Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Weakness in Boulder
Millions for Defense, not one cent for Tribute.
Robert Goodloe Harper
The stalwart University of Colorado agreed today to settle, for nearly $3 Million, with two former students, who had a party off campus, got really drunk (on their own), had sex with guys they didn't know, and certainly regretted that later*, at least before they started drinking heavily again. But what has that got to do with CU, you ask? That is an excellent question.
If you twist the unnecessary, counterproductive laws we all call Title IX beyond all recognition, then there was the beginning of the color of an argument that CU was on the hook for the boorish (but not criminal) behavior of high school student athletes, inter alia, being shown a not inaccurate taste of what life is like for student athletes at CU (and nearly every other large state university in the country), that is, being recruited. So the university folded like a cheap card table in light of the 10th Circuit's bad decision in September about the previously unknown coverage of Title IX to girls' off campus private parties which male athletes might attend. Title IX's original purpose was to make female student athletes equal to their male counterparts, not to protect heavy drinking, foolish young women off campus. The federal appeals court had reinstated the girls' 'Title IX' lawsuit against CU, and CU today bailed. Part of the reason outgoing temporary president of the university Hank Brown (R) gave for the decision was that to win would have cost a million to a million and a half in University attorney fees, and also they wanted to get out of the stink these girls were making regarding recruitment practices.
Makes you wonder if they'll also bail on the lawsuit (now pending in Denver District Court, before good guy Judge Larry Naves) by faux Indian, sham scholar, former Department Head and Professor Ward Churchill, who has merely a masters degree from a school no one has ever heard of. They would probably win that lawsuit in a walk as well.
I am so glad my children wouldn't even apply to CU.
The Wages of Sin are... substantial.
* I am basing my disdain for the girls' claims of sexual assault on the decision of the Boulder DA not to bring any charges in the matter. It is rape in this State to have sex with a woman whom you know is too blitzed to consent, so it's not like there was a hole in the law. Here there just was not sufficient proof of rape even to call it that in my book. The young men have said there was consent by women not too drunk to know what was going on. Maybe it's the fallout from the Duke Lacrosse case, but I generally believe the less drunk witnesses in these sorts of cases.
UPDATE: My description of the basic function of Title IX was too narrow. It's not just about sports at school, it's about all school activities. And Ward Churchill has filed his treatened suit not just threatened to file it. Sorry.
Robert Goodloe Harper
The stalwart University of Colorado agreed today to settle, for nearly $3 Million, with two former students, who had a party off campus, got really drunk (on their own), had sex with guys they didn't know, and certainly regretted that later*, at least before they started drinking heavily again. But what has that got to do with CU, you ask? That is an excellent question.
If you twist the unnecessary, counterproductive laws we all call Title IX beyond all recognition, then there was the beginning of the color of an argument that CU was on the hook for the boorish (but not criminal) behavior of high school student athletes, inter alia, being shown a not inaccurate taste of what life is like for student athletes at CU (and nearly every other large state university in the country), that is, being recruited. So the university folded like a cheap card table in light of the 10th Circuit's bad decision in September about the previously unknown coverage of Title IX to girls' off campus private parties which male athletes might attend. Title IX's original purpose was to make female student athletes equal to their male counterparts, not to protect heavy drinking, foolish young women off campus. The federal appeals court had reinstated the girls' 'Title IX' lawsuit against CU, and CU today bailed. Part of the reason outgoing temporary president of the university Hank Brown (R) gave for the decision was that to win would have cost a million to a million and a half in University attorney fees, and also they wanted to get out of the stink these girls were making regarding recruitment practices.
Makes you wonder if they'll also bail on the lawsuit (now pending in Denver District Court, before good guy Judge Larry Naves) by faux Indian, sham scholar, former Department Head and Professor Ward Churchill, who has merely a masters degree from a school no one has ever heard of. They would probably win that lawsuit in a walk as well.
I am so glad my children wouldn't even apply to CU.
The Wages of Sin are... substantial.
* I am basing my disdain for the girls' claims of sexual assault on the decision of the Boulder DA not to bring any charges in the matter. It is rape in this State to have sex with a woman whom you know is too blitzed to consent, so it's not like there was a hole in the law. Here there just was not sufficient proof of rape even to call it that in my book. The young men have said there was consent by women not too drunk to know what was going on. Maybe it's the fallout from the Duke Lacrosse case, but I generally believe the less drunk witnesses in these sorts of cases.
UPDATE: My description of the basic function of Title IX was too narrow. It's not just about sports at school, it's about all school activities. And Ward Churchill has filed his treatened suit not just threatened to file it. Sorry.
Labels: CU; Title IX; Drunk girls having sex
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 4:36 PM 
