HCPP a gift that keeps on giving

[huskymedic]

Lots of cross currents in this whole thing. IMO everyone including the girl, UCONN the institution, the player of course, Coach P, Jeff Hathaway, Susan Herbst, and WM, is at fault here. I mean look at the circumstances in this rape.

1) Rose Richi participated in underage drinking while a freshman in a UCONN mens dorm
2) The athlete in question should have had it drilled into his head from day 1 on campus that his scholarship makes him a representative of UCONN athletics and his off the field behavior should reflect that.
3) Was the young lady signed in to the dorm? If not, then why not? Was the resident hall supervisor aware?
4) The so called investigation by the UCONN police is embarrassing to say the least, not only was there an alleged rape but the police are supposed to enforce laws both state and federal, and they did not do that given that alcohol was involved, and that's just for starters.
5) UCONN needs to change it's dormitory policies, and ALL UCONN athletes need to have to adhere to a code of conduct.

Everyone dropped the ball here, the UCONN culture is fault here.

For clarification --- Per the lawsuit: "... by a male student who lived in her dormitory on the UConn campus." and "The perpetrator asked Ms. Richi to take some shots of alcohol with him, joking
that he could outdrink her. Ms. Richi drank three shots of alcohol in total".

Remember - the alleged incident occurred in September 2011 and was reported in April 2013. I think any under-aged drinking charges would be a tough road to hoe without the officer actually witnessing it.

 

[huskyrob1]

As appeals to authority go, citing that your friend is a Connecticut state trooper has to be one of the funniest I've ever read.

He's also a father like I am, and our girls play together. What's so funny about it????? Geez

 

[noeynox]

As appeals to authority go, citing that your friend is a Connecticut state trooper has to be one of the funniest I've ever read.

I have heard similar things from ex uconn cops over the years about the unreported s e x assaults, and "effed up culture". I've never heard of it being particular to athletes. I've heard stories where I'd be mortified if it was my daughter. It always came back to too much alcohol consumption and there being a lot of fuzzy details over what happened on the night in question. My opinion, and its only my opinion, I bet UConn is no different than any large university where you have 20k, or so college age kids living together.

 

[J187Money]

While I agree with everything here, people should raise their sons better too. The men on this site were all boys at some point, and I'm sure we partied. Maybe my experience is different because I was doing it in the city of Boston, where you couldn't go off in a frat house. And when I visited friends at PSU or elsewhere I was honestly bored by frat houses. But I played rugby too and understand getting wasted. Almost everyone I knew drew a line. It wasn't in the culture of people I drank with to cross that line either. This doesn't mean people were choir boys, but we all know what that line is. I tend to believe that most boys and men know it, and when they cross it, it's because of something bigger going in the group that makes them believe it's OK. In other words, you can have a nice high school kid who ends up in a frat house that condones this or closes ranks, and suddenly things change.

Of course. I wasn't implying anything different. We all should do that. I certainly am raising my sons to be respectful. I hope they stay that way.

What is troublesome to me (at least with the feminist party line) is the suggestion that women should do whatever they want because it is the guys fault and so the woman's behavior is irrelevant. And while I agree with that 10000% in theory, that doesn't get individual people out of individual situations.

It is like knowing that you should be able to drive through South Central LA in a nice car with the top down and not get harassed / carjacked /etc. Doesn't mean it is a good idea, understanding the reality of the world.

 

[huskyrob1]

For clarification --- Per the lawsuit: "... by a male student who lived in her dormitory on the UConn campus." and "The perpetrator asked Ms. Richi to take some shots of alcohol with him, joking
that he could outdrink her. Ms. Richi drank three shots of alcohol in total".

Remember - the alleged incident occurred in September 2011 and was reported in April 2013. I think any under-aged drinking charges would be a tough road to hoe without the officer actually witnessing it.

Even taking her version of the story as gospel, then ABC news did a lousy job of reporting and quoting the lawsuit. Was going by the article which infers she was in a male dorm. This also raises another question, why was a UCONN football player living in a girls or coed dorm? And until the player in question comes forward, I'm not taking sides here, remember Brian Banks.

 

[upstater]

I have heard similar things from ex uconn cops over the years about the unreported s e x assaults, and "effed up culture". I've never heard of it being particular to athletes. I've heard stories where I'd be mortified if it was my daughter. It always came back to too much alcohol consumption and there being a lot of fuzzy details over what happened on the night in question. My opinion, and its only my opinion, I bet UConn is no different than any large university where you have 20k, or so college age kids living together.

This ^^^

We also can't automatically assume what state of mind these women are in when they bring such allegations up. I bet most of the time, they are reluctant to go forward, and that for many reasons, they don't. Suicidal thoughts are also not uncommon when this happens.

 

[huskyrob1]

I have heard similar things from ex uconn cops over the years about the unreported s e x assaults, and "effed up culture". I've never heard of it being particular to athletes. I've heard stories where I'd be mortified if it was my daughter. It always came back to too much alcohol consumption and there being a lot of fuzzy details over what happened on the night in question. My opinion, and its only my opinion, I bet UConn is no different than any large university where you have 20k, or so college age kids living together.

Name the schools like UCONN that have pitted gangs of roaming students throwing rocks and bottles at State police which were called in to use pepper spray and dogs because the schools local police force was overwhelmed. OK? Name them. They set cars on fire, I mean it was crazy. Say Kent State!!! Like I said it goes back to the 1970's when they started Spring Week when the drinking age was 18. Things need to change on campus.

 

[huskyrob1]

What I can say is that UCONN is a number of different places all wrapped up into one. Girls that live in Shippee and spend most of their time studying have a much different experience that girls that live in McMahon around all of the athletes (as an example). Lots of kids don't drink underage. About half of my residents when I was an RA in two different dorms in the Jungle (91-93) didn't really drink or party at all, even though the other half were near animals from Thursday through Sunday every week.

Last spring I was taking the train home one day on a Thursday night. About 10 kids from Fairfield U got on the train heading to New Haven to get wasted. Clearly frat boy types, all good looking, muscled up, expensive clothes, hooting and hollering on the train and causing such a ruckus and making comments about every single person on the train the conductor nearly had to call the cops. In 18 years of commuting to NYC I've never seen a group of guys on the train that were so hell bent on causing trouble. I'd be shocked if they didn't prey on some girl in New Haven that night.

There are animals at every university - I trust that you will raise your girls to understand that. There is only so much "safety" you can engineer...the rest is up to the decision making of your daughters, the people they spend time with, and sadly, random chance.

Last I checked students never threw rocks and bottles at overwhelmed State Police or burned cars or caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages at Fairfield Univ, like at UCONN.

 

[CTMike]

I could have sworn when I first read that it wasn't there. It ended with this:


And that's why I made that comment yesterday.

I read the same, upstater. Yesterday I read that the AD administration was notified, not Pasqualoni directly. Today it reads that Pasqualoni was notified.

 

[Santini35]

Name the schools like UCONN that have pitted gangs of roaming students throwing rocks and bottles at State police which were called in to use pepper spray and dogs because the schools local police force was overwhelmed. OK? Name them. They set cars on fire, I mean it was crazy. Say Kent State!!! Like I said it goes back to the 1970's when they started Spring Week when the drinking age was 18. Things need to change on campus.

JMU

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/12/james-madison-u-block-par_n_534137.html



Western Washington
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/13/riot-police-party-college-town/2977009/

Maryland
http://gawker.com/college-students-riot-after-im-shmacked-party-turns-1287844186

and a bunch of other for various reasons
http://www.complex.com/city-guide/2013/01/biggest-college-campus-riots-in-history/

 

[noeynox]

Name the schools like UCONN that have pitted gangs of roaming students throwing rocks and bottles at State police which were called in to use pepper spray and dogs because the schools local police force was overwhelmed. OK? Name them. They set cars on fire, I mean it was crazy. Say Kent State!!! Like I said it goes back to the 1970's when they started Spring Week when the drinking age was 18. Things need to change on campus.

I know at Texas A and M, I believe that was it, a bon fire got out of control and kids died.

If you live in CT and you know and you cops that have done investigations up there, your view is going to be slanted. If you lived in West Virginia and knew cops who did investigations up at WVU you might feel the same.

The spring parties up at UConn that got out of control were almost like a rite of passage to my understanding. That it got rowdy, and cars were flipped, and cops came in riot gear, should not in any way mean that there is some sinister culture that condones sex assault on campus. I am sure that is not what you mean, but I am having trouble seeing the connection between rowdy parties and sex assaults unless your saying there is simply too much drinking going on which I would agree with.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Last I checked students never threw rocks and bottles at overwhelmed State Police or burned cars or caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages at Fairfield Univ, like at UCONN.

You seem to be hell bent on taking an isolated incident and using that as a prime example of how UConn cultivates a rape culture.

I honestly cannot believe some of the posts in this thread.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I know at Texas A and M, I believe that was it, a bon fire got out of control and kids died.

If you live in CT and you know and you cops that have done investigations up there, your view is going to be slanted. If you lived in West Virginia and knew cops who did investigations up at WVU you might feel the same.

The spring parties up at UConn that got out of control were almost like a rite of passage to my understanding. That it got rowdy, and cars were flipped, and cops came in riot gear, should not in any way mean that there is some sinister culture that condones s e x assault on campus. I am sure that is not what you mean, but I am having trouble seeing the connection between rowdy parties and s e x assaults unless your saying there is simply too much drinking going on which I would agree with.

No actually it is exactly what he means. He typed it.

 

[huskymedic]

Name the schools like UCONN that have pitted gangs of roaming students throwing rocks and bottles at State police which were called in to use pepper spray and dogs because the schools local police force was overwhelmed. OK? Name them.

UMASS... WVA... UT... PSU, UM... tOSU... UK

Do I get an internet prize?

 

[J187Money]

Last I checked students never threw rocks and bottles at overwhelmed State Police or burned cars or caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages at Fairfield Univ, like at UCONN.

But that isn't what we are talking about. Fairfield U is filled with drugs / frat boy types and they are all rich and don't think they are accountable to anyone. All I'm saying is that - all things being equal, I wouldn't feel safer sending a daughter (if I had one) to Fairfield over UCONN.

 

[noeynox]

No actually it is exactly what he means. He typed it.

I can't believe someone would make that connection. I thought I was missing something. I think only he knows for sure.

I'll add this, you really have to be careful about what you hear from your friend the state trooper or any uconn cop and then form an opinion based on that. From my experience, talking to guys who worked at UConn as cops, the majority of their time is focused, on underage drinking, alleged sex assaults, and theft of laptops, phones etc. Most guys get tired of that and move on at some point. Its hardly a destination job for anyone I would guess. Like I said, I heard unreal stories. I heard these back in 1999-2003 time when a guy I worked with went up to storrs and his wife stayed where we worked. It always came back to alcohol. I'd bet my left nut, this is repeated at large campuses everywhere. Upstater is right, that the girls are always too ashamed to go forward.

It is almost inevitable when you combine, young people and alcohol, and being out on their own for the first time, that effed up shat will happen. Not in anyway condoning the reality of it by the way.

 

[CL82]

UConn does not have procedures in place yet to deal with this stuff. It's clear from everything we've read about police ("he didn't believe her") to what happened in the case of the music professor this summer, to this new stuff about Pasqualoni. In protecting the rights of the accused, a lot of people go into CYA mode.

I bet almost any faculty member and administrator has dealt with these issues before, and I can tell you it is not easy, nor are there easy procedures to follow. My school has a directive as of early 2013 but even that is not foolproof and requires discretion.

I'm not so sure. This "new stuff" about FHCPP and the police officer issue is the same case. One of the other plaintiff's in the suit is girl who said the new UConn logo encourages violence against woman. (If she had said it encourages bad football, she might have been on to something.)

A girl summons the courage to go to the police to report an alleged rape 18 months later. There are no witnesses, she didn't report it earlier, but she blogged about it and told other people about it. The officer (I presume) tells her she doesn't have a prosecutable case (and she doesn't) but dutifully takes her statement. He doesn't talk to her "people who have information, because all of their information is that the complainant told that about the incident (inadmissible hearsay at least as to whether or not the event occurred.) She doesn't feel validated by the process. The police told FHCPP "we got a complaint against your player X for an even that happened 18 months ago, there isn't a case and we aren't going to pursue it" and that doesn't stick in the old coot's brain. I am just not seeing any systematic failure here. I can't speak to the other plaintiff's allegations, but the mere fact that logo girl is in there makes me suspect that they are equally unimpressive. I doubt many attorneys would crap up a complaint with that if they had claims with substance.

 

[noeynox]

One more thing, since I saw that private Catholic schools were brought up as a place where someone would send their kids instead, wasn't there an incident just last year at ND involving a ND football player allegedly sexually assaulting a young girl and she subsequently took her own life?

The idea that you could insulate your kid from harm based on where you send them to school during their college years is mind boggling to me, and I am as about paranoid as you can get when it comes to dangerous situations and your children. This really is a crazy thread.

 

[huskyrob1]

No actually it is exactly what he means. He typed it.

Listen SH!TH**D, whether a kid is raped by a student athlete, or a student athlete is shot and killed in cold blood, or an 18 year old girl is caught up in a riot and gets hit in the head with a bottle, or ball players carrying guns in their cars doesn't matter, what matters is the culture that created it. Things need to change on campus and if you don't see that then you being a fan is just as bad as the culture itself.

 

[Husky25]

Lots of cross currents in this whole thing. IMO everyone including the girl, UCONN the institution, the player of course, Coach P, Jeff Hathaway, Susan Herbst, and WM, is at fault here. I mean look at the circumstances in this rape.

1) Rose Richi participated in underage drinking while a freshman in a UCONN mens dorm
2) The athlete in question should have had it drilled into his head from day 1 on campus that his scholarship makes him a representative of UCONN athletics and his off the field behavior should reflect that.
3) Was the young lady signed in to the dorm? If not, then why not? Was the resident hall supervisor aware?
4) The so called investigation by the UCONN police is embarrassing to say the least, not only was there an alleged rape but the police are supposed to enforce laws both state and federal, and they did not do that given that alcohol was involved, and that's just for starters.
5) UCONN needs to change it's dormitory policies, and ALL UCONN athletes need to have to adhere to a code of conduct.

Everyone dropped the ball here, the UCONN culture is fault here.

A very good friend of mine is a state trooper who has been on campus many times in a professional capacity, him and his wife have two daughters ages 10 and 14, and my wife and I also have two daughters also 10 and 14. Everyone has there own opinion of what a college culture should be in this day and age but I must say here, that based on what goes on on the UCONN campus, my state trooper friend and his wife have told us (based on what he has seen) that they would never send there daughters to UCONN, given the present on campus culture. This is not just an indictment of the UCONN police dept, but students and their behavior, rules set forth by UCONN's AD and president (past and present), the football coaches (past and present), etc. My wife knows that I am a die hard UCONN fan, and we have brought our 3 kids to UCONN ball games many times, and will continue to do so, but the wife has informed me that in no uncertain terms that our daughters will not be attending UCONN. We also have a 6 year old boy who loves UCONN ball. Our 14 year old is a freshman in HS and is a varsity cheerleader who roots the team on at every game, and if she cheers the team on in college as of now it won't be at UCONN.

I find this post (and many after) to be misinformed at best. Mostly It screams of living in denial towards many pervasive hot-button issues of college life...Everywhere.

I graduated from UConn in 1999. While I've visited on numerous occasions since then, I am admittedly unaware of many changes to student life policies since May 14 of that year.

1) Many, many students (regardless of gender) partake in underage drinking at UConn. I did, my then-girlfriend did, my roommate, most of my dormmates did, dare I say much of my matriculating class did. The RAs' attitude was out of site, out of mind in terms of underage drinking. Underage drinking in the dorms on Campus, off Campus, or at any other school was/is not unusual by any measure (personal experience = UMass, Boston College, Ithaca College)

1a) Unless something has changed, most dorm buildings at UConn (and the aforementioned) were co-ed, many by floor. There were also some floors (McMahon 6S comes to mind) that were co-ed by room. West Campus was co-ed by wing I.e. 3rd Flr Hollister E was men, 3rd Flr. Hollister W was women, with nary a fire door separating the two wings. Only Sprague (Men), Shippee, and Holcomb (Both women) were one gender. Even then, it was not difficult to enter the dorms unescorted by a resident.

2.) Agreed, but all students, regardless of financial assistance level or athletic ability, are made aware of student life policy, on and off campus.

Do Athletes go through orientation and Husky WOW? Does Husky WOW even exist anymore? It was drilled into our heads at that point about the dangers of drugs, alcohol (underage or otherwise), assault, nightly hook-ups/one night stands/STDs, etc. It was also drilled into our heads that a huge amount of assaults are perpetrated by acquaintances (i.e. signing into dorms may not prevent what allegedly occurred).

3.) Do they sign people in now? In my day, you needed was the key to enter the building after a certain time (9:00 IIRC), but the main doors were unlocked until the RA on duty did his/her rounds. As I said in 2. above, a huge amount of assaults are perpetrated by acquaintances, and therefore signing into dorms may not prevent what allegedly occurred. Depending on how long these ledgers are kept, it may confirm a timeline and alibi, but it would not prevent malfeasance.

4.) Total agree. Depending and statute of limitations, the detective should not have dismissed the complaint out of hand. But alcohol/underage drinking doesn't even factor into this part of the case. Besides, it is impossible to confirm underage intoxication unless there is a breathalyzer reading from that night. What should have happened at the very least are interviews of pertinent witnesses. Based on that, the State's attorney or other responsible authoritative body, should determine viability of pursuing the case.

5) This is sort of short sighted at best. Not all athletes are criminals, and not all criminals are athletes. There's a fine line between a continuation of High School and treating these young men and women like the young adults that they are.

I cherish my time at UConn. It was quite possibly the best four years of my life. To read someone trying to reduce my experiences as occurring at a place where women and children need to be hidden and we were lucky to get out alive is annoying. You may use this one isolated incident as an indictment on UConn. I hope no one else does.

 

[huskyrob1]

UMASS... WVA... UT... PSU, UM... tOSU... UK

Do I get an internet prize?

I think you are full of it. Yes, you get a prize for typing "student riot" on Google.

 

[huskymedic]

I think you are full of it. Yes, you get a prize for typing "student riot" on Google.

C'mon - You never heard independently of the couch burnings in WVA, car flipping in Kentucky after NCAA win or the multiple riots in UMASS after the Red Sox World Series/Patriot Super Bowls without the need for Google? Hell, PSU riots post Paterno where televised live.

 

[upstater]

Of course. I wasn't implying anything different. We all should do that. I certainly am raising my sons to be respectful. I hope they stay that way.

What is troublesome to me (at least with the feminist party line) is the suggestion that women should do whatever they want because it is the guys fault and so the woman's behavior is irrelevant. And while I agree with that 10000% in theory, that doesn't get individual people out of individual situations.

It is like knowing that you should be able to drive through South Central LA in a nice car with the top down and not get harassed / carjacked /etc. Doesn't mean it is a good idea, understanding the reality of the world.

Every feminist I know would say to their daughters don't put yourself in a situation where you are practically blacked out. Daughters need to know that and more.

These same feminists would take exception to people telling their daughters how to dress (short of being nude). As an aside, I think most people recognize their kids may want to drink and have sex. To deny that is to deny reality. There is a whole range of advice that comes though ith those two topics.

 

[upstater]

Name the schools like UCONN that have pitted gangs of roaming students throwing rocks and bottles at State police which were called in to use pepper spray and dogs because the schools local police force was overwhelmed. OK? Name them. They set cars on fire, I mean it was crazy. Say Kent State!!! Like I said it goes back to the 1970's when they started Spring Week when the drinking age was 18. Things need to change on campus.

Colorado, PSU, many other places.

 

[Dave Carlson]

Last I checked students never threw rocks and bottles at overwhelmed State Police or burned cars or caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages at Fairfield Univ, like at UCONN.

A person who thinks that Fairfield University students are well-behaved is a person who has never lived in Fairfield. What they lack in sheer numbers they make up for with attitude and grit.
http://fairfieldmirror.com/2012/04/25/clam-jam-tradition-or-town-trouble/

Also note that historically the overwhelming majority of people arrested during spring weekend at UConn have not been UConn students, so a pretty significant percentage of the knuckleheads throwing rockas and bottles at police have been visitors who think they can get drunk and riot with no consequences since it's not their school.