Baylor begins process to address 105 recommendations from report
Baylor has a lot of recommendations to implement.
The school released the 105 recommendations from the law firm Pepper Hamilton LLP after its independent investigation of the school and athletic department’s processes when addressing allegations of sexual assault.
The investigation revealed many improprieties within Baylor’s responses to allegations, including a report that the football team was conducting its own investigations independent from university process. Football coach Art Briles was fired the day the report was released and replaced by acting head coach Jim Grobe.
You can view the entire list of recommendations here. Here are some highlights relating specifically to the athletic department and the football team:
• Create a culture within the football program that ensures that the reporting, investigation, and disciplinary actions involving student-athletes and athletics department staff are managed in the same manner as all other students and staff on campus, and that student-athletes are held accountable to the same standards as all Baylor students.
• Identify leadership for the Athletics Department and football program to set a strong and consistent tone regarding Title IX and conduct issues and set expectations for required actions in response to all forms of student misconduct, harassment and discrimination.
• Consider appropriate disciplinary response for employee misconduct or employee failure to respond to several reported allegations of misconduct by football players.
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• Review and revise transfer policies and protocols to ensure due diligence is exercised in the screening of transfer candidates. Consider Big 12 and national best practices when implementing a protocol that will consider, at a minimum, criminal history, college disciplinary history, and character references.
• Establish policy and practice for consistent evaluation of any recruit with some level of past legal or disciplinary conduct issue, including the review of the known information by compliance professionals outside of the Athletics Department, and as appropriate, external to the University.
Baylor said it was launching two task forces to address the recommendations; the Sexual Assault Task Force and the Spiritual Life and Character Formation Task Force. The former task force will “will build on improvements to the University response to sexual violence made in recent years and will act promptly to address Pepper Hamilton’s recommendations in the areas of Title IX protocols and policies, athletics, engagement and education, centralized reporting and resolution, public safety and counseling and advocacy, as well as other areas across the University.”
“We have adopted Pepper Hamilton’s recommendations as mandates,” interim Baylor president Dr. David Garland said in a statement. “We are activating immediately to assess and begin implementation of the recommendations to ensure progress toward the safety and well-being of all our students. Student safety demands our commitment and concentration.”
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
