As a student, here's what my experience has been:
1. We all know that the University's name has been dragged through the mud from all of this. We fought it at first, then it became the norm and we accepted it, now we're just sick of hearing we go to "that school with all the rapes" (which by the way we don't believe but everyone else seems to think an allegation = the truth).
2. Regarding the JJ trial, the overwhelming amount of people I discussed it with believed he didn't knowingly commit a crime and would be acquitted. The victim has a bit of a shady past as far as relationships go, which didn't come out in the trial but many student's knew it. The problem is, I for one honestly believe in her mind she convinced herself she was truly raped, which makes this situation a lose-lose for everyone. I don't think she was vengeful, I do think she didn't get the psychological help she needed.
3. There was general outrage about the Pflugrad and O'day firings. Jim was VERY well respected around campus and Coach Pflu was seen as a much more likeable face of griz football from a student perspective in comparison to Hauck. Couple that with the success of his last year and Pflu was really winning the students over. And yes, even though President Engstrom never said their dismissals were directly related to the JJ allegation, we aren't stupid; we all knew it was.
4. Speaking of Engstrom, he's not viewed too favorably these days. The botching of the Saudi incident was essentially covered up by the football team's issues but everyone knows he royally screwed up there and many students felt he came down hard on JJ, Pflu, and O'day to make up for it. The University court's ruling on JJ's expulsion also felt unfair on the basis of lack of evidence at the time. I am one of many that felt it was a cowardly move to fire those under him to save his ass. The captain should have gone down with the ship rather than throwing his crew overboard.
5. Pat Williams' comments enraged many of us. The vast majority of UM athletes are stand-up kids. They do not relish the limelight that comes from being a Griz football player or any other type of student-athlete for that matter; they're just normal kids that happen to be good at sports. He went too far and judged a huge group on the actions of a few.
I am in a rare position in that I have the opportunity on campus to speak with many prospective students and their parents. Make no mistake about it, the fall in enrollment is directly related to the "scandal" surrounding the school. UM has some serious damage control to do moving forward, because right now many parents do not want to send their daughters to a school where they don't believe they will be safe from sexual assault. And no, they do not want to hear about how every other college has the same issues; their minds are pretty made up.
With all that being said, I am still damn proud to be a Griz. I wouldn't trade my time here for any other school in the nation, and I know that the majority of my classmates share that view as well. Jim O'day was quoted after the Johnson trial in saying "In some ways it's been a year of emotional hell... but I stand by my grounds. I believe in kids... they're going to make some mistakes but you stand by them." There are many faculty members at UM that share that view, and at the end of the day, that is why we are still proud to attend the University of Montana. The media can do their worst, we know the truth about our school.
) think that your problem with rape is due to an overly sexualized environment in the "zoo town" as well as a permissive attitude toward homosexuality. IMHO if y'all nip that stuff in the bud you'll see a national championship-quality team next year!
