SLU_Lax

Hopefully we will have some better understanding in the next 20 or so days.

That case was MUCH more complicated as it involved the "triangle of silence" among the coaches and an entire system that was established over 6 years to keep any improprieties quiet. It also involved an accuser who was unwilling to cooperate. It covered a MUCH, MUCH broader scope than our investigation is covering. I would, however, say that Rich was not fired because of Title IX. He was fired because the team was not winning at an acceptable level. If he was winning, this would not have been an issue. He also appears to get his full severance package and the only thing he was established to have done is cheating on his wife (and being committed to created his "triangle of silence" which is certainly not a good look).

May did not build the arena. He also did not hire RickMa. Also, it would be nice if an AD could focus on more than one sport at a time.

I think everyone recognizes there is a broad spectrum of punishments. I am objecting to the kids not knowing where their punishment is on the spectrum when enrolling. They may be removed from school or sports for the semester or longer after enrolling which will impact their ability (if they want to) to enroll elsewhere and get their lives restarted more quickly and completely. I haven’t done the math, but I believe it is now over 100 days and expect it to be 4-months since the incident before the punishment is known.

“Important people” would have to care. How many emails, letters, or tweets with incorrect dates, times, or opponents has the AD sent? I do not think those types of details are considered that important. Shoot, we tried to have Tatum do his official visit during the dead period. I’m not meaning to pass a judgment. I am just trying to say the school has the right to set their own priorities and standards. Their past actions and repeated mistakes would indicate it is within their acceptable standards.

I think if it was an easy “bad” decision to make that it would have been made quickly. It is much harder to have the kids enroll for 2nd Semester to then turn around and kick them out. At this point, I believe the delays and feet dragging was partially just hoping the kids would leave and partially to try and build a better case against them. If the case against them had come together I think this would move much quicker. If the kids are kicked out of school a couple weeks into the semester, it will be one of the biggest possible all-time dick moves.

We have got a while to wait before S2 is resolved. I hope we will have more clarity in the next 30 days.

Ditto

Title IX doesn’t limit SLU to the goofball process we are following. Title IX is not a list of Operating Policies and Procedures. It’s a series of guidelines and values. The process is what random law firms and schools are interpreting as ways to stay in compliance with Title IX. There is NO precedent elsewhere for what SLU is doing and that is why none of the apologists cannot site anything at all like this. It is unbelievably unfair to both the men and women. It in no way delivers justice and it exposes the University to more risk. Or maybe I am wrong and title IX says when faced with groups who may have committed sex crimes that we need to make sure to keep them on campus for 90+ days and in classes by having a hopelessly slow process that includes prolonged breaks, we should keep them on their athletic team and keep paying for their travel, but should ban them from games to ensure that if they are innocent that their names are forever dragged through the mud anyway. If they are found guilty, it is unfair to the women and the school harbored people found guilty of sex crimes. If they are found innocent, they will never ever recover their reputations.

Fred Pestello is not powerless. He sets expectations on when things are done. He ensures they are a priority. It is absolutely ridiculous to act like the entire school has ZERO control in setting basic parameters and expectations of the urgency in which investigations are done. Also, Title IX is a great threat the federal government can use to ensure compliance. The federal government is not looking to ensure that relatively straightforward investigations take 120+ days to be concluded. I HOPE this is resolved by February 1st, but am not optimistic. The President of the school is responsible to make sure his organization functions properly. The inability to conclude this issue is not properly functioning. He is a leader and I expect him to lead. This is not leadership, but is instead a total miscarriage of justice for the men and the women. Maybe we can next start the argument that the AD is not responsible for the delay in hiring a soccer coach because he cannot make people accept his overtures or because he doesn’t create the competitive landscape of men’s soccer

+1

+1

Who knows....maybe SLU will manage to screw this up to the point that the three players transfer and turn-around and all sue the school. Then the accusers (who also should be equally upset) also feel that justice delayed is justice denied and they sue the school. John Brown puts it succinctly and gets to the crux of the issue.... either (1) the school is leaving sexual predators on campus and within the student body or (2) they are wrongly dragging the names of three black men through the mud. Either way, the inability to make a decision is inexcusable and has real-world consequences on everyone involved.

You forgot (c) the Hearing Officer just does not care how quickly it is resolved and nobody else in the administration seems to care either. Do not act like SLU has a cohesive and overarching strategy. The school has always been weak administratively and this is another example of it.

If there is no decision by the start of conference, the kids would be better off just transferring so they can get on with their lives.

I'd just want to know if the process will pause for winter break. Given the lack of urgency seen so far, I think it very possibly might. After all, the investigation was apparently done by a law firm that had other competing priorities and no concern about how long it took to investigate.

The players can also wait to enroll until a final decision is made to protect themselves. It would suck to enroll in classes and then to get suspended from school a week later.

Using past as prologue, there is no reason to believe that any relevant party in the administration is in any hurry to get this resolved. If timeliness was not important when the investigation was initiated, then it certainly won't become a priority now.

+1

Now the question becomes if SLU will pause the Title IX process until the next semester. There is no clear indication that the plan on continuing this process while school is not in session. It may sound ridiculous, but the speed of everything thus far has been ridiculous.

Just to note that Dez Wells was expelled from Xavier as a result for violating their Student Conduct rules. https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/college/xavier/2014/04/24/dez-wells-xavier-settle-lawsuit/8111709/ He appealed later to the NCAA and was made immediately eligible to play at Maryland without sitting out a year. Dez later reached an out-of-court settlement of his lawsuit against Xavier. So there is some precedent for players not being forced to sit out an additional year although in this case Dez did not choose to leave, but was forced to leave.

At this point, I doubt all the players come back. If they do, it is the best recruiting job Ford has done yet (in getting them all to stay). Dragging this out until Winter break significantly increases the risk that the players leave the school while filing a large lawsuit. So much for justice....(and to be clear the kids should be severely punished if they committed sexual assault and delaying that punishment is unjust as well). I guess the school can explain how they could not control any of this and they turned it over to outside lawyers who they could not be held to any expectations about timeliness or anything else. I am less optimistic that plan would work.

He really has done an excellent job.

I know trolling is your thing, but this simply is not true. People want to see justice. Justice delayed is justice denied. Nobody is advocating for the players to not be punished for any non consensual activity.

I will be very pleasantly surprised if the players are at any games before the A10 opener. Due to the speed that things have moved thus far, I am surprised nobody is predicting that it will be late January or early February before anything is concluded. We are just now entering the phases where the individuals' lawyers are getting involved and can bring up additional complicating evidence and theories that may lengthen the process significantly. Everything up to this point has been a relatively straight-forward investigation of what happened that night.