Kim Mulkey's Comments about Scandal

[bags27]

I think it's quite a leap from that to accusing her of defending rape..

I agree with you; I didn't express myself well. What I should have said was that Kim appears to be defending the indefensible. Not rape, of course, but the culture of Baylor that produced suppression of its occurrence. Because, certainly that's how many on this board and on the various chatsites have interpreted her words.

 

[Jeff H]

Whether it's true or not that other schools have the same problem with rape as Baylor is irrelevant to me. I have zero respect for trying to deflect criticism of wrongdoing by saying others do it also.

 

[Buzzyboy]

Kim's remarks were insensitive, and I agree she should apologize for having trivialized the seriousness of what happened at Baylor, but I think it's quite a leap from that to accusing her of defending rape. I'm reasonably sure she probably intended her remarks to refer to the present day situation at Baylor, not the past. You can argue the semantics, but I doubt her intent was along the same lines as former Texas gubenatorial candidate Clayton Williams, who had the election wrapped up until he said this only a week before election day: "If rape is inevitable, why not just lie back and enjoy it?"

And Kim was correct about one thing. There are other schools that have a very bad track record of handling rape cases. Many schools, including UCONN, have come under fire for attempting as much as possible to cover up or minimize publicity regarding rape investigations, to the detriment of the victims. Many collegiate rape victims have won large settlements against these schools. No school wants to be in Baylor's shoes, becoming known as Rape U. On the positive side, many schools, like UCONN, have revised their rules for handling rape accusations, and are doing a much better job of effectively dealing with the problem.

If she focused on what Baylor is now doing to protect young women on the campus and that new programs are in place where those concerns are minimal, at best, that would have been fine but to suggest you go smack someone in the face that has concerns based on what's happened there previously, suggests that she should get slapped upside the head for her self serving remarks. Her concerns seem to be primarily her recruiting issues related to violence on campus, not concerns for the young women coming there. I don't think she handled the Britney Griner situation and her sexuality well, do you? I think Kim Mulkey's primary concern, day in and day out, is herself and her career! Don't YOU?????????

 

[CocoHusky]

I am not defending either Baylor or Kim her, but people need to realize that the sexual assault numbers at Baylor are not out of line with numbers reported by conscientious colleges and universities around the country. There is a real problem on college campuses everywhere. That does not let Baylor off the hook for the absolutely outrageous way they handled their cases, nor Kim for failing to recognize that the situation at Baylor is way out of line with issues at other institutions, and that the national spotlight is well deserved and that she should be having to field those questions on the recruiting trail. And if she is punching any off her recruits parents ... well, I suspect she isn't taking her own advice! And neither should her audience.

These two sentences in your post seem to contradict each other.

"but people need to realize that the sexual assault numbers at Baylor are not out of line with numbers reported by conscientious colleges and universities around the country."

"or Kim for failing to recognize that the situation at Baylor is way out of line with issues at other institutions".

The numbers of rapes reported by just Baylor Football players is 52 in 4 years. Hopefully Baylor is the exception and not even close to the norm.
Baylor Lawsuit Contains Allegations of 52 Rapes by Football Players in 4 Years

 

[RockyMTblue2]

ESPN team doing their best to give Mulkey a pass during first quarter of the ND FSU game. Mulkey's big apology "I didn't mean it literally."

 

[Replicant]

Mulkey explained her comments in the postgame press conference, saying she was tired of hearing the scandal discussed...

Poor, poor Kim, she's tired of hearing about the scandal. Solution...punch concerned parents in the mouth!

The (alleged) crimes and the cover-up are equally horrific, but what parent would choose to leave their young daughter in the tutelage of that jacka$$ for 4 years!

 

[eebmg]

If I heard correctly the commentary of the ND/FSU game, Mulkey is saying she wants to be part of the solution to the problem. Funny when you do not acknowledge there is a problem anymore.

I think her mentality and motives are basically clear.
' Come on, how much more do we have to listen to this. The media is interfering with my job'

 

[JoePgh]

"Knock them right in the face"? Wow, a college coach advocating violence if somebody voices an opinion different from yours? How can anyone defend that?
I understand defending your school and program, but this was wrong on so many levels and ultimately harmful. This is not something that should have been addressed at a senior game. And when it was, something more like "I can assure everyone that Baylor is a safe place for its students. We have new leadership that are working hard to ensure that the incidents in the past will be prevented as much as possible and addressed quickly and strongly if they do occur." would have worked much better. I might not believe it, but it is a better pitch than suggesting you hit them in the face

I few weeks ago Geno made a comment (I believe it was in an ESPN interview), referring to KLS, that "we had to beat the California out of her". Some tone-deaf people chose to take that literally, and were offended by it.

I don't like, agree with, or approve of Kim Mulkey's comments, but I certainly don't think they should be taken literally, any more than Geno's comment should have been interpreted that way.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

I am not defending either Baylor or Kim her, but people need to realize that the sexual assault numbers at Baylor are not out of line with numbers reported by conscientious colleges and universities around the country. There is a real problem on college campuses everywhere. That does not let Baylor off the hook for the absolutely outrageous way they handled their cases, nor Kim for failing to recognize that the situation at Baylor is way out of line with issues at other institutions, and that the national spotlight is well deserved and that she should be having to field those questions on the recruiting trail. And if she is punching any off her recruits parents ... well, I suspect she isn't taking her own advice! And neither should her audience.

Actually, what is at issue is that more than 40 football players raped more than 50 women (at least, that's the current count, which continues to rise), the coaching staff knew about it, including a Kavanaughed, but only two football players were expelled. This is not about sexual assault statistics, but about the university administration's and the athletic staff's actions to ignore, then stifle the reports made by women victims in order to protect its multi-million dollar football program.

That is not the same situation as at every other university. This is Baylor's outrage.

And a woman and a coach of women at that university should not be protecting those coaches and administrators from prosecution and other consequences of their actions.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

I beg to differ. 17 victims involving 19 football players, including four gang rapes, since 2011 CANNOT be "in line" with "numbers reported by conscientious colleges and universities". Can you provide comparable statistics for any university?

With the filing of legal charges, the numbers have gone up significantly.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

I am not defending either Baylor or Kim her, but people need to realize that the sexual assault numbers at Baylor are not out of line with numbers reported by conscientious colleges and universities around the country. There is a real problem on college campuses everywhere. That does not let Baylor off the hook for the absolutely outrageous way they handled their cases, nor Kim for failing to recognize that the situation at Baylor is way out of line with issues at other institutions, and that the national spotlight is well deserved and that she should be having to field those questions on the recruiting trail. And if she is punching any off her recruits parents ... well, I suspect she isn't taking her own advice! And neither should her audience.

Given how the university covered up the numbers of women raped by Baylor football players, it is not at all clear that data on other sexual assaults on campus isn't also distorted or deliberately kept low.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Baylor University powered by College Sports Live

See her double down on the denial of a problem and attack on people who keep it in the conversation. Starts around 4:45. 'unless you were in the meetings, you don't know what you're talking about." 'it's over, move on' Obviously, and correctly, feels invulnerable.

 

[JordyG]

Kim's remarks were insensitive, and I agree she should apologize for having trivialized the seriousness of what happened at Baylor, but I think it's quite a leap from that to accusing her of defending rape. I'm reasonably sure she probably intended her remarks to refer to the present day situation at Baylor, not the past. You can argue the semantics, but I doubt her intent was along the same lines as former Texas gubenatorial candidate Clayton Williams, who had the election wrapped up until he said this only a week before election day: "If rape is inevitable, why not just lie back and enjoy it?"

And Kim was correct about one thing. There are other schools that have a very bad track record of handling rape cases. Many schools, including UCONN, have come under fire for attempting as much as possible to cover up or minimize publicity regarding rape investigations, to the detriment of the victims. Many collegiate rape victims have won large settlements against these schools. No school wants to be in Baylor's shoes, becoming known as Rape U. On the positive side, many schools, like UCONN, have revised their rules for handling rape accusations, and are doing a much better job of effectively dealing with the problem.

Actually the first time that insensitive remark was uttered was (not surprisingly) here in NYC by popular local weatherman Tex Antoine Nov. 24, 1976 on air. It subsequently ruined his career.

Yes other colleges have had to deal with problems of rape and violence. Yes, other college administrations have tried to cover up or minimize these issues. One would think BU would have learned from the very public failures of these other administrations, especially after the Louisville incidents. No where however did Pitino minimize or defend these acts. No where did Pitino or any of the others, when confronted with recruitment issues suggest some sort of vigilante justice. Mulkey said her daughter never had an issue at BU and married a football player. Anyone here think the coaches daughter would ever be subjected to sexual violence? Anyone here think the coaches daughter who is engaged to a football player would be subjected to anything untoward? I think not.

I'm not arguing Mulkey's intent, which actually seems to be an attempt to quench the recruiting fires she's running up against. I'm arguing against an insensitivity that seems to pervade the entire atmosphere down there, from fans to boosters, to alumni who have made the big money commitments, to some of the press. I'm arguing against a society that continues to minimize violence and rewards the perpetrator while blaming the victim. I'm a big fan of the state of Texas and that whole southern genteel culture in that state. This seems to go completely sideways to that great culture. I don't see Mulkey defending rape, but as being a cog in a rising finger pointing, not-my-fault, me first, I'm always right, damn the truth, alternate fact culture.

 

[UConnNick]

These two sentences in your post seem to contradict each other.

"but people need to realize that the sexual assault numbers at Baylor are not out of line with numbers reported by conscientious colleges and universities around the country."

"or Kim for failing to recognize that the situation at Baylor is way out of line with issues at other institutions".

The numbers of rapes reported by just Baylor Football players is 52 in 4 years. Hopefully Baylor is the exception and not even close to the norm.
Baylor Lawsuit Contains Allegations of 52 Rapes by Football Players in 4 Years

People keep throwing the number 52 around, but it's important to distinguish that number from actual fact. It was an allegation contained in a Plaintiff's petition in a victim's lawsuit against the university. That doesn't automatically qualify it as a fact. Whether it can be proven in court or not remains to be seen.

Certainly there is more than enough evidence that the former football coaching staff and administration at Baylor handled these incidents abysmally, but UCONN also had 43 reported incidents in a given year, and many other schools have reported similar numbers. Also, most schools are now bending over backward to encourage reporting, but even if there are in fact 52 incidents at Baylor and 43 at UCONN doesn't necessarily mean that each and every case will result in proven rape convictions.

Mulkey's comments were insensitive, self-serving and alarming, but the problem doesn't exist only at Baylor. It's nationwide. That doesn't excuse what happened at Baylor by any means, nor should she try to minimize that by reference to other schools, but it is a national problem.

 

[JordyG]

People keep throwing the number 52 around, but it's important to distinguish that number from actual fact. It was an allegation contained in a Plaintiff's petition in a victim's lawsuit against the university. That doesn't automatically qualify it as a fact. Whether it can be proven in court or not remains to be seen.

Certainly there is more than enough evidence that the former football coaching staff and administration at Baylor handled these incidents abysmally, but UCONN also had 43 reported incidents in a given year, and many other schools have reported similar numbers. Also, most schools are now bending over backward to encourage reporting, but even if there are in fact 52 incidents at Baylor and 43 at UCONN doesn't necessarily mean that each and every case will result in proven rape convictions.

Mulkey's comments were insensitive, self-serving and alarming, but the problem doesn't exist only at Baylor. It's nationwide. That doesn't excuse what happened at Baylor by any means, nor should she try to minimize that by reference to other schools, but it is a national problem.

Darned right. A growing national problem. All reprehensible.

 

[EricLA]

I few weeks ago Geno made a comment (I believe it was in an ESPN interview), referring to KLS, that "we had to beat the California out of her". Some tone-deaf people chose to take that literally, and were offended by it.

I don't like, agree with, or approve of Kim Mulkey's comments, but I certainly don't think they should be taken literally, any more than Geno's comment should have been interpreted that way.

2 completely different comments in tone, manner delivered, audience delivered to, content, and intent. Not even close - and anyone who thinks that they are even remotely similar is either is an extreme UCONN hater, or incapable of English reading comprehension...

 

[drweo]

People keep throwing the number 52 around, but it's important to distinguish that number from actual fact. It was an allegation contained in a Plaintiff's petition in a victim's lawsuit against the university. That doesn't automatically qualify it as a fact. Whether it can be proven in court or not remains to be seen.

Certainly there is more than enough evidence that the former football coaching staff and administration at Baylor handled these incidents abysmally, but UCONN also had 43 reported incidents in a given year, and many other schools have reported similar numbers. Also, most schools are now bending over backward to encourage reporting, but even if there are in fact 52 incidents at Baylor and 43 at UCONN doesn't necessarily mean that each and every case will result in proven rape convictions.

Mulkey's comments were insensitive, self-serving and alarming, but the problem doesn't exist only at Baylor. It's nationwide. That doesn't excuse what happened at Baylor by any means, nor should she try to minimize that by reference to other schools, but it is a national problem.

A qualification to your post: As I understand it, the Baylor allegations concern alleged assaults by football players, and not the totals for all student reports. I may be mistaken about that. But if that is correct, if one wants to compare Baylor's numbers to the numbers at any other university, then you have to separate out the numbers for football players at that other school for the comparison to be legitimate. And you have to do that year by year, or grouping the same years together. Maybe our statistics friends can help with such a comparison. But whatever those numbers turn out to be, the biggest issues are the Baylor cover-ups and mistreatment of victims by university administrators.

 

[bags27]

Mulkey's comments were insensitive, self-serving and alarming, but the problem doesn't exist only at Baylor. It's nationwide. That doesn't excuse what happened at Baylor by any means, nor should she try to minimize that by reference to other schools, but it is a national problem.

Absolutely right:
1. Mulkey badly misspoke. As you say, what she said was alarming. So, we are alarmed.
2. We don't need to judge Baylor more harshly than anyone else in terms of statistics. Assaults happen everywhere and statistics of occurrence and reporting are far too uncertain to make comparisons of any sort trustworthy.

However,
1. Mulkey needs to apologize unconditionally and perhaps needs to go further: community service? donation to the Baylor rape center? Baylor University || Counseling Center || Sexual Assault and Interpersonal Violence
Rather than minimizing what she said/meant/intended, she absolutely needs to take leadership.

2. Whatever the figures on comparative college assaults, Baylor is demonstrably egregious in dealing and reporting claims. What does that mean? It means that it doesn't take the accusations seriously. It tells the victim that she is not a victim, thereby furthering victimizing her.

As strong a position as Mulkey is in as a coach, as a representative of a university, she is quite vulnerable. She cannot be perceived as insensitive to the issue, because it would be easy to make her into a scapegoat by an administration under pressure.

 

[UConnNick]

A qualification to your post: As I understand it, the Baylor allegations concern alleged assaults by football players, and not the totals for all student reports. I may be mistaken about that. But if that is correct, if one wants to compare Baylor's numbers to the numbers at any other university, then you have to separate out the numbers for football players at that other school for the comparison to be legitimate. And you have to do that year by year, or grouping the same years together. Maybe our statistics friends can help with such a comparison. But whatever those numbers turn out to be, the biggest issues are the Baylor cover-ups and mistreatment of victims by university administrators.

I completely agree, but the way each individual school has established rules for reporting and investigation varies greatly from school to school. It's therefore virtually impossible to compare and contrast schools statistically in any meaningful way, because it's an apples and oranges comparison, depending on the parameters.

 

[Zorro]

Reading the Baylorfan.com site, one gets the definite impression that neither Kim nor any of the posters give any credence to the commissioned report, and do not attach any importance to the firing of Briles, Starr, et al, preferring to believe that "the whole thing was blown way out of proportion" and that all of the cases involved were simply "he said, she said". Several posters have even proposed Kim as the new chancellor.

 

[bags27]

Reading the Baylorfan.com site, one gets the definite impression that neither Kim nor any of the posters give any credence to the commissioned report, and do not attach any importance to the firing of Briles, Starr, et al, preferring to believe that "the whole thing was blown way out of proportion" and that all of the cases involved were simply "he said, she said". Several posters have even proposed Kim as the new chancellor.

true; all except for one intrepid contributor who actually thought Kim better be careful And you ought to read what they say about the Boneyarders.

 

[Wbbfan1]

ESPN Sports Reporters

Kim's comments may have played well at Baylor but most of the rest of the country are condemning her. Comments also made the Washington Post.

 

[UConnNick]

Reading the Baylorfan.com site, one gets the definite impression that neither Kim nor any of the posters give any credence to the commissioned report, and do not attach any importance to the firing of Briles, Starr, et al, preferring to believe that "the whole thing was blown way out of proportion" and that all of the cases involved were simply "he said, she said". Several posters have even proposed Kim as the new chancellor.

That is not surprising in the least. Baylor is part of an entrenched, big time college football culture that has existed for a number of decades. I've lived in parts of the country where CFB is really the only sport the big time athletic factory schools care about. That's why Kim's comments and the general attitude of the Baylor fanbase is dismissive. It's the Penn State syndrome all over again. Nothing shall be tolerated which will diminish the image of dear old Baylor.

The real fault here is the huge amounts of money being thrown at the athletic departments of the P5 conference schools. Money has corrupted collegiate athletics to a point I'm afraid we will never recover from. It's appalling. These schools will protect their reputations at all costs. They're protecting multi million dollar investments in athletics. Baylor has to preserve it's membership in the big boy's club. They only made it into the Big 12 in the first place because Ann Richards, a Baylor alum, happened to be Governor of Texas at the time the Southwest Conference disbanded. She brokered a compromise deal to get them into the Big 12, which didn't want them.

As recently as a few years ago, Baylor faced the real possibility of suffering the same fate UCONN has. If the Big 12 had broken up in 2011 or thereabouts, which was a real possibility, Baylor would have become the UCONN of the Southwest, tossed out of a BCS power conference with no place to go. You're talking about a loss of tens of millions in revenue to the athletic programs. Unless you take big money out of the equation, the stuff that has happened at Baylor is just the tip of a huge iceberg. Baylor remains more vulnerable than most of the other P5 conference schools, and their alumni and fanbase know it.

 

[Zorro]

The Waco Tribune reported Mulkey's remarks without comment.

 

[UcMiami]

These two sentences in your post seem to contradict each other.

"but people need to realize that the sexual assault numbers at Baylor are not out of line with numbers reported by conscientious colleges and universities around the country."

"or Kim for failing to recognize that the situation at Baylor is way out of line with issues at other institutions".

The distinction I am making is between the existense of sexual assaults and rapes on every campus in the US (and around the world), and the fact that Baylor's athletic department and administration actively worked to subvert the reporting, to intimidate the victims and to cover up and protect the perpetrators is something very unique to Baylor. When Kim says 'it happens everywhere', she is correct that the crimes happen everywhere, but she is ignoring the reason Baylor is a national story - the actions of the coaches and administration after the crimes were reported to them - that is not happening everywhere.