Kansas rowers raise questions about compliance department protocol

The suspension of seven members of the women’s rowing team at Kansas creates interesting questions about the compliance protocol at the university.

Athletes who play Olympic (non-revenue) sports at major universities like Kansas often have experiences which differ greatly from athletes at the same schools who play football and men’s basketball. While there can be some upsides for that situation, there can be downsides as well.

According to a report from The Kansan, seven members of the Jayhawk women’s rowing team have been suspended from competition because they violated athletic department rules. How the athletic department has handled the situation raises questions.

The article states that the rowers created fake Instagram accounts, which is against rules set by the Kansas athletic department. The rowers were suspended late in March once the accounts came to the attention of team staff.

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"While the pair of rowers acknowledge that they broke the rules by having social media accounts under aliases, they believe that Kansas Athletics is taking an unneeded amount of time in the investigation process. They also believe there has been a severe lack in communication between the coaches and the rowers involved in the investigation."

Now nearly a month later, the status of the athletes is still unknown as the season is coming to a close. The athletes contend they still have no idea of how long they will be suspended for and state that the limited amount of information they have received suggests that the athletic department’s investigation of their actions is still ongoing.

This is a great example of where the experiences of non-revenue and revenue athletes can vary greatly. There are some legitimate questions which could be asked. If seven members of the men’s basketball team, or even the football team, had been implicated in similar rule violations, would the investigation by the athletic department still be ongoing nearly a month later while the athletes were sitting indefinitely suspended? Would there be a similar near silence from coaches and the athletic department staff on the matter that these women’s rowing team members are experiencing?

It’s hard to imagine that would be the case. It’s more likely that the investigation in that scenario would be concluded within days if not hours, and there would be updates forthcoming regularly and quickly. Non-revenue athletes may enjoy decreased media scrutiny and intrusion into their lives and performances, but they also suffer from decreased devotion of resources to their needs as well.

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