After Atalanta

Ebuz over at the Title IX Blog was nice enough to inform me that indeed the departure of Marie Tuite from the University of Washington athletic department was no big loss. Apparently during the scandals involving the football players and sexual assault and other crimes, Tuite was part of the community-wide cover up/downplaying of these events. She recommended community service instead of suspension for one of the offending players who committed sexual assault. And was generally dismissive of a female student who reported sexual assault against her by a player. I don't think Tuite has much of a case for keeping her job.

I wrote recently about the dismissal of the senior women's athletic administrator at University of Washington and wondered if there might be something amiss in the firing and if we might see a lawsuit for wrongful termination, perhaps with a Title IX angle. But it appears that it was just a cleaning house move. UW athletics has had a not so good time of it lately mired in some controversy and apparently bad leadership. The new AD Scott Woodward hired a new SWA , Stephanie Rempe who is replacing the apparently resigned (there is some confusion over whether she was fired) Marie Tuite, who had been at UW for more than a decade. Rempe, from University of Oklahoma, takes over in about a month. Of course it's still possible that Tuite could file a retaliation suit. The only potential dirt I could find on her was that she may or may not have ignored a situation of drug abuse on the softball team a few years back. I mean if you can win a multi-million dollar retaliation judgment after...

Not sure this is something important but since I have come across two articles about the dismissal of the senior women's administrator in University of Washington's athletic department, I thought I would mention it. Marie Tuite has been with UW for 14 years and several weeks ago UW brought in new AD Scott Woodward. Some say it's a cleaning house move. Getting rid of key players in the old administration. But given the success female coaches and administrators have had with retaliation cases of late, it's a pretty bold move. Also in Tuite's favor is her 14-year tenure. Woodward would not give any reasons and it is unknown whether Tuite will be fired or resign. This article contains more details as well as a comments section where there are some pretty sexist comments about women in sports administration.

The University of Colorado recently settled the Title IX lawsuit brought against it by two women who were sexually assaulted at a football recruiting party. The women believed the university had enough knowledge of the situation that they should have done something about it. In other words, powers-that-be knew there was sex and alcohol and general bad behavior and they, at the very least, chose to look the other way and may have even encouraged these parties to some degree. This story was big news for years . It seemed sexual harassment and assault became part of the culture at the institution. Former Rams football player Katie Hnida spoke and wrote about her own such experiences and though she never filed her own lawsuit, she did provide testimony as to the climate at CU and how her situation was ignored by higher ups. Turns out that CU was not the only institution where athletes were getting in trouble and the people in charge were letting it go. According to a recent article in the ...