Berkeley's Problem

UC-Berkeley seems to have an athletics problem that goes beyond swimming* and budget issues. From the San Francisco Chronicle last week: 

UC Berkeley fired women’s head swim coach Teri McKeever on Jan. 31 after an independent investigation upheld claims that she bullied student-athletes for years — some so badly that they considered suicide. The outcome rekindles unanswered questions about verbal and emotional abuse allegations against another Cal sports leader: women’s head soccer coach Neil McGuire. 

Since 2016, at least nine women and several parents have complained about McGuire — in person, in writing, by phone, in a lawsuit and in a KTVU expose called “Surviving the Game” — to more than a dozen officials at UC Berkeley and the University of California president’s office. All have accused the coach of abusive conduct. Their allegations include berating, mocking, excluding, body-shaming and punishing them. One player reported that she had considered suicide as a result.

The student-athletes say they don’t believe campus administrators followed their own anti-bullying policy in handling their complaints, and they question the basis on which the athletics department concluded that one former player’s allegations against McGuire in September 2018 were “not validated.” McGuire, women’s head soccer coach since 2007, declined to comment. UC Berkeley administrators, citing employee privacy, declined to discuss the allegations, the coach or whether they fully adhered to their anti-bullying policy. Last year, the campus renewed McGuire’s contract through January 2026 and raised his annual base salary by 17%, to $180,000.

Asked whether UC Berkeley had properly investigated the claims, spokesperson Dan Mogulof said: “When the current leadership of Cal Athletics is made aware of allegations that policies have been violated, or of complaints about employee behavior, they respond as a department, when appropriate, or refer the matter to appropriate campus investigative offices, when required.” Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton told one student’s mother — who also complained on behalf of her daughter — that a review found nothing to justify her allegations, according to an email from Knowlton reviewed by The Chronicle. The UC system president’s office told The Chronicle it had looked at how the campus handled the parent’s allegations and found no problem.

Despite these conclusions, three complainants who agreed to speak publicly told The Chronicle that Cal repeatedly failed to follow its own anti-bullying policy after receiving complaints about McGuire. They point to the McKeever case, in which swimmers reported bullying for at least eight years. It was not until the Orange County Register published stories that UC Berkeley commissioned an independent investigation and fired her. Many UC Berkeley faculty have also expressed skepticism about how the university has handled abusive-conduct complaints. Nearly 100 professors signed a petition in 2016 urging the chancellor not to renew the contract of a football coach embroiled in controversy around the death of one player and the hospitalization of another.

Officials had cleared the football program of using abusive and reckless drills. But The Chronicle revealed in 2016 that the probe was done by investigators with personal ties to the athletics department, and relied on interviews with players hand-picked by staff. Then-Chancellor Nicholas Dirks ordered a new probe, but internal correspondence obtained by The Chronicle showed he quietly scrapped the second investigation and renewed the football coach’s contract...

Full story at https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/uc-berkeley-bullying-claims-17857042.php.

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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/03/swimming-in-scandal-part-8.html.