Your university’s coach is an alleged domestic abuser, but you need him to coach a game. What to do? What to do?

Ah, fuck it. The game must go on. We can come up with some cover story about why we let him coach after we knew about the charges against him.

[The University of Colorado] says that the reason they did not take any personnel action against Joe Tumpkin until Jan. 6, in spite of the fact that Mike MacIntyre, Rick George and Chancellor Phil DiStefano knew about the allegations of domestic abuse on Dec. 9 or shortly thereafter, was that they did not have documents “from a court or an investigation by police….”

Since when does the university have to have documents “from a court or an investigation by police” in order to, at a minimum, pass the information they have about possible sexual harassment or discrimination on to the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance (OIEC)? Many cases of sexual harassment investigated by the university are not even reported to police. As the former director of the Office of Victim Assistance, and one who had a part in crafting sexual harassment reporting policy of that time (2005-2011), I know that the policy then stated that any mandatory reporter (anyone who had supervisory responsibilities) had to pass any information they received about possible sexual harassment to the investigatory office.

There were multiple trainings about this for faculty and staff. My understanding is that, though policies have changed since 2011, they have only been strengthened.

Unfortunately, the conflict of interest between protecting university high-profile sports athletes, coaches and staff, and the university’s commitment to end sexual violence and discrimination by campus personnel is once again rearing its ugly head.

As ever, the physically fit/mentally feeble people running the sports show at Colorado figured we’d all be fine with their bs. As ever, we’re not.