Ohio University President Roderick McDavis announced yesterday that he placed Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt in charge of reviewing and standardizing the university's current Student-Athlete Code of Conduct.
At the same press conference, Hocutt announced the indefinite suspension of four student-athletes: sophomores Tommy Stuck and Wesley Dunlap, junior Paul Johnson ' all members of the Ohio football team ' and senior men's basketball player Ken Ottrix.
The administration's actions come three days after an article in The Columbus Dispatch reported 17 players on the Ohio football team have been arrested in the past nine months, with minimum punishments.
Last week I became aware that there have been a number of incidents involving student-athletes
McDavis said. These incidents stretch back over the last several months and include players being charged and in some cases convicted of serious matters
including fighting
driving under the influence and the misuse or illegal possession of alcohol and other drugs. This situation is clearly not acceptable.
McDavis said he met with Hocutt on Saturday and asked him to immediately begin reviewing the athletic department's policies and procedures for student conduct
he said. I have asked Kirby to review our current practices
examine the practices used by peer institutions and recommend to me any changes he thinks are needed.
Hocutt said he felt it is time for the old policy, which left room for interpretation, to be modified. He added that the former policy placed the discretion of disciplinary action in the hands of the individual coaches for first offenses and that follow-up offenses warranted personal involvement by the athletic director.
Given the current situation in which we find ourselves today we must
as a department
develop a policy that provides standard action to each legal case
Hocutt said. This will in turn protect our coaches and take the discrepancy out of the way we handle each individual caseG?it will treat all 531 student-athletes consistently.
Hocutt said he hopes the new policy will be in place by the end of the month; until then he will handle all legal matters in which student athletes are involved personally.
In response to the lack of on-field discipline ,despite the high number of arrests, the Executive Committee of the Ohio University Board of Trustees will meet today with Hocutt to discuss the situation and personnel matters, chairman R. Gregory Browning said.
Browning, who had originally expressed his displeasure in learning of the high numbers in The Dispatch, called the administration's initial response of calling for a policy evaluation proper.
We're going to be fully engaged
Browning said of the board of trustees' involvement in the evaluation process, adding that the board of trustees is primarily a policy board and not an administrative board.
Not scheduled to meet until Oct. 16, the Intercollegiate Athletic Committee held an emergency meeting yesterday to begin working with Hocutt and the athletic department to review the student-athlete code of conduct.
Committee Chairman Douglas Bolon, a professor in the school of health and sciences, said there was a consensus to move toward a standardized policy and that it is still a work in progress.
Hocutt made it clear yesterday that the action being taken by him and other university officials is in no way an attack on the Ohio football team or coach Frank Solich's disciplinary procedures.
I think coach Solich and his staff have done a very good job with their disciplinary program
