To be completely honest, I am disgusted. I am shocked that Liberty decided to allow this person to be the leader of their athletic department.

For those like myself who did not know about what has been going with Baylor and Liberty, I will catch you up. Liberty university has recently hired Ian McCaw as the new athletic director not even a month after the previous director resigned. The reason this is causing a major stir is that McCaw has just recently resigned from Baylor which currently facing multiple law suits. To be more specific though since 2011, 17 women have come forward about domestic violence and sexual assaults that have occurred all involving 19 football players for Baylor. Some of these cases also, to make the issue worse, the women are saying the University completely ignored or tried to suppress.

The main case, though, that is with this scandal though is the story of a female student athlete.

This is her story in summary as told by Bonnie Pritchett from her article through the website The World: “The report noted that in 2013 a female athlete reported to her head coach that five Baylor football players had sexually assaulted her. That information was passed on to McCaw, Briles, and the sports administrator for the female student’s team. Falwell said in his statement that McCaw “did not attempt to hide the sexual assault but, instead, had one of his coaches report it to Judicial Affairs at Baylor. …” But a Nov. 11 statement issued by Baylor said, “In this case, the University can find no information that would support a conclusion that the student-athlete’s head coach—or any other Athletics Department personnel—reported the incident to Judicial Affairs in 2013 or at any time since.”

I first learned of this scandal with Baylor and the hiring of McCaw to Liberty University from one of my professors who is an alumnus of Liberty. When he told us in class I became completely speechless: how could Liberty completely ignore the fact that this former Athletic Director of Baylor, whether the allegations are true or false, is under fire? Especially in this case, where it is clear that the allegations being made are true. We begin to ask the question, why do we put so much worth on football, so much that we would tell female students to not pursue legal actions after being assaulted? By hiring McCaw as the new Athletic Director for Liberty, it makes a statement for all current or future sexual assault and or domestic violence victims on Liberty’s campus. A statement that says the success of athletics, football specifically, is more important than caring for the victims.

Why must we sacrifice so much just for the possible success of a sport? How can this university put on the blinders and hire this person?

I say all of this to say that I am in a state of shock and fear for Liberty, this university needs our thoughts and prayers as they continue to move forward with the dangerous decision. Pray for the students who must live with this decision especially.