Hansen commentary​: Coker case shows university a closed society

O

OO44

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Marc Hansen, Iowa's best sports columnist, exposes the hypocrisy in Iowa City:

"The other day, I called the University of Iowa to ask why running back Marcus Coker left school. Thousands of Hawkeye fans are dying to know.

Was Coker asked to leave? Was he told to leave? Did he decide to leave because he felt he’d been treated unfairly?

The university won’t say, so we are left to guess, which is always dangerous. As tax-paying Iowans wait for answers that remain locked away in secret tax-supported university vaults, all sorts of rumors and conjecture fly as fans argue about who should take the fall.

Some blame Kirk Ferentz, the coach, for allowing his program to leak running backs. Some Ferentz supporters subscribe to the theory that the running-back crisis is a result of an unwritten zero-tolerance policy most administrations are too timid to deploy.

Others, citing personal responsibility, blame the running backs themselves.

But hardly anybody wags an accusing finger at a closed system universities use time and again that makes a bad situation worse.

How so? By hiding behind a dark piece of federal legislation called the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which is wielded by universities to keep from disclosing information about faculty or student conduct................"

Hansen commentary: Coker case shows university a closed society | Hawk Central
 
Re:Hansen commentary​: Coker case shows university a closed society

The dead horse has been trampled to nothing.
 
A lawyer friend in Los Angeles sent me this response to the Hansen column:

"Thanks much for sending me the Marc Hansen commentary. I confess that
until reading his article, I did not know on what legal authority
universities always shielded themselves by invoking the student's
alleged right of privacy.


Now I know it is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

So now I know that if I want to attack that law, I know where to find it.

Professor Herb Strentz said it perfectly. If the information sought
makes the university look good, it will probably be released. If the
information sought makes the university look bad, it will not be
released.


Funniest thing: Whenever any USC or UCLA athletes get into trouble with
the law, all the exact details are all over the LOS ANGELES TIMES, the
DAILY BREEZE, and other newspapers. Why do we have such openly available information in Los Angeles, while the University of Iowa hides, and hides, and hides in a cloak of
secrecy?


Hiding behind such secrecy sure makes the University of Iowa look bad to
Iowans who want answers, and to sports fans all over the nation."
 
OO44 said:
Marc Hansen, Iowa's best sports columnist, exposes the hypocrisy in Iowa City:

"The other day, I called the University of Iowa to ask why running back Marcus Coker left school. Thousands of Hawkeye fans are dying to know.

Was Coker asked to leave? Was he told to leave? Did he decide to leave because he felt he’d been treated unfairly?

The university won’t say, so we are left to guess, which is always dangerous. As tax-paying Iowans wait for answers that remain locked away in secret tax-supported university vaults, all sorts of rumors and conjecture fly as fans argue about who should take the fall.

Some blame Kirk Ferentz, the coach, for allowing his program to leak running backs. Some Ferentz supporters subscribe to the theory that the running-back crisis is a result of an unwritten zero-tolerance policy most administrations are too timid to deploy.

Others, citing personal responsibility, blame the running backs themselves.

But hardly anybody wags an accusing finger at a closed system universities use time and again that makes a bad situation worse.

How so? By hiding behind a dark piece of federal legislation called the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which is wielded by universities to keep from disclosing information about faculty or student conduct................"

Hansen commentary: Coker case shows university a closed society | Hawk Central
Click to expand...
That is funny stuff there in the bold, I don't care who ya are that is funny.
 
OO44 said:
A lawyer friend in Los Angeles sent me this response to the Hansen column:

"Thanks much for sending me the Marc Hansen commentary. I confess that
until reading his article, I did not know on what legal authority
universities always shielded themselves by invoking the student's
alleged right of privacy.


Now I know it is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

So now I know that if I want to attack that law, I know where to find it.

Professor Herb Strentz said it perfectly. If the information sought
makes the university look good, it will probably be released. If the
information sought makes the university look bad, it will not be
released.


Funniest thing: Whenever any USC or UCLA athletes get into trouble with
the law, all the exact details are all over the LOS ANGELES TIMES, the
DAILY BREEZE, and other newspapers. Why do we have such openly available information in Los Angeles, while the University of Iowa hides, and hides, and hides in a cloak of
secrecy?


Hiding behind such secrecy sure makes the University of Iowa look bad to
Iowans who want answers, and to sports fans all over the nation."
Click to expand...


Awesome. I love hearing from your LA lawyer friend. He must be the worst lawyer ever.
 
DwayneTwill said:
Awesome. I love hearing from your LA lawyer friend. He must be the worst lawyer ever.
Click to expand...

So not only is his lawyer friend comparing apples to oranges (arrests to university suspensions) he also didn't provide a single shred of legal analysis that would contradict Iowa's policy.
 
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OO44 said:
A lawyer friend in Los Angeles sent me this response to the Hansen column:

"Thanks much for sending me the Marc Hansen commentary. I confess that
until reading his article, I did not know on what legal authority
universities always shielded themselves by invoking the student's
alleged right of privacy.


Now I know it is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

So now I know that if I want to attack that law, I know where to find it.

Professor Herb Strentz said it perfectly. If the information sought
makes the university look good, it will probably be released. If the
information sought makes the university look bad, it will not be
released.


Funniest thing: Whenever any USC or UCLA athletes get into trouble with
the law, all the exact details are all over the LOS ANGELES TIMES, the
DAILY BREEZE, and other newspapers. Why do we have such openly available information in Los Angeles, while the University of Iowa hides, and hides, and hides in a cloak of
secrecy?


Hiding behind such secrecy sure makes the University of Iowa look bad to
Iowans who want answers, and to sports fans all over the nation."
Click to expand...


You are of course kidding right? This IS exactly what I'm talking about when I say logic and cognitive thinking is dead on these message boards and society as a whole it seems. Here we have USC that took the NCAA what....like 5 years to fully "investigate" this bastion of openness & honesty, and heck they didn't need to because it was all over the front page....insert HEAVY eye roll here......

AS time passed things regularly leaked out about USC players and some of their shady associations and yet here we have a guy that wants to "use" them to build a case....really, "That's" a case builder.

Most of us "thinking" sorts would know how dumb that would make us and our lawyer friends look, but...................
 
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Re: Hansen commentary​: Coker case shows university a closed society

truehawk said:
More like basketball.
Click to expand...

Well until they start winning championships of any kind...I'll prolly stick to wrestling.

They are at least fun to watch again. I will give them that. And I'll go on record as saying a love a good chair throwing.
 
Re: Hansen commentary​: Coker case shows university a closed society

imported_UHawk said:
Well until they start winning championships of any kind...I'll prolly stick to wrestling.

They are at least fun to watch again. I will give them that. And I'll go on record as saying a love a good chair throwing.
Click to expand...

You will have to watch a Bobby Knight rerun to get a good chair throwing. But if you appreciate a good chair slamming into the ground then Fran is your man. But I don't think he got awarded 2 points for the take down.
 
OO44 said:
Professor Herb Strentz said it perfectly. If the information sought
makes the university look good, it will probably be released. If the
information sought makes the university look bad, it will not be
released.
Click to expand...

Pretty much sums it up.
But as a previous poster said, I'm sick of the whole situation. No longer give a ****.
 
DwayneTwill said:
The university is doing the right thing.
Click to expand...

Yeah, totally. The media SHOULD be giving the university the benefit of the doubt. It's not like the university made a total clusterf*ck of the last two sexual assault cases involving athletes (both of which happened in the last 10 years)....oh wait.

Given how the previous two cases were grossly mishandled (understatement), the university should be completely transparent on this issue. Whether or not the university is properly handling sexual assault investigations involving athletes IS something the public should know.
 
tm3308 said:
Yeah, totally. The media SHOULD be giving the university the benefit of the doubt. It's not like the university made a total clusterf*ck of the last two sexual assault cases involving athletes (both of which happened in the last 10 years)....oh wait.
Click to expand...

Oh wait. The media shouldn't give anyone the benefit of the doubt, but the university doesn't owe them or anyone else* anything.

*They do owe Coker his right to privacy, however. Information about his personal records shouldn't be made public by the UI.
 
DwayneTwill said:
Oh wait. The media shouldn't give anyone the benefit of the doubt, but the university doesn't owe them or anyone else* anything.

*They do owe Coker his right to privacy, however. Information about his personal records shouldn't be made public by the UI.
Click to expand...

Nevermind the fact that they release all kinds of information on athletes every day.

It's not really fair to Coker, but the university put itself in the position they're in now. If they would have handled the first two cases better, there wouldn't be as much desire for transparency. But they didn't, and there is (as there should be). The complete closed-door policy is not healthy at all.

If this were about almost anything else, I wouldn't care so much. But sexual assault is a BIG deal, and Iowa absolutely sucks at handling it. So instead of just handling it properly, now they just hide behind student privacy laws (when the police investigation doesn't actually fall under those laws), and leave everyone to wonder. They don't answer the question, they just avoid it. That's NOT the right thing. It's them trying to cover their a**es.
 
tm3308 said:
Nevermind the fact that they release all kinds of information on athletes every day.

It's not really fair to Coker, but the university put itself in the position they're in now. If they would have handled the first two cases better, there wouldn't be as much desire for transparency. But they didn't, and there is (as there should be). The complete closed-door policy is not healthy at all.

If this were about almost anything else, I wouldn't care so much. But sexual assault is a BIG deal, and Iowa absolutely sucks at handling it. So instead of just handling it properly, now they just hide behind student privacy laws (when the police investigation doesn't actually fall under those laws), and leave everyone to wonder. They don't answer the question, they just avoid it. That's NOT the right thing. It's them trying to cover their a**es.
Click to expand...

You're way off here.

What do you expect them to do?
 
DwayneTwill said:
You're way off here.

What do you expect them to do?
Click to expand...

I'd expect them to want to actually do something to help their image. At this point, given their history with sexual assault, the university is doing itself no favors by hiding. It only makes them look worse, especially when they've proven inept at handling these cases. Maybe they handled this one properly. And if they did, then they're especially stupid, because many will assume the opposite given their secrecy. And if they didn't, then there's a reason for their secrecy. And a very good reason for why the public should know what was going on.
 
tm3308 said:
I'd expect them to want to actually do something to help their image. At this point, given their history with sexual assault, the university is doing itself no favors by hiding. It only makes them look worse, especially when they've proven inept at handling these cases. Maybe they handled this one properly. And if they did, then they're especially stupid, because many will assume the opposite given their secrecy. And if they didn't, then there's a reason for their secrecy. And a very good reason for why the public should know what was going on.
Click to expand...

So you can't really answer what you want them to do, except that they should do something that doesn't make you upset.
 
DwayneTwill said:
So you can't really answer what you want them to do, except that they should do something that doesn't make you upset.
Click to expand...

Why don't you quit talking smack to tm? The guy is going to be a journalist and he's gonna blow the lid off this thing, just give him time. I know he is not going to let us down.
 
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