It seems to me that Notre Dame should pull everyone together who is involved in the life of a student athlete at the university. It is counter productive to lose a student who shows so much promise academically and on the football field.
Perhaps as we learn more about the situation with Joseph Fauria, a better judgment can be made. For now, I will take the word of the person who posted the story.
Something seems to be very wrong about this situation, and it hurts the football program and the efforts of the coaching staff and others. Perhaps the AD needs to be more involved as his office represents all student athletes at Notre Dame.
I had my run-in(s) with ResLife and I can confirm that my punishments were pretty harsh. In retrospect, were they inappropriately harsh? Probably not. I don't think that ResLife was ever overly concerned with the alleged (and in my case actual) offender's side of the story, however, so I can see where he's coming from there.
Comparing my run-ins and consequent punishments with those of Yeatman, for example, I'd say that his seemed much more harsh. After two alcohol-related offenses, Yeatman got suspended. After two alcohol offenses, I was punished but never suspended. After one offense, Fauria gets suspended. I don't advocate prying into these guys' affairs, but to truly compare, one would need to know the facts of the offenses. Otherwise you're comparing apples and oranges. For instance, ResLife treated parietals violations more harshly than (non-violent) alcohol violations. If you got caught having sex, that was pretty much an automatic suspension if not expulsion. Are the differnces in treatment for different offenses justified? Probably so, given the Catholic mission of the school. Are differences in treatment based on whether a student is on the football team justified? Definitely not, but to prove that there is disparate treatment for football players, one would need to compare ResLife's treatment of football players with its treatment of the rest of the student body. That is not an appropriate or realistic mission for the blogosphere, given the student privacy issues involved. Perhaps the University should do its own review of ResLife's procedures. I'm sure that would give rise to claims by ND haters that the football program is asking for special treatment, but the football team should not receive different treatment--whether better or worse--than the rest of the student body, and right is right, pundits be damned.
Clay
ResLife seems to have some preset reactions (dare I say knee jerk?) to different offenses. As a student I was involved with ResLife for two different types of issues. First, for a criminal infraction that (on advice of my rector) turned in to a sob story about depression and after mandatory counseling sessions I was on probation and then back to normal. No suspension. A few friends "sentenced" for alcohol related actions also received mandatory counseling, probation etc but no suspensions. I was subsequently suspended/kicked out for poor classroom performance (actually way too much time off campus but that's another story). I had to petition ResLife to let me back into school and my dean and others in ResLife did everything that they could to get me back and ensure my graduation from ND.
Now, this was all during Lou's time and I know that the administration has decided to crack down on parties, tailgating and underage drinking - which has driven more and more students to live off campus... but I digress.
I don't know what our former TE did but I can't imagine it was worse than theft or alcohol abuse so I have to call foul on ResLife for holding the football players or maybe all athletes to a higher standard.
ResLife please give college students a warning before suspending them whether they are athletes or not. (and relax on drinking and tailgating...)
.compbpnp
How can an institution that bestows honors on a pro abortion president not even allow Fauria the opportunity to appeal. He claims that was the case. Stinks badly if you ask me. Someone (Weis) needs to stand up for these kids if justifiable and don't hide behind the politically correct "privacy protection". Joe's life dream was to play for and graduate from Notre Dame. I hope his offense was of such a serious matter that it justified stomping out his dream. No appeal.....give me a break please.
Why are people that decide teenagers fate unemotional and rigid. I was a member of the Discipline Board at a high school for many years and learned early on that you praise them, you chew them out, you help them and in the end you get them to agree that the final decision is correct. It's simple and it works everytime.
I can confirm that when I was there from 99-03, there was no appeal of the severity of ResLife's punishments. So that at least is a blanket rule that is not discriminatory against athletes. Whether it is reasonable is another question.
Clay
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