Harvard General Counsel to review men’s soccer player’s sexually explicit ‘scouting report’
Harvard’s Office of General Counsel will “conduct an immediate review” of the 2012 men’s soccer team’s fake “scouting report” that ranked freshmen recruits for the women’s soccer team in an explicit and sexual manner, University President Drew Faust said in a statement Tuesday.
“I was deeply disturbed to read the news reporting concerning the men’s soccer team,” she said. “Such behavior is appalling and completely at odds with the mutual respect that is a fundamental value of our community. The offensive and derogatory remarks reported by The Crimson have no place at Harvard.”
Faust said the review will be “independent of any responsive action undertaken by the Title IX office in accordance with its policies.”
“I want to ensure not only that such actions do not happen again, whether on men’s soccer or any other Harvard team, but also that all members of our community fully understand that such activities have never been, and never will be, acceptable at Harvard,” she added.
The nine-page report, distributed among the team over email, described each female recruit from 2012 in lewd terms, assigning them numerical scores and hypothetical sexual “positions” in addition to their positions on the field, and included photographs taken from social media accounts, the Crimson reported last week. Since the uncovering of the report, coaches and staff at the university have spoken out against it.
“Harvard University Athletics has zero tolerance for behavior of this kind and is deeply upset by these offensive and derogatory remarks,” Harvard Athletic Director Robert Scalise said in a statement to Boston.com last week. “Harvard College students, including members of our athletic teams, are required to uphold the values of this community, which are rooted in the respect and dignity for all members of our community. University Athletics continues to reinforce with our student-athletes appropriate and respectful social behavior and team conduct.”
Six former members of the Harvard women’s soccer team also responded to the “scouting report” in a op-ed published Saturday in The Harvard Crimson.
“This document might have stung any other group of women you chose to target, but not us,” the former teammates wrote. “We know as teammates that we rise to the occasion, that we are stronger together, and that we will not tolerate anything less than respect for women that we care for more than ourselves.”
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