The current Gopher football crisis is a matter of considerable pain for me. It had been my sense that we were making progress towards restoring the program to a relatively high competitive level. This crisis certainly won’t help in that regard, and could set the program back years. It’s a challenge that forces me to consider where my values lie. As much as I want to win, I want to do it the right way. In the end, respect and integrity are far more important to me than winning.
I think there are two aspects to the crisis that need to be considered separately. What the appropriate standards of conduct that the University should expect its student athletes to maintain are, and what standards of proof and procedures should be employed when students are accused of violating those standards.
There are those on this board who contend that the only issue here should be consent. I disagree. A student athlete represents the university in a very visible way and when he or she becomes a member of one of its teams, in my opinion, it should come with an obligation to conduct one’s affairs appropriately. We expect this of our military personnel. Under the General Article (134) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, such personnel are required to avoid “all conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces . . . .” Participating in group sex, with or without consent, in my opinion is conduct of a nature to bring discredit on the Gopher Football Program and the University. Moreover, in this case, a recruit was apparently a participant in the alleged incident which I’m sure would constitute a violation of NCCA rules and regulations.
The more difficult issue is the matter of appropriate proof standards and procedures. In the case of sexual assault allegations, this is an area where there have been attempts to accommodate competing policy considerations. The traditional “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard under criminal law is rooted in the notion that in the interests of freedom, it is better to acquit 10 guilty persons than to convict one who is innocent. Applying that kind of standard to sexual assault cases, however, where the evidence is typically “he said, she said”, coupled with the trauma an accuser must face where an accused is accorded his or her right to confront their adverse witnesses, sexual assault cases have been notoriously under-reported and under-prosecuted. To address this problem, The US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights issued guidelines for the handling such cases in what is known as it “Dear Colleague Letter” . It urged colleges, among other things, to use a “preponderance of evidence” standard in investigating sexual assault claims. It also threatened colleges with the loss of federal funds if they are lax in pursuing such claims.
In addition to adopting the lesser proof standard, it’s my understanding that the University’s Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action (“EOAA”) organization, does not permit cross-examination of a complaining witness or the direct participation of a defense lawyer. Plus, the University has adopted the requirement that there must be evidence of affirmative consent where consent is in issue; more commonly known as “yes means yes”, which raises the level of proof required to establish a consent defense.
I’m concerned that in a laudable attempt to protect primarily women from rape and sexual assault that the pendulum may have swung too far. It has been argued that only 2% of all rape allegations are false, and it may be the assumption that in the interest of making campuses safe, occasionally disciplining an innocent accused is an acceptable risk. But there is evidence that the rate of false allegations may be more on the order of 8-10%, and perhaps, even higher. See
http://www.slate.com/articles/doubl...ns_why_must_be_pretend_they_never_happen.html That’s a significant percentage and should not be dismissed out of hand. The consequences of being branded a sexual predator can be devastating. I think a better accommodation of interests might be achieved under an intermediate “clear and convincing evidence” standard with at least some ability to cross-examine the complaining witness.
What troubles me most about the instant case, though, is the enlargement of the number of players accused of wrongdoing and the disclosure of their names before they have had an opportunity to defend themselves.