Yale is now facing a lawsuit from Jack Montague, the basketball star who was expelled this spring. The indefatigable KC Johnson looks into the case over on Minding the Campus.
The most salient fact, I think, is that the accusation against Montague occurred only because one of the university’s Title IX administrators, one Angela Gleason, pressured the woman who was supposedly victimized by Montague. Johnson writes, “Gleason wanted the accuser to file charges because Montague was such an inviting target — expelling a high-profile star athlete would prove Yale’s ’seriousness’ about confronting sexual assault.”
Like many other cases, this isn’t about justice; it’s about a zealot wanting to make a point to promote a cause. Accused heretics had about as much of a chance with the Inquisition.
Johnson concludes with the juicy fact that when Yale’s basketball players wore warmup jerseys bearing Montague’s name in the NCAA tournament, they were ordered by the administration to issue an apology for offending students who had proclaimed their outrage. “If the university were so sensitive to portraying Montague as guilty that it pressured other students to refrain from pro-Montague statements, how fairly could it have treated him?” Johnson asks.
This case will be most interesting. Yale might take a huge hit for having surrendered its integrity to administrators on the prowl to show how powerful they are.