Twitter Problems Continue

It was less than a year ago that the Chad Washington/football team Twitter controversy exploded for Columbia.

For the record, Washington was basically cleared of every real charge in the alleged assault. And based on what I know, I think justice was served. I think Washington was unfairly accused of committing a serious crime when he wasn’t the instigator and no real serious crime was committed anyway.

But the Washington story quickly morphed into something else when various student media outlets took a look at Washington’s Twitter account and the Twitter accounts of several of his teammates. They found a long list of offensive and just plain dumb statements that caused a stir on campus.

I’m a major fan of Free Speech, but a lot of people have a tough time understanding what Free Speech really means. It means you CAN say whatever you like. It doesn’t mean you get immunity from any consequences based on what you say.

So in that context, Athletic Director Dianne Murphy and Head Coach Pete Mangurian promised us the players who had made the most offensive Tweets would be dealt with and that all the athletes would be reminded of special guidelines on social media.

So much for that.

Not a week goes by that I don’t see an ill-advised, stupid, or vulgar Tweet by a CU athlete.

Again, I’m not in favor of censoring these young men and women. And I know they’re all very young. But I have to ask: WHY THE HELL is this still going on?

Today, I saw a pic on Twitter of one of our football players lying on a bench near the Low Steps with his hand right down his pants. The picture was actually taken by another football player, so that’s a two-for-one in the dopiness department.

I honestly don’t know who should be taken to the woodshed over this; maybe no one. But it’s just another embarrassment that I don’t see the other seven Ivy schools having to deal with as much as we do.

I’d like to know why this continues to happen and whether it’s indicative of an overall issue of the administration not serving our student athletes properly. Remember that there are people on the staff who are charged with this job, who are getting paid by tuition revenue and our donations. If Columbia wants to cut these positions to save money, that’s fine. But if we’re all paying for something we’re not getting, that’s not fine.

And where is that mentoring program that Mangurian supposedly set up for the players? Aren’t any of the football alums awake enough or caring enough to tell these current players to stop making fools of themselves online?

These Tweets and other stupidity could haunt these students well past graduation. Somebody PLEASE fix this!

Raye-Redmond Announcement

In case anyone wasn’t clear about this, Lehigh has now officially announced  that Marc Raye-Redmond is a member of its incoming freshmen class.