âOn Tuesday, December 8th, the Utah State University Football Leadership Council held a zoom meeting with Noelle Cockett, President of USU, and John Hartwell, the Athletic Director. The purpose of the meeting was to have a say in the search for our new head coach. During the meeting, we voiced our support for Interim Head Coach Frank Maile. In response to our comments, their primary concern was his religious and cultural background. Players, stating their diverse faiths and backgrounds, then jumped to Coach Frank Maileâs defense in treating everyone with love, equality, and fairness.
The comments about his religion and cultural background were unacceptable. There was no reference to any comments about his race. The only mention of race in the article is this-
âIt is not the first time issues of repeated discrimination have happened. In December 2019, our head equipment manager used a racial slur against one of our African-American teammates. After disregarding the incident, pressure resurfaced to investigate in the summer of 2020. After the investigation, the administration concluded he would continue to be employed.
I wonder what she said.
Frank Maile, the coach in the article is a South Pacific Islander, so I suppose that something said about him could have been interpreted as racist, referring to his background.
I can think of two things- there might have been some worries about whether he could treat situations involving gay players/personnel fairly (answer: yes, unless he states otherwise).
Or, unlikely, there might have been some question about Sabbath observance, if for some reason a game had to be played on Sunday, same as you might have problems with a devout Muslim if a game had to be played on Friday. Which means you canât hire an Orthodox Jew, because games are played on Saturdays.
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There are no college football games on Sunday.
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âCultural backgroundâ is often used as a white supremacist dogwhistle for race. You hear a lot of neo-Nazis say crap like âWestern civilizationâ because to say âraceâ isnât palatable.
It doesnât seem to be clear what was said yet.
That article leaves me scratching my head, wondering whatâs going on.
No one has described what the university president said. And itâs not clear whether the football players heard the call, or if they heard second-hand that someone was offended so they should be offended as well.
Really hard to tell whatâs going on, whether itâs a big deal or a mountain made from a molehill.
Judging from the comments here, it seems sheâs not LDS, so that seems to be at the heart of it somehow, though itâs hard to imagine she wouldnât be cognizant of such concerns.
We donât know exactly what she said. We only know the general area. They will conduct an independent investigation.
The players were part of the Zoom call with the school president and athletic director. According to the players, he wasnât considered because of his race and religion.
if for some reason game had to be played on Sunday
Flight delay? Bus broke down? Equipment shipped elsewhere? Well, I said it was unlikely.
Watkins is the first woman to lead the University of Utah â the stateâs oldest, largest and only Research 1 higher education institution â in its 168-year history.
Watkins graduated with highest honors from the University of Northern Iowa with a Bachelor of Arts in Speech-Language Pathology. She earned a masterâs degree and a doctorate in child language at the University of Kansas; her scholarship focuses on communication development and disabilities in young children. Watkinsâ research and training endeavors have been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Education, as well as Lumina Foundation. She also has a Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology. In 2003, she was named a fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
She doesnât seem your typical white-supremacist.
LOL
(1) wrong person. Noelle Cockett is the president of Utah St. Itâs Utah state, not the University of Utah.
(2) Plenty of white supremacists are well-educated. Richard Spencer and Stephen Miller both went to Duke.