The people calling me or emailing me are attorneys/lobbyists and are talking to present or past members of the Board of Regents. I'm just the messenger. More is involved than a sex case here.
We need a house cleaning at Iowa. Let's start with 102 Church Street.
"The University of Iowa is refusing to release records showing how its administration responded to a woman's sexual assault claim against running back Marcus Coker."
Read more: U. Of Iowa Releases Some Records From Coker Case | Fox News
The people calling me or emailing me are attorneys/lobbyists and are talking to present or past members of the Board of Regents. I'm just the messenger. More is involved than a sex case here.
It's time to repeal these stupid privacy laws meant to "protect" students. With as much money as we were paying Coker, we deserve answers. We elected that running back on a platform of transparency, after all. Doesn't the university realize that we have passive curiosities about what happened? I, for one, DEMAND ANSWERS! FIRE EVERYONE! REPEAL THE LAW!
I go back and forth on this.....
On the one hand, I can see why the University would want to keep sensitive issues like this under wraps to protect the privacy of the individuals involved and I have no problem with that stance at all.
On the other hand, we're talking about claims of sexual assault that were made on taxpayer-funded property (college campus) and investigated internally by taxpayer-funded staff (University police, admin, etc). Given this, I do think that State of Iowa taxpayers have a right to know how these claims were handled and what the process was to arrive at the decision(s) that were made. Names and addresses can be redacted, if need be, to protect the identities of those involved, but still address the transparency that is required of taxpayer-funded institutions.
In the end, I think it's almost always better when institutions, such as Universities, err on the side of tranparency than of secrecy....as long as steps are taken to protect the privacy of those involved if they so wish to remain private.
it's not a matter of the university "wanting to keep sensitive issues" under wraps, it's that they are required to. Much as your employer is not allowed to share your personnel file with anyone who asks for it.
As for how the claims were handled. We know that the police investigated. We know that the country attorney decided not to press charges (for any number of reasons). This type of thing goes on all the time. Whatever occurred, occurred off-campus and not on University premises. It was investigated by the Iowa City PD.
My guess is that Mr. Coker was caught up in a combination of the university's poor handling of Everson/Satterfied (and the subsequent freeze in pay for President Mason) and publicity of the PSU situation, which resulted in him being suspended for something where no charges were ever filed. The UI administration was going to err on the side of "doing something," whatever that means, and Coker's situation was a result of that. I have no knowledge of his innocence or guilt in the incident, just not surprising that he decided to move on. He was always going to have a cloud hanging over him, for something HE WAS NEVER CHARGED WITH. Not charged and later plead down, or whatever. But never charged.
Summarized very well but still a 'big hole' as to whether the administration is handling these situations in a 'fair manner'. How do we know the administration is not also taking arbitrary measures against individuals?
I agree with Spider.
When the process is secret, there is room for injustice.
I agree with Spider.
We know this: Marcus Coker was suspended for violating the schools code of conduct. I would like to know the process by which this was established. Was there an investigation? If so, who handled this investigation and what was their general approach? Who was the final decision-maker that a suspension was warranted?
These are all process oriented questions. They are different from giving the details of what happened. Giving an account of the process would not violate any student's privacy.
The university's processes should be available to the public if the public would like to know them. When the process is secret, there is room for injustice.
The people calling me or emailing me are attorneys/lobbyists and are talking to present or past members of the Board of Regents. I'm just the messenger. More is involved than a sex case here.
That's what you get for getting your information from Fox News. Who are these people that are calling you? More importantly, why the hell would they be calling you about it? It's between the University, Coker, the "victim", and the police. It's none of your damn business. If Coker feels like he was seriously mistreated then he will likely talk about it in due time. The only other way we will find out anything is if the "victim" decided to talk and clearly that isn't going to happen. It isn't the University's responsibility to let idiots like you know what happened between two students... even if one of those students is a highly visible football player. Get a grip Rick Perry.