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| Revolting Enough, What Lies Beneath? |
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| The CU Scandals Are Worse Than You Think |
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This is Dark Cloud on Wednesday, February 18, 2004. Most Regents and the President and Chancellor of the University of Colorado are terrified of the football program and the CU Foundation and its alumni who financially support and protect it. They will lie and deceive to preserve the status quo. None of them have even questioned the goal of Boulder's assignment of a police officer to be a liason with the football team. And why was such a position felt needed? Because of all the incidents involving the team. To be fair, unofficial liaisons to student groups and neighborhoods have been done, because the purpose of the law is to keep the peace. But the football team and its associates were not accused of singing or playing music too late in their dorms, or sullenly burning sofas in the street if they lost a game, or not picking up after themselves following celebratory parties. They got a liason because they were too often thieves, thugs, and violence prone, even rapists. Once, the state government would declare marshal law or at least send in authority with a mandate to clean it up. Now they send a liason. Don't forget, the University is a part of the state government. Would you object to a liason to the meth lab community? And what does the University do when the football coach and the Athletic Director of the University do not immediately do the jobs they are required to do? The coach, at least, violated his own code he talks so often about by not reporting a charge of sexual harassment by his female kicker to the authorities above him, although in fairness this might be a concept which is unclear to him, that there are any authorities above him. He didn't want her there, which probably discouraged her from reporting the rape as she has now. The AD apparently has done nothing during his tenure but cover the tracks of his subordinates' violations of policy and law and, oh, given an executive jet to CU President Hoffman for her use. In the event, the University proposes appointing another liason, this one to the Athletic Department to rat out employees who aren't doing their job, rather than firing them. Well, no. In truth, that job is to pretend to be there for that purpose so cosmetic changes can be paraded before the public as meaningful. Or maybe, like the police liason officer for the team, tip off miscreants and help them fend off charges and the negative publicity. President Hoffman talks about it as if this is to be a permanent position. It's a nice plane. We should all note that certain Regents proposed members of the CU investigative committee. Among them was a polygraph expert who directly participated in the defense of a CU player, another was a friend of misogynist former CU football coach Bill McCartney and a founder of Promise Keepers. The clear hope was that these guys would steer the investigation into favorable waters. And they did so hoping that one's FBI credentials and the other being a black bishop would quell dissent. One lasted a day, the other might cling. But that shows you the level of honesty about, and the desire for truth. Look at it this way. In recent years, the officials of the university have steered alumni giving away from direct contribution to the university and towards the CU Foundation, a strange and unresponsive beast that neither obeys the laws that seemingly would apply to it nor is any less arrogant and secretive than the Athletic Department, which has been the prime beneficiary of the Foundation through the years. The Foundation has redefined itself and its status, now suggesting that it is merely an appendage of the University President, and works with that office for the betterment of the university. In reality, a strong case can be made the President works for the Foundation. The Republican state legislature has made life increasingly difficult for the University, forcing President Hoffman to suggest the school would need to become private to survive, financially. And if it did, it would find itself totally dependent upon the Foundation, a cherished goal of conservatives. Remember when then Regent candidate Carlisle asked for details of an accounting issue she had with the Foundation? The head of the Foundation promised the information promptly. Its now almost two years with no compliance. And Carlisle is a Regent. Imagine a mere citizen inquiring into the finances of the Foundation, to whom the law grants the right, and requires the Foundation to comply. And the power of the Foundation over CU is immense. What is in effect a conservative effort to put the University directly and legally under conservative control with even the weak responsibility of periodic public disclosure it currently suffers gone, and to support at regressive taxation a football team for the entertainment of a minority, is now under attack. These are very dangerous waters we are in, but attractive harbors are visible. I hope CU finds the courage to fire up the flamethrower, form a collective Hercules and march towards these digusting stables where corporate boxes alone serve alcohol, immature athletic recruits are given booze and women, young students in high school and college are gang raped in their own apartments, and a policy of outsourcing the evidence for deniability. We're expected, after all, to believe that one CU football employee spent thousands of dollars in a year for lap dances in his apartment despite the testimony of those dancers that they recall multiple, and very young clients elsewhere. |
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