On February 25, a complaint was sent out due to being in a hostile environment to delegates in the Athletic Department. The Associate Athletic Director, Sharon Brumelle was the first line of contact because she closely worked with the track team. Sharon was unable to assist to her full capacity, being that she was recently removed from working with the team due to “conflict of interest”. Scheduling an appointment with the head athletic director also became difficult due to lack of communication.
The next point of contact was the University’s Head of Compliance, Dan Trump. A meeting took place on March 4, to discuss issues that have been raised in regards to the team and program, and to raise questions of diversity within the University’s Track&Field Program. It was said that running is a privilege, and that the Compliance office does not have the power to make anyone coach athletes. It was also said that discrimination is not an issue that the Office of Compliance can address.
Aside from this, a formal complaint was filed with the NCAA due to other issues on the team. There was also a lack of documentation and rules and regulations when it came to stating team standards.
This prompted further action and lead to communication with University’s administrators, outside the University’s Athletic Department and jurisdiction. A meeting was held with Vice President of IDEAA, Rosemary Kilkenny, Monday, March 2nd. Differential treatment and racial bias on the team was discussed. 2 weeks later, Friday, March 27, the University’s Head Athletic Director requested to conduct “An Administrative Review of the Track & Field Program following discussions of racial bias, differential treatment and hostile environment.” Additional information, including contacts of current athletes and alumni was handed over to IDEAA.
(Attached below are email exchanges detailing the process)
During conversation concerning discrimination, issues of sexual harassment and sexual assault in the MEN’s LOCKER ROOM were brought up. One month later, April 28th, the Men’s Track & Field team released a video through the Georgetown University Email accounts. This video was produced as a trailer for the “Hoya Snaxa Awards,” an annual awards ceremony within the Men’s distance team. The ceremony awards members of the men’s team who “have distinguished themselves” over the course of the school year. Members are able to distinguish themselves by performing heinous acts that are sexually disturbing, similar to acts mentioned in the scavenger hunt list.
This video in particular displayed various distance runners engaging in overtly sexual activities between each other. Attached below is the emails sent to the entire Men's Track and Field Team.
This video of the Hoya Snaxa Awards prompted the University to open an additional Title IX investigation based on violations of the Georgetown University’s Code of Sexual Conduct (see below). Following the spark of the investigation, the University has received inappropriate pictures, tweets, emails, Instagram posts, snapchats regarding these acts. After the video was reported, the University took down the video from Google Drive prohibiting total access to the video. They then went on to interview anyone that was either exposed to the video, or participated in the creation of the video.
(Attached is a link to the video, and as you will see, it is not accessible to anyone)
The Head Athletic Director has declared to make decision regarding these issues, but has neglected to do so in a timely manner. On top of that the issues racial bias, discrimination and differential treatment are still under investigation even though it was said that a resolution would be given in the month of June.
There are more documents, pictures, tweets, Instagram posts, snapchats to validate our story. Listed below are 9 of 47 documents we have compiled over the course of this process. Other Division I Athletic programs have faced similar issues such as these, and have made their decision in a timely manner. (See Below)
https://docs.google.com/a/
http://sexualassault.georgetown.edu/reference-guide
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/07/us/illinois-athletics-allegations/index.html
http://deadspin.com/the-racist-violent-hazing-claims-that-killed-wkus-d-i-1698506620
