UMGriz75 said:Tokyogriz said:1 - Royce Engstroms involvement and lack of it in this complete disaster will NOT BE FORGOTTEN by UM alumns, Fans, and the people of Montana EVER. Many are angry about his horrendous lack of leadership, initiative and his obvious firing of Jim Oday and Robin Pflugrad to cover his own ass in this mess. We will not forget and what we the people of Montana, UM alumns and supporters think DOES MATTER.
If the Missoulian ever gets around to an "analysis," that will be the real story here.
Engstrom, for whatever reasons, wanted to appear "in charge." In commissioning Diane Barz to do an "investigation," he did nothing more than commission the collection of mostly hearsay, of the kind that would always appear damning in nearly any context. That's the nature of hearsay. And, compacting between three and five years of it into one report makes it look like "something that isn't."
Well, Engstrom wanted to "show something," and he did that. He drew attention to something that, growing out of hearsay, "demanded attention." OK, he got it. After flubbing the Saudi student incident -- and claiming that it "was the best" response -- he is starting to feel the heat.
In all of this, the Athletic Department was the ONLY consistent player, imposing sanctions and disciplinary actions on players -- whether or not charges were filed -- simply for being "involved" in any allegation.
Compare and contrast the Athletic Department's consistent imposition of disciplinary measures with that of Engstrom and Couture. The Dean of Students has more authority over student athletes than the coaches do, yet Couture did little although the diversity of his responses was remarkable, ranging from warning the alleged perpetrator to expulsion. Couture's message? Hard to tell. It apparently depends on who you are and what your religion is.
Ultimately, Engstrom did just what he set out to do: attract attention to his leadership. He really thought he could show "the high road" and that he "was in charge."
Yet, that approach backfired completely into a widespread and well-publicized elevation of hearsay into "allegations" into ... as Couture wrongly and stupidly claimed in one email ... it was gang rape "because that's what it was," even though the Missoula PD couldn't get past the voluntary testimony of a key female witness that, in fact, it wasn't; it was far from it and charges were never filed because there was, in fact, no evidence to support those charges. It was an outright libel of the athletes for Couture to make that claim. It was an outrageous slander of the University of Montana by one of its own officers.
Together, Engstrom and Couture have both exercised extremely poor judgment; Engstrom in framing a public forum for hearsay, which is always a dangerous course; Couture for simply fabricating a lie about the players and calling it a truth.
Collecting and disseminating accumulated hearsay under the imprimatur of an "official" proceeding is a tyro's mistake. And that's all that was. It was an extraordinary mis-step. It is difficult to see what Engstrom expected as a result; he appears to have been much more invested in the appearance of "doing something," even if it was guaranteed to produce a veritable lynch mob -- the inevitable reaction to unfiltered hearsay reports.
And yet, as a good example, the Athletic Department, not Couture or Engstrom, imposed disciplinary sanctions on the players involved simply because they had shown poor judgment; but those penalties were imposed no thanks to Barz, Engstrom, or any of the rest of the stampeding herd of self-righteous cows. Indeed, the irony is that in that instance Pflugrad was alleged to have imposed the sanctions on the players WITHOUT having advised Their Majesties in Main Hall regarding allegations which had been shown by independent investigation to be groundless.
To me that is a remarkable spectacle. The Athletic Department appears to have consistently imposed disciplinary measures. Main Hall appears consistent only in flying off in all directions, imposing on accused students wildly disparate and inconsistent treatments, after having drawn attention to ... what?
Over six months later, every allegation dredged up by Barz remains hearsay, despite the heightened attention and focus on them. Indeed, there is a remarkable inability to focus and identify specific wrongs that the University may have done, or alleged crimes that may have been perpetrated, outside of the inevitability of the hearsay culture -- which is the real "culture" that has infected this whole debacle.
The single charge actually brought -- before any of this blew up, notably -- involved a purely personal relationship, in a relationship long predating his college days, with the alleged victim choosing to spend the night at the young man's home. Nothing, so far, to offer a debate about because the details are so personal, but the fact is, the significant details have nothing to do with college, athletics, the teams, the coach, or the AD., nor anything they could do about it. But, typically, the Athletic Department had directly acted against the student-athlete with a complete team suspension, which was appropriate and, again, Engstrom decided he needed to look like he was "in charge" of something even though the Athletic Department had already acted quickly and appropriately.
Remarkably, after all that Engstrom has wrought, there remains a single charge involving sexual assault, a charge unrelated to the accused's college or athletic experience, and for all the tumult, a charge predating whatever it was that Engstrom thought he was going to fix, or expose, or whatever it was that he thought he was doing.
In fact, the single charge involving a sexual charge over the past three years was investigated, the alleged perpetrator charged, and the appropriate suspension immediately imposed by the AD and the Coach.
Everything did, in fact, function as it was supposed to.
If there was more to do, where was Couture? Engstrom? The Saudi episode came afterwards. Their actions there certainly did not show the consistency nor the loyalty to process and justice that the AD and Coach demonstrated; and the Saudi episode involved multiple assaults and violence as well; facts that the Administration chose to treat far differently and more leniently than the Athletic Department treated allegations against team members.
Seven months on into "the scandal," the single sexual assault charge filed was filed before Engstrom decided to "commission a study," before there was a "scandal," nothing has been charged since, and the only practical outcome so far has been the firing of two good men who, in fact, did their jobs and did them well.
I don't care who ya are, that right there was some real good writin, lol. After reading something that well written, I realize I'm at about a 5th grade writing level.
