Western Kentucky suspends swimming and diving teams for 5 years

[cptau 169]

Western Kentucky and the Bowling Green Police were very quick about this. Basically a freshman men's swim team member went home for Christmas break and made an e-mail complaint last January about activities within the swimming and diving teams. The police investigated, seized evidence to include printed photos and cell phones, contacted the university and just after 3 months both men's and women's swimming and diving teams are gone for 5 years. Western self imposed a 5 year death penalty. It maybe too harsh, but it appears the school wants a new start with no former coaches or athletes in place 5 years from now.

Swimming and diving are not money making sports, but compare this to the lack of investigations at certain other schools.

Bowling Green Police Department released Collin Craig's initial allegations involving the WKU swim team.

The Herald filed an open records request with the BGPD on Thursday asking for the document.

Craig initially filed complaints with BGPD on January 4, 2015, leading to an investigation both by police and WKU Title IX coordinators regarding the charges. In the document, Craig accused explicitly detailed situations of sexual assault between intoxicated male and female swimmers (including recruits), swimmers being forced to drink until they passed out, having to wrestle other swimmers despite injuries and being intimidated by firearms at the "party house."

"When I was recruited by WKU, I was lead to believe that the goals of the swimming team were to improve its performance at NCAA championships by placing in the top 25 and that I would be an integral part of this effort by being on relay teams and contributing individually," Craig said in the document.

Craig also noted he never received any documents about anti-hazing policies or "illegal activities including where and how to report them anonymously so that I would not be reprised against."

See the original story below:

WKU announced via WKUNews press release this morning that the Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving program will be suspended for the next five years effective immediately.

This action follows the release of concluded investigations from the Bowling Green Police Department and WKU's Title IX office. The investigations looked into hazing allegations brought forth by former WKU student and swimmer Collin Craig. The two investigations found the team under multiple violations-regarding hazing, drug paraphernalia and sexual assault.

The Title IX investigation also found that the coaching staff was aware of the incidents. According to the Title IX investigation, Head Coach Bruce Marchionda has known about the hazing and sexual harassment events since 2012 based on an email sent to him from a former swimmer.

According to the release, positions for Marchionda, Associate Head Coach Brian Thomas and Head Diving Coach Chelsea Ale will be eliminated June 30.

The team was notified this morning by President Gary Ransdell and Athletic Director Todd Stewart.

"We will always act in the best interest of the university and we simply must insure that our standards are respected," Ransdell said in an interview. "A great university program stepped over the line and we had to deal with it."

Ransdell said the Office of Student Judicial Affairs will handle individual matters regarding the investigations.

“This is a very difficult and unfortunate decision on many levels,” Stewart said via press release. “While many in the program have represented WKU with distinction, the overall findings of a consistent pattern of disappointing conduct is troubling and not acceptable at WKU."

The Herald will update this story as more information becomes available. Here's a full transcript of the email Ransdell sent to faculty and staff this morning.

Fellow Faculty and Staff:

This morning, WKU Athletic Director Todd Stewart and I announced that we are suspending our Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving program for five years effective immediately. This action is both prudent and necessary following the conclusions reached in recent investigations by the Bowling Green Police Department and our Title IX Office. These investigations revealed flagrant violations of our Student Code of Conduct and sexual harassment policies. Specifically, the violations include hazing, underage alcohol consumption, and abuse, including engagement of perspective student athletes on recruiting visits to campus. Additionally, the investigations found that coaches were aware of this pervasive culture and failed to sufficiently eliminate inappropriate behavior within these teams.

Todd Stewart and I have addressed the Title IX issues and the personnel issues with this action. The Office of Student Judicial Affairs will handle matters with individual students related to the alleged violations of our Student Code of Conduct in accordance with the University’s student judicial process. This process will take place over the next several weeks and will remain confidential.

It is important to note that the scholarships currently held by team members who remain in good academic and university standing will be honored. Those who wish to transfer to another institution will be allowed to do so and will be eligible to compete immediately.

What makes this action particularly difficult is the exemplary manner in which our Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving teams have performed in the classroom and in the pool. Nine members of these teams were just named to the Conference USA Commissioner’s Medal for the 2014-15 academic year. These medals are given to Conference USA student athletes who have achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.75 or better. Thirty-four members of these two teams were just named to the Conference USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll for this year, which means they have achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better. The men won a Conference USA Swimming and Diving Championship this year, and the women finished second. They have represented WKU with distinction in the classroom and in competition, but sadly their collective behavior outside of the classroom and the pool merits this serious disciplinary action.

When students choose to participate in a formally recognized WKU organization, regardless of the nature of that organization, they become responsible for their actions, both as individuals and as a group. This University simply will not tolerate indecent, immoral, physical, or mental acts of disrespect or abuse among our students. We must all embrace a culture where every student is as important as any student. When this culture is not embraced, we will act swiftly and firmly to ensure that the dignity and integrity of the institution is sustained. It is our hope that over the next five years, the pervasive culture of misconduct and lack of sufficient oversight in this program will be flushed from our campus life.

Thank you for your patience while we allow this investigation process to run a full, complete, and objective course. These actions are final. Thank you.

http://wkuherald.com...750cc0e2e7.html

After half a century of constructing their programs, WKU’s Swimming and Diving teams are no more.

The university announced Tuesday morning both the men’s and women’s teams are suspended for five years.

Athletic Director Todd Stewart and President Gary Ransdell met with the teams to deliver the news in-person before issuing a formal press release explaining the decision.

"We will always act in the best interest of the university and we simply must insure that our standards are respected," Ransdell said in an interview. "A great university program stepped over the line and we had to deal with it."

He expounded upon those statements in an email to faculty and staff.

“When students choose to participate in a formally recognized WKU organization, regardless of the nature of that organization, they become responsible for their actions, both as individuals and as a group,” Ransdell said in the email. “This University simply will not tolerate indecent, immoral, physical, or mental acts of disrespect or abuse among our students. We must all embrace a culture where every student is as important as any student.”

Stewart said it was “a very difficult and unfortunate decision on many levels.”

“While many in the program have represented WKU with distinction, the overall findings of a consistent pattern of disappointing conduct is troubling and not acceptable at WKU,” he said in the press release.

The announcement came after investigations by the Bowling Green Police Department and WKU’s Title IX office found that the teams broke multiple of WKU’s policies on hazing, sexual harassment and sexual assault.

Collin Craig, a former swim team member, filed a 10-page complaint to BGPD on Jan. 4, alleging that the swim team hazed him throughout the fall semester. In the complaint, he stated the swim team forced him to consume alcohol, wrestle and calisthenics (referred to as the “freshman **** around” in the complaint) and clean the "party house”, which was alleged to be 1303 Chestnut Street.

"I became increasingly depressed and disillusioned as the fall semester continued," the report said.

Craig’s complaint also details several instances of sexual assault between intoxicated male and female swimmers.

Craig stated any problems were only to be reported to the swim team.

"All members of the team, including the coaching staff, are constantly reinforcing that everything needs to be kept secret and that we are not allowed to stray outside the team for any reason,” he wrote. “To date, I do not recall being given training, lecture or a policy statement from WKU's staff describing hazing, its policies or reporting procedures."

Positions for Head Coach Bruce Marchionda, Associate Head Coach Brian Thomas and Head Diving Coach Chelsea Ale will be eliminated June 30. The Title IX report obtained through an open records request with the university found that Marchionda knew about the incidences since spring of 2012.

At press time, only one former swim team member has received charges. Ronnie Ward, public information officer for BGPD, said Overland Park, Kansas senior Seth Musser, has been charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana as a result of the evidence collected during the search and seizure.

The Herald reached out to other members of the men’s team and received no response.

Bill Powell, who coached the swim team from 1969 to 2005, said he received “a couple hundred” of reactions from alumni.

“As a teacher I was never one for disciplining a whole class for the actions of one or two students. Nor would I discipline an entire team for the actions of one or two athletes,” Powell wrote on the WKU Hilltopper Swimming and Diving Facebook page. “In this case more than 50 innocent, hardworking students are receiving a devastating punishment for something for which they are not responsible.”

For members of the women’s team and the diving team, the decision came as a complete shock.

Former diver Savannah Neddo came to WKU after competing on the Canadian national team. The freshman photojournalism major said WKU offered the two things she wanted to pursue most.

“It’s so hard to pick now between my athletic career and academic career… I was shocked and disappointed,” she said. “Everyone started crying, it was so emotional.”

Going into the meeting, Neddo understood the punishments to be on the men’s team. The blow to all teams was a “shock,” she said.

“The girls had no idea,” she said. “We always thought it was about the men’s team. We’d always been reassured we weren’t involved. Todd Stewart never said anything about the women’s team or us.”

Junior Mollie McNeel also expressed frustration with the decision.

The Lincoln, Nebraska native —who just set the university record in the 1650 free —said athletes were told to skip class for the meeting and that triggered a red flag.

“All of us were kind of expecting to have some form of punishment but not this extent,” she said. “I was blind-sighted.”

Like Neddo, McNeel said she had no idea the women’s team was up for suspension.

“I said that to him [Todd Stewart] in the meeting… We were never aware the team was being investigated,” she said. “None of the women were investigated, but there were countless men’s teams meeting to tell them what was going on. We weren’t involved.”

McNeel said she thought the actions had been made worse than what happened.

“The hardest part for me is just that I’m going to lose some of my best friends,” she said. “We all kind of just are going to be separated now. It’s like my family here, and it’s really hurting… I got a bunch of different offers to swim and I wanted to come here.”

Swim and dive team members will be allowed to transfer to another institution. Team members with scholarships who choose to stay at WKU will have their scholarships honored provided they remain in good academic and university standing.

However, for freshman divers like Neddo, suspending the team prohibits performance-based scholarship gains.

“I would've gotten more scholarships because of my performance this year,” she said. “You go up based on performance and now I won't. It's tough to stay based on what I'm getting offered.”

Neddo said leaving the university would be the most viable option for her, and she’s not done diving.

“I’m not ready to give up my life,” she said.

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

Wow. This was a tough decision but the right one considering that the program was out of control. Very sad that those kids and their behavior was not stopped before it got to that point though.

[AU64 10,122]

Wow. This was a tough decision but the right one considering that the program was out of control. Very sad that those kids and their behavior was not stopped before it got to that point though.

Just the skeptic in me but could be that that suspension was a first step in reducing the cost of their athletic program....and they have the added benefit of looking like they are responding appropriately to the misbehavior.

JMO but these minor programs will not be cut any slack in the future as the cost of scholarships goes up without any increase in revenue.

But....harsh indeed.

[FoundationEagle 637]

I wonder if both programs were cut instead of just the men's to comply with Title IX...otherwise they may have to add another men's team for 5 years in some other sport? Just a thought...

[AU64 10,122]

Good question....I expect lawyers and accountants have a very big input in making a lot of decisions these days.

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

Wow. This was a tough decision but the right one considering that the program was out of control. Very sad that those kids and their behavior was not stopped before it got to that point though.

Just the skeptic in me but could be that that suspension was a first step in reducing the cost of their athletic program....and they have the added benefit of looking like they are responding appropriately to the misbehavior.

JMO but these minor programs will not be cut any slack in the future as the cost of scholarships goes up without any increase in revenue.

But....harsh indeed.

I never thought of it in that context..... but you could be right.

[AURex 1,983]

Beyond the issue of self-imposing a "death penalty" on a sports program, one must wonder about an official statement by the university president containing a significant grammatical error. "[T]he violations include hazing, underage alcohol consumption, and abuse, including engagement of perspective student athletes" is an embarrassing malapropism for someone who is supposed to represent the academic standards of a university.

[AU64 10,122]

Beyond the issue of self-imposing a "death penalty" on a sports program, one must wonder about an official statement by the university president containing a significant grammatical error. "[T]he violations include hazing, underage alcohol consumption, and abuse, including engagement of perspective student athletes" is an embarrassing malapropism for someone who is supposed to represent the academic standards of a university.

Probably written by some staff person...reminds me of the old CYA that execs used to put on letters..."dictated but not read"...to cover such malapropistic possibilities.