{"id":174355,"date":"2023-03-17T12:23:36","date_gmt":"2023-03-17T22:23:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=174355"},"modified":"2023-03-17T12:23:36","modified_gmt":"2023-03-17T22:23:36","slug":"uh-manoa-athletics-independent-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/03\/17\/uh-manoa-athletics-independent-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Independent report: <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> M\u0101noa athletics response to concerns &lsquo;appropriate and timely&rsquo;"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/manoa-athletics-independent-report.jpg\" alt=\"green football field\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-174357\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/manoa-athletics-independent-report.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/manoa-athletics-independent-report-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/manoa-athletics-independent-report-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>An independent assessment of the <a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiiathletics.com\/index.aspx\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> at M\u0101noa Athletics Department<\/a> relating to student-athlete welfare, communications and concerns has been completed and is on the <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> Board of Regents (<abbr>BOR<\/abbr>) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/offices\/bor\/regular\/notice\/202303230900.regular.pdf\">March 23 meeting agenda<\/a> for discussion and possible action. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/offices\/bor\/regular\/materials\/202303230900\/BOR_03_23_2023_Materials.pdf#page=56\">report was commissioned by the <abbr>BOR<\/abbr><\/a> in August 2022.<\/p>\n<p>College Sports Solutions (<abbr>CSS<\/abbr>), a Georgia-based consulting firm that specializes in collegiate athletics, was hired by the <abbr>BOR<\/abbr> to review allegations made regarding climate and behaviors within the <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> football program. The allegations were raised during a January 7, 2022 public informational briefing by the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> State Senate Committees on Ways and Means and Higher Education.<\/p>\n<p><abbr>CSS<\/abbr> interviewed more than two dozen individuals and collected hundreds of pages of documents during its investigation. The report includes a detailed timeline (pages 11 to 14) that starts when the concerns were first raised by a football student-athlete and outlines the escalating response by the university until the Senate briefing.<\/p>\n<p>In response to the questions posed by the <abbr>BOR<\/abbr> (pages 15 to 21), among others, <abbr>CSS<\/abbr> made the following findings:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There was no criminal behavior; no violations of <abbr title=\"National Collegiate Athletic Association\">NCAA<\/abbr>, Mountain West Conference or Big West Conference rules and regulations; and <abbr>BOR<\/abbr> policies were not ignored or circumvented. (page 16)<\/li>\n<li>The response by &ldquo;University and Athletics Department leadership, including President <strong>David Lassner<\/strong>, <abbr>FAR<\/abbr> (Faculty Athletics Representative) <strong>Scott Sinnett<\/strong>, Athletic Director <strong>David Matlin<\/strong> and his staff, appear to have been both appropriate and timely.&rdquo; (page 9)<\/li>\n<li>The specific issues were &ldquo;dealt with appropriately and in a timely fashion throughout the season by university and athletics department personnel.&rdquo; (page 9)<\/li>\n<li>Appropriate policies and procedures are in place &ldquo;to hear, address and react to student-athlete complaints and issues.&rdquo; (page 9)<\/li>\n<li>The athletics department can, &ldquo;improve its communication of those policies and procedures and its encouragement of student-athletes to voice thoughts and concerns about their sports and their overall well-being and welfare&#8212;athletically, academically, medically and personally.&rdquo; (page 9)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As requested by the <abbr>BOR<\/abbr>, the report also provided a list of recommendations (pages 23 to 25). These include improvement of communication with student-athletes, improved mental-health support, establishing a department-wide set of behavioral standards for all coaches, and continuing to work diligently to find a permanent solution to the closure of Aloha Stadium. The athletics department has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/offices\/bor\/regular\/materials\/202303230900\/BOR_03_23_2023_Materials.pdf#page=626\">submitted an initial response<\/a> to the <abbr>BOR<\/abbr> regarding plans to embrace the recommendations.<\/p>\n<h2>Allegations related to <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> basketball programs<\/h2>\n<p><abbr>CSS<\/abbr> was also asked by the <abbr>BOR<\/abbr> to look into allegations made at the January 7 senate briefing on the treatment of student-athletes in the men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball programs regarding incidents from prior years. The report&#8217;s findings stated that responses to concerns were timely and substantive, and that all appropriate processes were followed (pages 19 to 21).<\/p>\n<h2>Comprehensive assessment<\/h2>\n<p>In completing its work <abbr>CSS<\/abbr> noted the &ldquo;substantive and comprehensive nature of the records that were kept relative to matters reviewed in this inquiry,&rdquo; and that the university &ldquo;accommodated all requests, and allowed us access to any and all documents and personnel that we requested.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Redactions have been made in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/offices\/bor\/regular\/materials\/202303230900\/BOR_03_23_2023_Materials.pdf#page=56\">publicly-released 570-page report<\/a>, largely to the attachments, in order to protect the privacy interests of student-athletes. The materials posted for this <abbr>BOR<\/abbr> agenda item also include a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/offices\/bor\/regular\/materials\/202303230900\/BOR_03_23_2023_Materials.pdf#page=52\">memo<\/a> from <abbr>BOR<\/abbr> Chair <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/leadership\/randolph-moore\/\"><strong>Randy Moore<\/strong><\/a> and <abbr>BOR<\/abbr> Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics Chair <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/leadership\/william-f-haning-iii\/\"><strong>William Haning<\/strong><\/a> summarizing the history of the inquiry and the findings and recommendations in the report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The report was commissioned by the <abbr>BOR<\/abbr> in August 2022. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1362],"tags":[58,72,83,714,9,550],"class_list":["post-174355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-athletics","tag-board-of-regents","tag-football","tag-student-athlete","tag-uh-manoa","tag-manoa-athletics","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174355"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174359,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174355\/revisions\/174359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}