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The Big 12 Conference's Board of Directors on Wednesday requested "a full accounting of the circumstances surrounding the sexual assaults" at Baylor University.
Last month, Baylor's Board of Regents forced the university's president to resign and fired its head football coach over allegations that they had continuously mishandled -- and sought to suppress public discourse about -- sexual assaults committed by its football players and other students. Pepper Hamilton, a law firm the university hired to investigate how it has handled allegations of sexual assault, presented a lengthy oral report to the board in May, and the report placed blame on the university’s president, athletics director and football coaching staff, noting that the staff covered up assaults involving players.
"Because many of the incidents at Baylor reportedly involve student-athletes, the conference is appropriately concerned with discovery of the facts," the Big 12 Board of Directors said in a statement. "The Big 12 is primarily configured to facilitate fair competition among its members and compliance to the rules of both the conference and NCAA. To that end, full disclosure is vital to assess the impact on the Big 12."
The board is asking that Baylor provide "written materials as well as any information that has been conveyed orally to university leadership or to its Board of Regents including, but not limited to, the unedited written or verbal information from Pepper Hamilton, omitting only the names of any involved students." Kenneth Starr, the former president, and Art Briles, the former head football coach, have also called on the Board of Regents to release a full report detailing Pepper Hamilton's findings against them.
Baylor officials say no written report was ever created, and in an interview with Inside Higher Ed earlier this month, the university's executive vice president said that there are no plans to release any other documents related to the investigation.
