My question would be, why is this between the school's ADs' and not the university presidents? You've got an incompetent dolt and a used car salesman negotiating the safety of students. Does not sound right.
My 2 cents:
We all love our college athletics. And we are putting presidents in charge of these colleges that aren't going to get in the way of the athletic departments, i.e. the cash cows. Athletic departments are for the most part self-funded in this state by the football programs. They feel like they don't have to answer to the greater administration. Maybe we should tweak how involved they are with a university? Should they be separate entities?
So now suddenly we want kowtowing, ineffectual presidents to intervene in a matter like this? Well, yes they should but it is no longer engineered this way.
Look, Sleazy Uncle Bruce, who has his foot in both doors of UI and ISU, basically secretly handpicked our current president J. Bruce Harreld. The "yes" man puppet with the sketchy resume from the corporate world. Whose boat is he going to rock? So the real problem is our AD has too much power. He is allowed to make mistakes because he apparently answers to no one. That is a problem when you are incompetent.
ISU? Wendy Wintersteen? She has been at ISU for 40 years. She lobbied hard for the president's job.
She is a former professor of entomology. Maybe she is more comfortable dealing with bugs than people? So you would think given that she might be able to handle Pollard but the evidence doesn't support that.
If you don't want objective, independent-minded, uncorrupted, competent presidents that might get in the way of our love of athletics then don't complain. The fans and people in charge at Penn St and Michigan St didn't.