Posted on 02/20/2004 4:57:32 AM PST by Therapist
University of Colorado football coach Gary Barnett could save his job if he proves that his program is not hostile to women, CU president Betsy Hoffman said Thursday.
Barnett "could be on the sidelines this fall," Hoffman said, pending a report by an independent committee investigating allegations that the school used sex and alcohol to lure recruits.
The university is defending itself against lawsuits filed by three women who say they were sexually assaulted during or after a party attended by CU recruits and football players in December 2001. In addition, former CU place-kicker Katie Hnida says she was raped by a teammate, and the cases of two other women alleging they were sexually assaulted have come to light in recent days.
"We want to leave open the possibility that coach Barnett will still be our head coach," Hoffman said.
He "has to prove to me that the culture in his football program is supportive of women and does not encourage or sanction sexual assault, rape by his players and then backing his players and not listening to the young women. That's what he has to prove to me."
CU placed Barnett on paid administrative leave Wednesday night over comments he made about Hnida.
Barnett said Hnida was "not very good," "awful" and "terrible" in response to a question about her ability as a football player.
On CNN's "Larry King Live" Thursday night, Barnett said he probably shouldn't have answered the question. He also said he wants to keep his job.
"I do want to stay at Colorado," Barnett said. "I expect to be reinstated. I do."
Hoffman said she had decided Wednesday to suspend Barnett for those comments before receiving a copy of a Boulder police report in which an alleged rape victim quoted the coach as saying he would back a player "100 percent" in the face of her September 2001 rape allegation.
That report, Hoffman said, outraged school administrators and hastened their decision by about a day.
"When I read the police report and saw that perhaps she did not want to press charges because she was afraid of what coach Barnett might do, that's what just sealed the deal for me," Hoffman said.
Yet school officials knew about the report for two weeks before Barnett's suspension. Hoffman said she and her staff were told a report existed during a Feb. 4 meeting with Boulder County District Attorney Mary Keenan.
But Hoffman said CU was unable to locate the Boulder police report in which a young woman said she was raped by a player.
"We could not find it. We searched for it. We couldn't get it," Hoffman said. "I have no idea what the holdup was."
A spokeswoman for Hoffman said the university's legal counsel and university police were instructed to find the report.
Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner said he does not recall CU asking for the report. He said his department only began looking for the report this week after the media provided a suspect's name.
"We couldn't find it either, and we started getting calls about it, but no one had a name," Beckner said. "When there was finally a name, we were able to locate it."
After learning of the report Tuesday, a Denver Post reporter was able to confirm its existence with Boulder police the next morning. CU did not get a copy of the report until it was faxed to a Hoffman aide at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Hoffman said the report was then read aloud during a conference call among administrators. She said everyone who heard it was "angry and dismayed."
"The police report says that essentially the coach threatened her," Hoffman said. She described the alleged victim as "very credible" and said the woman "has done everything by the book" but did not want to press charges.
In the Feb. 4 meeting with Keenan, university officials discussed Hnida. Earlier this week, Hoffman and CU officials said they did not discuss sexual assault at that meeting.
On Thursday, however, Hoffman's spokeswoman said sexual assault was discussed but not in Hnida's case.
CLAIMS AGAINST CU A list of sexual-assault claims against football players or recruits:
1997: A 17-year-old girl alleges she was sexually assaulted during a football recruiting weekend.
Summer 2000: Walk-on place- kicker Katie Hnida alleges she was raped by an unnamed teammate in his house. She alleges she was verbally abused and groped by teammates before the rape.
Sept. 28, 2001: An athletic department employee alleges she was raped by a player in her apartment. She says coach Gary Barnett responded to her complaint by saying "that he would back his player 100 percent if she took this forward in the criminal process," according to a police report.
Dec. 7, 2001: Lisa Simpson alleges she was gang-raped at an off-campus party attended by players and recruits. In April 2002, prosecutors announced they would not file sexual-assault charges in the case. Simpson filed a civil lawsuit against the University of Colorado in December 2002.
Dec. 7, 2001: A woman, who asked that her identity be protected, alleges she was raped at the same party as Simpson. She filed a civil lawsuit against the University of Colorado in December 2003.
Dec. 8, 2001: Monique Gillaspie alleges she was raped in a dorm room after the same party attended by Simpson. She filed a civil lawsuit against the University of Colorado in January 2004.
August 2002: A student alleges she may have been drugged and raped by football players she met in a Boulder bar.
Keenan was out of town Thursday and unavailable for comment, said an assistant to the district attorney.
Overall, Hoffman said Barnett "has shown a lack of judgment" in his handling of the situation. She said the coach should have declined to comment on Hnida's ability because of the serious nature of her allegations.
"But instead he went on for two or three, four, I don't know many minutes expounding on what a horrible player she was, essentially demeaning her before the world and saying because she's a bad player it was OK for the guys to rape her," Hoffman said. "That was horrible."
In a brief statement Wednesday night, Barnett apologized for sounding insensitive but said his comments were misinterpreted.
While blasting Barnett's recent statements, Hoffman defended him as a strict disciplinarian. CU's president also defended the recruiting program, which she said has perhaps the strictest rules in the nation.
Players hosting recruits, she said, are told "if you go to a party with alcohol, you're supposed to walk away."
But she said Barnett needed to rethink how he deals with player discipline, particularly when a criminal act is alleged.
"He disciplines his players, but he may be overly protective of them at the same time," Hoffman said. "We might need to help him learn to be more sensitive, learn to draw that line more carefully, not to always take the player's side in a situation like this."
On Thursday, Hoffman spoke to national media organizations as the story continued to gain attention.
She said every administrator at Colorado realizes the seriousness of the situation.
"Everyone's job is on the line ... my job, the chancellor's job, the athletic director's job. Our jobs are all on the line until this is settled."
The panel appointed by the board of regents to investigate CU's recruiting practices announced Thursday that its first meeting is set for March 2. The panel's report is due April 30.
From ESPN:
Nobel laureate Wieman left Michigan for Boulder
BOULDER, Colo. -- Nobel laureate Carl Wieman figured he had put the craziness of college football behind him when he left the University of Michigan 20 years ago. What he is seeing at the University of Colorado may be far worse.
For three weeks, professors, students and residents have been hit with an almost daily barrage of accusations against Colorado's football program, including rapes, strip-club visits and alcohol-fueled sex parties for recruits. After a former female kicker came forward to say she was raped by a teammate, the coach indelicately described her as a "terrible" player.
Late Wednesday, University President Elizabeth Hoffman placed football coach Gary Barnett on paid administrative leave over the comments. "They were extremely inappropriate and insensitive. Rape is a horrific allegation and it should be taken seriously," Hoffman said.
Wieman, a physics professor, said the furor over the football program has taken the focus away from more pressing issues, like the state's vulnerable higher education budget.
"Out of that program, we regularly have issues that embarrass the university," Wieman said. "That tells you that they occupy much too much importance. Something's fundamentally wrong."
The university is the liberal heart of this outdoorsy haven on the flanks of the foothills 30 miles north of Denver. While proud of its academics, the school has caused embarrassment for Boulder over the years.
In 2000, raucous off-campus parties turned into student riots. Princeton Review recently declared Colorado the No. 1 party school, based on its students' lack of studying and affinity for marijuana and booze.
The football program has brought in millions of dollars and the school won a national title in 1990. But it has a long history of scandal: In 1962, questions over whether recruits were paid to attend cost a coach his job. A Sports Illustrated cover story in the 1980s documented how players were accused of everything from drunken driving to serial rape. The school was slapped with NCAA sanctions two years ago for recruiting violations.
The latest scandal appears to be the worst yet and its roots date at least to 1997, when a 17-year-old high school student accused a football player of rape after a recruiting party.
No charges were filed, but three women have since sued the school, saying it fostered an environment that led to their rapes by football players or recruits at or just after an off-campus party in 2001.
Boulder County prosecutor Mary Keenan decided against assault charges but has reopened the investigation and says she believes the athletics program entices recruits with sex and alcohol -- an allegation denied by university officials but one that prompted a demand for action from Gov. Bill Owens.
University officials are looking into recruiting practices and are hiring a special assistant to oversee athletics, but the allegations have not stopped. A player admitted taking a recruit to a strip club, while a former recruiting aide said he used a school cell phone to call an escort service for his personal use.
On Tuesday, former kicker Katie Hnida, one of the first women to play college football, said she was raped by a teammate at Colorado four years ago.
While university officials urged Hnida, 22, to tell her story to police, Barnett said later Tuesday he knew of no one who could back up her claim. Asked why she left Colorado after the 1999 season, he said: "Katie was not only a girl, she was terrible. ... There's no other way to say it."
The scandal continues to unfold. On Wednesday, Boulder police released a report from a woman who worked at the athletic department and alleged she was raped by a football player in her home Sept. 28, 2001.
Barnett and athletic director Dick Tharp were informed of the allegation, according to the report. The player said the sex was consensual and the case was closed when the woman declined to pursue charges.
While Boulder has been abuzz with the scandal, but not everyone is obsessed with football -- or thinks the university deserves special attention over what's happened.
"I've always been much prouder of the fact CU won the solar decathlon than that CU had a winning football team," said Mayor Will Toor, also director of the University of Colorado Environmental Center.
Pam Penfold, a 1970 Colorado graduate who is now editor of CU's Coloradan magazine, said it is unfortunate that an "incident of college kids involving alcohol" has gotten more attention than the school's achievements.
Players, their parents and alumni say the media have blown the cases out of proportion and insist no sex parties are arranged for recruits.
Still, said former quarterback Bobby Pesavento, football players are treated differently from other students. "You're kind of put on a pedestal and people notice who you are," he said.
In an opinion piece for the Boulder Daily Camera newspaper, Wieman said the university might better be called an "academic appendage to the football program."
Back at Michigan, Wieman remembers thinking it was ridiculous that Ann Arbor businesses shut down during Wolverine football games. The year before he left for Boulder, Colorado lost nearly every football game.
"So I thought, 'Great! They can't possibly put so much emphasis on football,' " Wieman said with a laugh. "Little did I know."
Players, their parents and alumni say the media have blown the cases out of proportion and insist no sex parties are arranged for recruits.
A player admitted taking a recruit to a strip club, while a former recruiting aide said he used a school cell phone to call an escort service for his personal use.
No contradictions here.
The university is the liberal heart of this outdoorsy haven...
B-b-but, I thought liberals were all about a woman's dignity and rights.
Boulder County prosecutor Mary Keenan decided against assault charges but has reopened the investigation and says she believes the athletics program entices recruits with sex and alcohol...
This was real easy to sweep under the rug when it was a small local story, but now that it has daily national attention, the County Prosecutor needs to cover her ass big time. That's why she is reopening the case and praying nobody finds out about the goodies that CU has been giving her.
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