Following a report that Baylor University’s Board of Regents had fired Kenneth W. Starr as its president, the university said on Tuesday that it would not respond to “rumors, speculation or reports based on unnamed sources.”
Citing anonymous sources, the website HornsDigest.com reported Tuesday morning that the regents had fired Mr. Starr.
Mr. Starr and Baylor’s football coach, Art Briles, have been under a cloud of controversy in recent months for alleged sexual assaults by athletes in the football program. Most recently, ESPN’s Outside the Lines reported that police records showed many football players were involved in reported sexual assaults from 2011 to 2015, but few had been disciplined by the university.
Baylor recently commissioned an outside review into its handling of sexual assaults. The report is finished but has not yet been made public. In its statement Tuesday afternoon, the institution said the board was continuing to review the findings of the investigation and an announcement was expected by June 3.
Mr. Starr, best known for his investigation of the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky sex scandal in the 1990s, was hired in 2010.
Here’s Baylor’s complete statement:
The Baylor Board of Regents continues its work to review the findings of the Pepper Hamilton investigation and we anticipate further communication will come after the Board completes its deliberations. We will not respond to rumors, speculation or reports based on unnamed sources, but when official news is available, the University will provide it. We expect an announcement by June 3.
For more, see this Chronicle article.
