The University of Idaho released a memo on Jan. 19 expressing support for the Vandal Volleyball players regarding the investigation into volleyball Head Coach Chris Gonzales.
“Our primary goal remains to uphold our values and the principles of an inclusive, supportive and nurturing learning environment that all our students rightfully deserve. We are committed to a timely, but fair and thorough investigation,” the memo stated.
The Editorial Staff hopes that the university keeps its word, and truly gives the members of the team all the support possible and resources available within their power in what is surely a difficult time.
Yet, in an Argonaut interview with an anonymous player on the Vandal Volleyball team, the sincerity of this memo is brought into question, with the memo being compared as “eerily similar” to a memo sent out by Vandal Athletic Director Terry Gawlik to the volleyball team last year.
The investigation needs to be completed urgently, especially due to the upcoming expiration of both Gonzales’ and Gawlik’s contracts, for Gawlik in July and for Gonzales in December. It is also unfair to the volleyball players and the volleyball program to let this linger. Any unreasonable delay past the end of the school year would only make the university look like it is not planning on addressing the situation.
The Law and the Suit
And yet, even the investigation itself is being questioned as truly being the fairest toward the students involved. The firm hired by the university to conduct a supposedly independent investigation is the Texas-based Thompson & Horton LLP, a firm that specializes in education law, and is known for representing universities who get in hot water for sexual assault on campus.
The firm’s most well-known case was representing Texas’ private Baylor University in a suit lodged by a group of anonymous female students that ended in the ousting of the university’s president for attempting to cover up the many reports of assault on campus.
In fact, the firm is known for being downright abusive in their questioning during that suit, with court documents claiming that the firm “attempt(ed) to brand a scarlet letter on someone unfortunate enough to be raped,” according to an article in the Texas Lawyer.
But that’s not even where the concerns about the involvement of this firm end. Last June, UI installed Jackie Gharapour Wernz as the Interim Director of the Office of Civil Rights and Investigations, the very office that hired Thomson & Horton LLP. Yet, when you go onto the firm’s website, Wernz is listed as a partner for the firm, specializing in both higher education, and Title IX and Sexual Harassment cases.
This is a clear conflict of interest. There is no way that the OCRI office could claim that Thompson & Horton will provide an unbiased and independent investigation of these allegations or of Gonzales and Gawlik while one of their partners is currently employed as the head of a university department.
OCRI and the Athletics Department
However, the saddest part of all of this, is that this is not even the first time we are hearing of a failure from the university in protecting its students. In September of 2022, the Argonaut published an article about the lack of support for students who experience sexual assault and stalking on campus on campus. In that article, students are quoted saying that the OCRI caseworkers involved with their cases did not truly care about them, even making snide remarks saying that they were not as affected as they appeared by their experiences.
There was even a blog post from an athlete back in 2018 by a Vandal Athlete about how specifically the athletics department misdealt with assault between two athletes, much less with the power imbalance present between the Vandal volleyball players and Gonzales.
Overall, it is clear first and foremost, that something needs to happen as soon as possible. While the scholarships of all team members have been secured through May, the investigation must be conducted thoroughly and swiftly, with any doubts as to the veracity of the investigation addressed by the university before these contracts expire and before the incident slips away into obscurity. The time to act is now, and if the university would like to make a statement, they know how to reach us.
The Editorial Board can be reached at [email protected]