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American Morning
University of Colorado Football Sex Scandal
Aired February 18, 2004 - 07:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: There are new allegations about the University of Colorado football program, already plagued by scandal. Katie Hnida, a place kicker for Colorado in 1999, tells "Sports Illustrated" that she was abused, molested and on one occasion raped while she was on the team. This charge comes after three women sued the university, claiming they were raped at sex parties allegedly held to entice recruits.
Joining us this morning from Denver to talk about the school's reaction to the growing sex scandal is the University of Colorado President Elizabeth Hoffman.
Nice to see you, President Hoffman. Thank you very much for being with us.
ELIZABETH HOFFMAN, PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO: Good morning, Soledad. Thanks for the opportunity.
O'BRIEN: It's our pleasure. Describe for me how the school is handling the allegations, all of them, at this point.
Well, there are several different allegations, but the most recent one by Katie Hnida was really the most shocking one to me.
And so, we have decided to appoint a special assistant to the president and chancellor to be in the athletic department, to be our eyes and ears in the athletic department, to really get a sense of what the culture is, to talk to people, to try to help us get to the bottom of what is going on in the athletic department. Because the chancellor and I have very big other issues to deal with, like a budget crises of extraordinary magnitude in this state that threatens to take away all of the funding for higher education in this state.
So, we have got to deal with these larger issues, but at the same time this one is so serious that we need to have somebody who can tell us exactly what is going on, so that we can get to the bottom of all of these allegations...
O'BRIEN: Do you...
HOFFMAN: ... and find out whether someone is responsible.
O'BRIEN: Do you think you'll ever get to the bottom of what happened with Katie Hnida? Here's what she told "Sports Illustrated": "The recent allegations in the football program at the University of Colorado have caused me to come forward with details of my own experience at CU. To this day, I'm dealing with repercussions suffered from a short time at CU. I will have to deal with it for the rest of my life."
Have you been in contact with her at all? She has said she has no intention at this point to file any charges.
HOFFMAN: Yes, she has. But we have asked the Boulder police to investigate this. We think that it should be investigated by the police. At the same time, we have asked the victims' rights assistance people on the Boulder campus to reach out to her as well.
We want to find out from her for ourselves exactly what happened. Whatever she believes happened, she will carry with her for the rest of her life. But we need to get a sense of whether what she experienced is an isolated incident, or whether it's a pervasive culture in the athletic department that needs to be addressed, and needs to be addressed in a very direct way.
O'BRIEN: I want to play a couple of things that the coach, Coach Gary Barnett, had to say very recently at a news conference. You were talking a little about this liaison position to investigate the culture. We were just chatting about that. Here's what Coach Gary Barnett had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GARY BARNETT, HEAD FOOTBALL COACH, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO: We have not done anything wrong. There isn't a shred of evidence to this date to back up any allegation that's been made, and there won't be. And so, you know, we're going on with this program. Were going to get through all of this stuff. It's not fun. It's not pretty. It's awful on our players, but we're going to lead this football team through this situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Is he right, there's no shred of evidence at this point?
HOFFMAN: At this point, there is no credible evidence, but that is why we need to have somebody in the athletic department asking the right questions, observing what goes on. I believe that he believes very strongly that he is doing the right thing, but we need somebody who can be our eyes and ears, somebody who has no stake in the outcome to really look at this thoroughly, take a hard look at what is going on.
O'BRIEN: I'm curious to know what you think about these comments that he made a little bit later on in that conversation. Let's listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARNETT: Well, it was obvious that Katie was not very good. She was awful. OK? And so, guys -- you know what guys do? They respect your ability. I mean, you could be 90 years old, but if you can go out and play, they respect you. Well, Katie was a girl. And not only was she a girl, she was terrible. (END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Katie was a girl. Not only was she a girl, she was terrible. I'm curious to know what you think about those comments, and if his job is secure at this point.
HOFFMAN: Well, first of all, I wish he had not made a comment like that. Very clearly at a time like this, we need to take the high road, and I certainly will have a conversation with him about making a statement like that on TV.
What I've said is no one's job is secure. My job isn't secure. We have to look at this very, very carefully. We have to find out whether anyone is responsible.
And if someone is not directly responsible, what changes might we need to make in addition to all of the changes we have already made? We have the only curfew now in Division I football. We have extremely limited time that recruits spend without adult supervision. The coach writes letters to parents, the recruits and their coaches about the expectations. He spends a great deal of time talking about issues like date rape, alcohol abuse et cetera.
So, we've made a lot of changes, but we need to know what other changes we might need to make, and whether they are deeply cultural or whether they have more to do with rules and regulations.
O'BRIEN: Elizabeth Hoffman is the president of the University of Colorado joining us this morning. Nice to see you, President Hoffman. Thank you.
HOFFMAN: Thank you, Soledad.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired February 18, 2004 - 07:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: There are new allegations about the University of Colorado football program, already plagued by scandal. Katie Hnida, a place kicker for Colorado in 1999, tells "Sports Illustrated" that she was abused, molested and on one occasion raped while she was on the team. This charge comes after three women sued the university, claiming they were raped at sex parties allegedly held to entice recruits.
Joining us this morning from Denver to talk about the school's reaction to the growing sex scandal is the University of Colorado President Elizabeth Hoffman.
Nice to see you, President Hoffman. Thank you very much for being with us.
ELIZABETH HOFFMAN, PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO: Good morning, Soledad. Thanks for the opportunity.
O'BRIEN: It's our pleasure. Describe for me how the school is handling the allegations, all of them, at this point.
Well, there are several different allegations, but the most recent one by Katie Hnida was really the most shocking one to me.
And so, we have decided to appoint a special assistant to the president and chancellor to be in the athletic department, to be our eyes and ears in the athletic department, to really get a sense of what the culture is, to talk to people, to try to help us get to the bottom of what is going on in the athletic department. Because the chancellor and I have very big other issues to deal with, like a budget crises of extraordinary magnitude in this state that threatens to take away all of the funding for higher education in this state.
So, we have got to deal with these larger issues, but at the same time this one is so serious that we need to have somebody who can tell us exactly what is going on, so that we can get to the bottom of all of these allegations...
O'BRIEN: Do you...
HOFFMAN: ... and find out whether someone is responsible.
O'BRIEN: Do you think you'll ever get to the bottom of what happened with Katie Hnida? Here's what she told "Sports Illustrated": "The recent allegations in the football program at the University of Colorado have caused me to come forward with details of my own experience at CU. To this day, I'm dealing with repercussions suffered from a short time at CU. I will have to deal with it for the rest of my life."
Have you been in contact with her at all? She has said she has no intention at this point to file any charges.
HOFFMAN: Yes, she has. But we have asked the Boulder police to investigate this. We think that it should be investigated by the police. At the same time, we have asked the victims' rights assistance people on the Boulder campus to reach out to her as well.
We want to find out from her for ourselves exactly what happened. Whatever she believes happened, she will carry with her for the rest of her life. But we need to get a sense of whether what she experienced is an isolated incident, or whether it's a pervasive culture in the athletic department that needs to be addressed, and needs to be addressed in a very direct way.
O'BRIEN: I want to play a couple of things that the coach, Coach Gary Barnett, had to say very recently at a news conference. You were talking a little about this liaison position to investigate the culture. We were just chatting about that. Here's what Coach Gary Barnett had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GARY BARNETT, HEAD FOOTBALL COACH, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO: We have not done anything wrong. There isn't a shred of evidence to this date to back up any allegation that's been made, and there won't be. And so, you know, we're going on with this program. Were going to get through all of this stuff. It's not fun. It's not pretty. It's awful on our players, but we're going to lead this football team through this situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Is he right, there's no shred of evidence at this point?
HOFFMAN: At this point, there is no credible evidence, but that is why we need to have somebody in the athletic department asking the right questions, observing what goes on. I believe that he believes very strongly that he is doing the right thing, but we need somebody who can be our eyes and ears, somebody who has no stake in the outcome to really look at this thoroughly, take a hard look at what is going on.
O'BRIEN: I'm curious to know what you think about these comments that he made a little bit later on in that conversation. Let's listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARNETT: Well, it was obvious that Katie was not very good. She was awful. OK? And so, guys -- you know what guys do? They respect your ability. I mean, you could be 90 years old, but if you can go out and play, they respect you. Well, Katie was a girl. And not only was she a girl, she was terrible. (END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Katie was a girl. Not only was she a girl, she was terrible. I'm curious to know what you think about those comments, and if his job is secure at this point.
HOFFMAN: Well, first of all, I wish he had not made a comment like that. Very clearly at a time like this, we need to take the high road, and I certainly will have a conversation with him about making a statement like that on TV.
What I've said is no one's job is secure. My job isn't secure. We have to look at this very, very carefully. We have to find out whether anyone is responsible.
And if someone is not directly responsible, what changes might we need to make in addition to all of the changes we have already made? We have the only curfew now in Division I football. We have extremely limited time that recruits spend without adult supervision. The coach writes letters to parents, the recruits and their coaches about the expectations. He spends a great deal of time talking about issues like date rape, alcohol abuse et cetera.
So, we've made a lot of changes, but we need to know what other changes we might need to make, and whether they are deeply cultural or whether they have more to do with rules and regulations.
O'BRIEN: Elizabeth Hoffman is the president of the University of Colorado joining us this morning. Nice to see you, President Hoffman. Thank you.
HOFFMAN: Thank you, Soledad.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
