Latest Unsubstantiated Slander at Dana Altman

[GrantDuck]

Outside of Austin, who I don't think we should have ever taken, NONE of these kids has ever been guilty of a crime and Altman did not have ANY information about their investigations until the police records were done.

The university handled this correctly, giving due process to the accused. I think those quoted in the article critical of Altman are completely off base. The University intentionally has a process for handling these things and followed that process.

https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2 ... twitter_si

To be fair, it's a well written and researched article, but also very slanted against the program and student athletes.

[GrantDuck]

For anyone further interested in this topic...written by a woman for Harvard Law Review on why Due Process is essential in these cases:

https://harvardlawreview.org/2015/02/tr ... rcement-2/

[alxtw]

The timing of this SI front page article on their website also comes closely before when many of our top basketball recruiting targets are expected to make their decisions and announcements. Being that most of these incidents occurred a long ways back, a part of me can't help but feel that this article and the timing of its publication are tactics of some people or schools to negatively impact our chances with Bol and Barret.

I also believe that the coach and this staff always uphold the program's honor and integrity over the team's record. Not the other way around, which is what this SI article is implying.

[buckmarkduck]

So basically the media is going to pull this story out every couple years? It seems to me if a kid wants someone to sew, sew SI for continuing to drag your name through the mud. I get it looked bad, Alman gambled and could have and should have lost his job, if anyone of these kids were guilty. sexual assault is a horrible act, but if no one was convicted, or much less charged, then all your doing is slandering an innocent mans name.

[justducky0]

Brenda Tracy def has a vendetta against Oregon.... she does not care about any facts and just spouts off that all Altman cares about is winning and she even insinuated that he looks for players that have a history. Unreal.

[woundedknees]

Brenda Tracy def has a vendetta against Oregon.... she does not care about any facts and just spouts off that all Altman cares about is winning and she even insinuated that he looks for players that have a history. Unreal.

But Mike Riley, who brushed her assault under the rug while at Oregon State, is her hero, because he brought her in to help with sensitivity training at Nebraska...

"Money talks, bulls**t walks", right?

[justducky0]

I am all for her helping bring light and stopping sexual assault as is any normal human. I actually worked to bring her in to speak to a room full of D1 AD's this spring.
But after seeing more and more of her I have become less and less enthused with her message. She is just on a witch hunt and doesn't care about actual facts. It is starting to seem like she is just in it for the fame and not actually finding solutions. She also refuses to see anything other than her point of view.

[justducky0]

For anyone further interested in this topic...written by a woman for Harvard Law Review on why Due Process is essential in these cases:

https://harvardlawreview.org/2015/02/tr ... rcement-2/

Very interesting! Very informative read.

[oregontrack]

er...

the university screwed up, quite outrageously, twice now in dealing with sexual allegations. whether or not dotson and artis and austin were guilty three years ago (based on the police report, i tend to think doston/artis got a raw deal) the university DID attempt to cover it up, and they came off looking really bad after the fact. the issue in this article doesn't seem to be making a serious legal case against dana altman, rather it's exposing some SERIOUS lapses in judgement/skirting university bylaws by the university itself. we had a very high-profile sexual misconduct case three years ago, measures were created to keep that from happening again, and the university ignored all that in order to look the other way for bigby-williams.

there was a great quote regarding rick pitino right before he was fired a few weeks back, to paraphrase: he's the most successful coach in history to never know anything about his program. the same applies to dana altman. sticking your head in the sand and saying "i didn't know" doesn't cut it. again, there's no legal case for altman to potentially lose his job, or recourse against him needed by the university -- it's just unfortunate, and a little dirty.

[Duck24]

While I feel the article is definitely slanted in tone, rather than just stating facts, I still find the facts troublesome. Oregon should be on high alert for this type of thing, especially surrounding the basketball team. I’m not saying boot the kid or anything like that before all the facts are known or the legal/internal processes have run their route, but it feels like Oregon is hiding behind the definition of what is “sufficient” evidence. I think that is a very real and defendable criticism coming from this article. However, I don’t get th criticism of Oregon not notifying the AD in issues like this. To me, that is 100% the right thing to do given the power folks in the AD can wield in college towns. Look at Baylor if you want to see what happens when the AD becomes involved in these types of things.

While it seems like Oregon followed their policies, this doesn’t pass the smell test. There are certainly mitigating factors, the victim not cooperating being one of them, something just seems wrong in this whole equation.

[GrantDuck]

Duck24, I think there's 2 sides to that argument.

The first is basically that the AD needs to know so that everyone can be fully informed and things are transparent.

The other side is that athletic departments are not legal experts and that the school itself has a Title IX department dedicated to these types of investigations and is best equipped to handle them. That way, it's not up to AD's and coaches to speculate on the legal implications of cases and evidence. The University is at risk of being sued both by the victims as well as the players in these scenarios and they want to keep the AD's out of it because they will likely screw it up. (Like you said, what happened with Baylor).

[GrantDuck]

I am all for her helping bring light and stopping sexual assault as is any normal human. I actually worked to bring her in to speak to a room full of D1 AD's this spring.
But after seeing more and more of her I have become less and less enthused with her message. She is just on a witch hunt and doesn't care about actual facts. It is starting to seem like she is just in it for the fame and not actually finding solutions. She also refuses to see anything other than her point of view.

I think she's got a great message and I think it's very important. Colleges, especially college athletes, need to be trained on and spoken to in these areas.

On the other hand, her crusade against Coach Altman is puzzling and uninformed. I don't know her personally well enough to comment much further other than to say myself that she seems to be pushing for neglecting due process in these cases and that's a very slippery slope.

[justducky0]

I am all for her helping bring light and stopping sexual assault as is any normal human. I actually worked to bring her in to speak to a room full of D1 AD's this spring.
But after seeing more and more of her I have become less and less enthused with her message. She is just on a witch hunt and doesn't care about actual facts. It is starting to seem like she is just in it for the fame and not actually finding solutions. She also refuses to see anything other than her point of view.

I think she's got a great message and I think it's very important. Colleges, especially college athletes, need to be trained on and spoken to in these areas.

On the other hand, her crusade against Coach Altman is puzzling and uninformed. I don't know her personally well enough to comment much further other than to say myself that she seems to be pushing for neglecting due process in these cases and that's a very slippery slope.

Very much agree with this.

Due process is a very important part and with the whole campus sexual assault climate it seems people are pushing to try and get around it which is appalling. The thing for me is when someone is accused of rape..that is the headline that is the story. Now a persons life can be ruined by that and if it turns out to be false or the person found innocent there is no recourse that person can do to clear their name. Examples... Duke Lacrosse, the RB from USC things of that nature. But Brenda does not see it like that, she will only ever take the accusers side and not let our judicial system and the rights of the accused be heard.

"A Lie Can Travel Halfway Around the World While the Truth Is Putting On Its Shoes". is one of my favorite quotes in the era of hot takes and twitter.

[Duck07]

I know Title 9 is Federal Law, but having schools investigate sexual assault and not the police, seems like it creates these problems too because that is NOT the background of the people doing the work and potential conflict of interest. We've created a system where the schools are supposed to do the investigative work but are also in a position to be held liable for any damages so they have an inherent bias to find that nothing illegal occurred. Congress just passed another law like this where Wall Street is able to use their own arbitrators and reduce the ability for an injured party to use class-action lawsuits. Who wins? Rarely the individual.

[GrandpaDuck]

While I feel the article is definitely slanted in tone, rather than just stating facts, I still find the facts troublesome. Oregon should be on high alert for this type of thing, especially surrounding the basketball team. I’m not saying boot the kid or anything like that before all the facts are known or the legal/internal processes have run their route, but it feels like Oregon is hiding behind the definition of what is “sufficient” evidence. I think that is a very real and defendable criticism coming from this article. However, I don’t get the criticism of Oregon not notifying the AD in issues like this. To me, that is 100% the right thing to do given the power folks in the AD can wield in college towns. Look at Baylor if you want to see what happens when the AD becomes involved in these types of things.

While it seems like Oregon followed their policies, this doesn’t pass the smell test. There are certainly mitigating factors, the victim not cooperating being one of them, something just seems wrong in this whole equation.

+11111

Huge criticism of Altman right now on "Home of The Ducks" sports radio for him not getting involved and investigating the allegations against Bigby. If Coaches do get involved and no charges are filed as in this case, then it appears they may have acted to shield their players at the victim's expense or worse they may have gone all Baylor and actually did it.

Getting the AD at any university involved in criminal allegations against their players is never going to be to the victims advantage and other then preventative education the AD needs to stay out of it.