen to Baylor like UNC.

That coach was not a "former coach" when he molested young boys. And the head coach knew about it when he was head coach. And the coach who molested boys went to prison.

We don't know all that happened at Baylor.

 

[UcMiami]

As far as I can see the PSU case involved an employee committing felonies primarily if not entirely off school grounds with the victims being non-students/non-athletes. Terrible crime and perhaps prolonged by the inaction of various administration and athletic department personnel.

The Baylor situation involves felony criminal actions by student athletes perpetrated at lease some of the time against fellow student athletes/fellow students, with active suppression of evidence/intimidation of victims/obstruction of investigations in order to enhance on-field performance of athletic teams in NCAA competition - no, this seems to fall well outside NCAA governance!

 

[HoopsFan21]

That coach was not a "former coach" when he molested young boys. And the head coach knew about it when he was head coach. And the coach who molested boys went to prison.

We don't know all that happened at Baylor.

Actually I think Sandusky was a former coach at the time since the criminal complaint cites 2001 as the first case and Sandusky had retired in 1998. There was the earlier incident the D.A. declined to prosecute which I don't believe was part of the case. Regardless of how you feel about it, the D.A. said there was nothing that indicated the head coach participated or orchestrated a cover up. In my mind the PSU case was blown out of proportion because of the inflammatory report about a kid being raped in the shower (Sandusky later acquitted of that particular charge), and as it turns out a lot of what was reported ended up not being entirely accurate. No student-athletes did anything wrong, and the head coach of the football team was only tangentially involved because he received a report of a former employee which he passed along to his superiors - which by the way is what the NCAA directs head coaches to do today despite the outrage of a head coach doing just that five years ago. This case is a bit different as it directly involves coaches and student-athletes. In the end I guess it won't matter what the NCAA does if all the bad actors are put in jail and Baylor won't be able to throw the WCBB team under the bus the way UNC is trying to do. Probably best to wait and see. We saw what happens when you jump to conclusions without all the facts like in the Duke lacrosse and PSU cases.

 

[UcMiami]

That coach was not a "former coach" when he molested young boys. And the head coach knew about it when he was head coach. And the coach who molested boys went to prison.

We don't know all that happened at Baylor.

But I believe two of the perps (former footballers - they were cut from the team when they were convicted (actually before, but not when the charges were first brought)) are in prison.

 

[j66kicker]

7 Members of Baylor's incoming football recruiting class, which Baylor had said was their "best recruiting class ever", have already requested to be released from their national letters of intent rather than report to campus this week.

Sources: 7 Baylor recruits ask out from NLIs

The vultures are surely licking their chops (Harbaugh?)

 

[LesMis89]

Baylor AD names interim coach then resigns

 

[TroyHouse66]

Hoopsfan-
<<What is it with schools from Texas? Are athletics that big of a deal there that they ... abandon any sort of morality and compliance...?>>

It's in the Constitution!
Because Tejas came into the US as a sovereign Republic in 1845.
They are allowed to break up into 6 states, force-feed their football teams, & form their own (secret, undercover) professional sport leagues.

 

[ThisJustIn]

7 Members of Baylor's incoming football recruiting class, which Baylor had said was their "best recruiting class ever", have already requested to be released from their national letters of intent rather than report to campus this week.

Sources: 7 Baylor recruits ask out from NLIs

The vultures are surely licking their chops (Harbaugh?)

And Baylor is saying "hell, no, you can't go..."

 

[j66kicker]

And Baylor is saying "hell, no, you can't go..."

Geez - I thought you were kidding...

Bruce Feldman ‏@BruceFeldmanCFB 11h11 hours ago
#Baylor isn't letting signees out of their LOIs. One FR's dad said he hopes BU reconsiders & does the right thing:
Big part of Baylor's 2016 recruiting class looking for release from scholarships

464 retweets294 likes

 

[billnaples]

Geez - I thought you were kidding...

Bruce Feldman ‏@BruceFeldmanCFB 11h11 hours ago
#Baylor isn't letting signees out of their LOIs. One FR's dad said he hopes BU reconsiders & does the right thing:
Big part of Baylor's 2016 recruiting class looking for release from scholarships

464 retweets294 likes

I am guessing someone out here knows the answer - presume Baylor does decline the requests for LOI releases, the players all appeal, and all apeals are denied. What can the recruit do? Sit out and lose a year of eligibility and then enroll anywhere he wants? Is he bound to Baylor until his class graduates?

Aside generally agree most of this case is outside the purview of the NCAA. Given the speed with which they have dealt with UNC I have a better chance of becoming President or gaining a seat on the SCOTUS.