This is concerning. The 2nd staff member within a years span to have major issues of conduct come forward. These letters make it out to be on the end of Mr. Riggers abusing his SOs position within the school, but if Hosmer has any involvement in this. Projects surrounding athletics would be put in major jeopardy. I am sad to see someone who could have had a great future in the athletics sphere ruin their career in this manor if true.
This is an odd set of letters.
Assuming that these photos are of the original letters, they appear to be generated by a single individual or group of people working together.
The author(s) may not be aware that the underlying allegations immediately implicate VU's Title IX (federal education law covering gender equity) responsibilities. There may be -- there should be -- a designated Title IX officer and a portal or link for reporting Title IX-related allegations.
Any allegation of inappropriate conduct toward students should be taken seriously by the University. However, it's not clear that the University has been directly apprised of the concerns. Rather, the letters collectively indicate that the author(s) opted to go public first, rather than report the concerns internally. Apparently (based on the language of one letter), there's an assumption that, because the allegations involve the interim athletic director and the students don't have ties to the region, the concerns won't be adequately addressed.
These are my observations, and I'll of course defer to others for any closer knowledge of the situation.
Huh. First I'm hearing of this. I agree with David81 that it probably should have gone thru Title IX first before any public media.
I know we did used to have a dedicated Title IX person who was a lawyer, but she left to work as Chief Legal at Regis University in the 2020 upheaval. Then maybe there was an interim, but it seems they since went to Baylor Medicine?
I just looked it up and trying to figure it out... It looks like VU now has a different person, the new Asst. Dir of Multicultural Programs (Tressa Jones) currently serving as Title IX coordinator.
If these are students going to the media, hopefully they knew about Title IX also?
I don't see anything about Hosmer covering things up in these letters. Am I missing something? If she is not involved in the complaints, the best resolution is that she just severs ties from her boyfriend, given the accusations of attempted/potential cheating, but I don't see how a boyfriend's actions can be representative of anything wrong with Hosmer, short of her trying to cover it up.
To me it reads as the author being the same person in all of the letters. The issue of the AD isn't one, I don't think, and would need to be investigated by University's Title IX person whoever that is. The letters don't seem to mention contacting anyone at the school. The ADs SO may have a problem with his employer....and that's a may....if he's using implied coercion to offer employment.
There's some mention of other women who are still current students. The guy may be a creep in terms of who he tries to pick up as part of his social life but he's not affiliated to the school even by marriage to an officer so I wonder what, if anything, anyone would be trying to cover up.
I feel as if at this venture we need to wait for more information to preset itself. There is no point in speculating fault. Innocent until proven Guilty. Note vice versa
Oh, I didn't necessarily mean that Title IX should be investigating any current staff.
As I understand it, Title IX plays a more general clearinghouse role to connect students to the right people and involve the right medical support, counseling resources, and university legal team professionals. As ValpoTX says, there's no indication that Hosmer was in any way involved or even aware of this. But if students were being harrased by a non-university person on university property and/or access was granted somehow through university connections, then probably the university would want to know about it -- and if even if not that, should probably know about it even if just to provide support to the targetted students. If they're going to the media, they're clearly unhappy or feeling like it wasn't sufficiently addressed.
Oh, I didn't necessarily mean that Title IX should be investigating any current staff.
As I understand it, Title IX plays a more general clearinghouse role to connect students to the right people and involve the right medical support, counseling resources, and university legal team professionals. As ValpoTX says, there's no indication that Hosmer was in any way involved or even aware of this. But if students were being harrased by a non-university person on university property and/or access was granted somehow through university connections, then probably the university would want to know about it -- and if even if not that, should probably know about it even if just to provide support to the targetted students. If they're going to the media, they're clearly unhappy or feeling like it wasn't sufficiently addressed.
VUIndiana, at most universities, the Title IX offices are also in charge of conducting initial screenings and, if called for, investigations in response to, complaints received. They are definitely more than information and traffic-directing clearinghouses.
Under Title IX regulations, most faculty are considered "mandatory reporters," i.e., if a faculty member has knowledge of alleged behavior possibly violative of Title IX, such as sexual harassment of students, they are obliged to report it to the Title IX office for follow-up.
That's among the reasons why this series of letters seems a bit odd.
Okay, ya, I'll shut up on this, since I really have no clue what our Title IX situation or process/purpose is supposed to be.
Word from VU:
"Valparaiso University is working closely with authorities to investigate the origin of unsubstantiated allegations against Interim Director of Athletics, Laurel Hosmer, and her significant other made by individuals posing as others. As this investigation is ongoing, the University will not be providing any further comments at this time."
To be VERY clear, I posted this because it was posted publicly on Reddit and figured it would make it's way in here regardless. With the original post removed this sounds very shady. If these allegations are false I sincerely hope Ms. Hosmer and her boyfriend sue the everliving hell out of whoever posted this on Reddit and/or whoever sent those letters, if they were sent at all.
EDIT: Whoever deleted the original post on Reddit deleted their entire account.
@nativecheesehead If the claims are unfounded I doubt you would be able to find the parties involved. Reddit is, as I like to put it, the realm of "Free Internet Points". People will claim outlandish things just for validation from others on that site.
I don't think anyone holds anything against you. News is news, no matter how little one wants to hear it.
VU's use of the term "unsubstantiated," rather than "false," allegations was a cautious CYA-type move in a statement that otherwise suggests that they are trying to find out who did this, why, and how.
Someone's got it out for Interim AD Hosmer and/or her partner. That's a scary feeling, beyond the initial awfulness of reading the accusations.
I hope that the whole story comes out.
We still have the username of the owner of the account correct. If someone is in contact with the investigative team please send them the username of the reddit poster.
