By Jamie Roberman | Lariat Letter
To the Lariat Staff:
I have been a fan of your newspaper since before I came to Baylor. I have treasured how the Lariat supports Baylor and pushes the university to be better. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in the recently published opinion piece on Art Briles, “I’m sick of hearing from Art Briles,” published Monday.
I agree that national media repeating the same stories about Baylor’s disgrace has become an annoyance. However, they report the bad and not the good. Baylor and its community deserve to hear the whole story from each party. We cannot move on until we know the truth. With little evidence from the Pepper-Hamilton report, we must rely on the evidence we do have. This evidence does not show a clear-cut case.
Briles acted in mercy and grace to the player in question and was punished for this. If this was his only crime, I do not believe that his punishment, furthered by the ostracization from his coaching passion, is a just one.
We do not know exactly what happened in the in Pepper-Hamilton Report or in the following regent’s meeting, but we do know that the sexual violence is not just an athletics issue. There continues to be gender discrimination and sexual violence at Baylor. There continues to be turnaround in the Title IX department. Baylor is not better because of the dismissal of past employees. Baylor is still struggling. Keeping silent about the events surrounding Briles’s removal, as this opinion piece encourages, will keep the problem from being solved. The only way to resolve this situation begins with the complete exposure of wrongdoing.
I love Baylor, but its reputation is garbage if it is hiding a terrible injustice behind its Christian name. We must fix the problem and become better. The reputation will follow.
Furthermore, I implore the writer to discontinue the usage of the phrase “speak for the majority” without proof. Although this has strong rhetoric, it is logically flawed and implies lazy arrogance. You may be speaking for the verbal minority.
Jamie Roberman
College Station
Statistics Doctoral Candidate
