Scapegoat Bites Back

September 24, 2008, 9:00 a.m.

The Lawyer Did It
The first recorded use of a "scapegoat" of which I am aware was 4500 years ago. Whatever the actual facts may be, clearly it is an ancient and sometimes dishonorable ritual.

Is it being played out once again right here in River City?

UI President Sally Mason has responded to the Stolar Report of the University's mishandling of an alleged sexual assault last October 14 ("a perfect storm," the firm's lead investigator put it) by firing the UI's General Counsel Mark Mills (and also UI Vice President Phil Jones). She first checked with the Regents, who indicated they supported her action. The matter is to be reviewed by Regents tomorrow when she will presumably apologize, and they will, presumably, tell her to "go forth and sin no more" -- while at least maintaining (if not increasing) her $500,000-plus salary and benefits.

Before any of this happened I wrote "The Case for Mills and Jones" in Nicholas Johnson, "Rational Responses to Stolar and Global Finance," September 20, 2008. (The largest collection of documents, news coverage, commentary and links regarding all this remains the Web site, Nicholas Johnson, "University of Iowa Sexual Assault Controversy -- 2007-08," July 19-present. Sometime later today, hopefully, all of the enormous additional material available this morning will be commented upon, and linked to, from that Web site.)

In "The Case for Mills and Jones" I didn't attempt to defend everything the Stolar Report said they did (and didn't) do. But I noted five categories of reasons why their peremptory dismissals would not be appropriate -- never realizing last Saturday when I wrote it that they would be gone by yesterday (Tuesday). I mentioned, among other things, that because so many people were involved that it would be unfair to single them out; that if they were to be fired their overall performance needed to be evaluated in a routine and calm way (as the Regents are doing with President Mason); that "the buck stops," normally, at the CEO/presidential level, not the vice-presidential level; and that focusing on them, making it look like the problem was simply the consequences of the behavior of two individuals, diverts attention from the football culture of the campus and the need for organizational restructuring (as recommended by Stolar).

Finally, I noted that we had not yet really heard in full from Mills and Jones. We didn't know what the "back story" might prove to be.

We still haven't.

But we sure know a lot more than we knew yesterday afternoon.

I'll reproduce excerpts from Brian Morelli's story, below, and then provide some commentary of my own.

University of Iowa President Sally Mason was aware of how an alleged sexual assault investigation was being handled, a former UI executive said.

Marcus Mills said, "Yes, absolutely," when asked Tuesday if Mason knew what was happening in the investigation. . . .

Mills said he and Mason initially discussed student privacy concerns regarding the letters, but ultimately that did not preclude them releasing the letters to the regents.

The letters were not turned over because the regents didn't ask for documents during its investigation and because "we had the perception that whoever sent the letter, the family, did not want it to go to the regents and did not want it to be made public," Mills said.

Mills said he and Mason received a letter from UI public safety director Chuck Green, which Mills said he took to indicate Mason was aware of the family's concern about the letters becoming public. Mills declined to comment further on this.

Mills rejected his portrayal in the report as having the lead role in UI's investigation of an alleged sexual assault that involved two former UI football players Oct. 14, 2007, in Hillcrest Residence Hall.

"I didn't feel that I was overseeing the investigation. There wasn't an investigation in that sense. Different departments were heading up different aspects of the investigation," Mills said.

Mills also said Stolar failed to ask for his version of certain events and omitted parts of his testimony from their report, such as his side of conversations with the alleged victim's father. Mills also said UI's actions were affected by county attorney subpoenas, the criminal case against the former UI football players and a lawsuit filed by the Iowa City Press-Citizen.

"I think I handled this to the best of my ability with integrity under the circumstances," Mills said.

Brian Morelli, "Mills says Mason knew what was happening," Iowa City Press-Citizen, September 24, 2008, p. A1.

[More to come]

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