The investigation into LSU’s mishandling of Title IX processes and sexual assault reports by law firm Husch Blackwell was released and presented to the LSU Board of Supervisors Friday.
Two LSU Athletics employees were suspended without pay after the report was released. Scott Schneider, a representative from the law firm, presented the investigation to the board. The law firm’s 150-page report outlined summaries of the cases that it investigated, current Title IX policies at LSU and recommendations for changes. Schneider said the University was understaffed and unequipped to handle complaints under Title IX, a federal law meant to reduce sexual harassment and assault on college campuses.
“This is an example of serious institutional failure,” Interim President Thomas Galligan said.
Galligan said the University suspended Executive Deputy Athletic Director Verge Ausberry for 30 days without pay and Senior Associate Athletic Director Miriam Segar for 21 days without pay. Both employees will undergo sexual violence training during this time.
“We’ve been forced to take a hard look, and let’s be perfectly clear, we don’t like what we see,” Galligan said.
A USA Today report in November found that Ausberry knew in 2018 that former LSU football player Drake Davis had punched former LSU women’s tennis player Jade Lewis. Lewis’ case of sexual violence is outlined in the report.
According to WBRZ reporter Michael Cauble, Ausberry told him his entire career “has been dedicated to LSU,” and he regrets that his actions fell short of “protecting student interests.”
“I accept the conclusions and decisions rendered by the University and absolutely respect the commitment to putting the welfare of all students first,” Ausberry said.
Davis acknowledged in court in 2019 that he had punched Lewis. He was expelled from LSU that July. The USA Today report also detailed complaints about Derrius Guice, a former LSU running back. They included an allegation that he had raped another female athlete. LSU took no action after that complaint.
The Husch Blackwell report does not recommend that anyone at LSU be fired. It advised University leadership to read the report and decide “what, if any discipline is warranted for employees.”
“If the leadership of the University decides to discipline employees, one of the important lessons from this review is that institutional policies and processes should be followed,” the report read. “In addition, those employees should be entitled to full due process protections, including the ability to say this review ‘got it wrong.’”
The report listed 18 recommendations for the University, including staffing the Title IX Office appropriately, implementing targeted training for athletes and regularly measuring the climate and the effectiveness of the policies.
“We think it is critically important for the University to regularly measure whether these interventions are succeeding as well as the overall effectiveness of the University’s comprehensive Title IX program,” the report read.
The report recommended that “the rules must apply to everyone,” and said LSU needs to ensure that Title IX policies and processes are followed and applied to everyone.
Schneider said the most important recommendation is for appropriate staffing of the Title IX Office. He said the office’s reporting line to the general counsel needs to “change immediately.”
“We clearly had a failure of leadership and a failure of resources,” LSU Board of Supervisors Chair Robert Dampf said. “We failed.”
Mass communication junior Mia Lejeune said the 18 recommendations lack logistics for how the University is going to streamline reporting of Title IX cases. Still, she said she is “interested and hopeful” to see how the recommendations play out.
“I’m really impressed with Galligan’s decision to take up all of the recommendations from Husch Blackwell,” Lejeune said.
Lejeune said it is hard for her to have trust in the 18 recommendations because she believes that the people responsible for mishandling of cases will go back to the positions.
“It seems like a lot of people who should be held responsible and accountable are going to help implement this plan, so students are probably having a really hard time grappling with the fact that the people who were sweeping them under the rug for so long are now supposed to be the change makers on campus,” Lejeune said.
Schneider said that one in four college-age female students experience some sort of sexual assault or sexual misconduct while they are undergraduate students. He said LSU is no exception to that.
One assault survivor and LSU alumna, Caroline Schroeder, spoke at the meeting and said she has personal experience with the Title IX process at LSU.
“I want to express how little faith I have in the board to make the right decision,” Schroeder said at the meeting.
After the board meeting, Schroeder said on Twitter that Husch Blackwell did not ask to use her name in the report.
“Nobody ever told me they were going to be releasing all of the records from my case,” Schroeder told the Reveille. “They have my statements that I gave to the Title IX investigators, they have quotes that I gave in what I thought was confidence with several people. I was sharing some pretty personal stuff, sometimes about other people that I didn’t want anyone to know about. There it is, for everyone to see.”
Schroeder believes that many people in the LSU community are “reluctant” to think that the University will “step up and do the right thing.”
“While I think those are good recommendations, I think the report intentionally leaves a lot open to LSU’s interpretation,” Schroeder said. “The problem with that is that I don’t think LSU will fill in those gaps. They promise that they’re going to fulfill those recommendations from the report, but I have absolutely no expectation that they will go just a little bit further to solve the issues which were hinted at in the report. I think those are going to get swept away really quick.”
Schneider said the Husch Blackwell report was “clear” with LSU and highlighted that the University did not have a Title IX coordinator until 2014.
“From a historical perspective, LSU has been very slow to develop policies and infrastructure and personnel that was really required and highlighted starting in 2011 with the 2011 ‘Dear Colleague letter,’” Schneider said, referring to a directive that the Obama administration sent to universities nationwide to improve their handling of assault claims.
Galligan said the University will hire new staff, including more Title IX investigators and a deputy Title IX coordinator. He said LSU and LSU Athletics has contracted with a non-profit called STAR (Sexual Trauma Awareness Response) to evaluate sexual assault training practices and implement new ones.
“I’m embarrassed about what’s happened in the past,” LSU Athletics Director Scott Woodward said. “Getting it right is important. We want to review the past and accept the past, and get it right moving forward.”
Galligan apologized to the survivors and thanked those who came forward and spoke with Husch Blackwell.
“If they hadn’t come forward, we wouldn’t be here today,” Galligan said. “I’m grateful to them and with all my heart I apologize to them.”
Mass Communication Professor Robert Mann said the recommendations made in the report are “common sense.”
“I am disappointed that the board and President Galligan are choosing a very mild slap on the wrist to two employees who the report indicates engaged in very egregious, reckless behavior,” Mann said. “I think they will be surprised at how little credibility they now have going forward because they’ve chosen to handle the Athletic Department with such thick gloves.”
Mann said he would like to see an investigation where people “are put under oath and required to testify.”
“I hope this is the beginning, not the end, of investigations,” Mann said. “LSU paid for this report, so it comes with a question mark behind it. That said, it’s much more extensive and damning than I thought it would be.”
Nick Frewin and Reed Darcey also contributed to this report.