UPDATE: Former Baylor University President Kenneth Starr has resigned as chancellor of the university, ESPN reported on Wednesday (June 1). Starr had retained the title after he was relieved of his duties as president on May 31. He will remain a professor at Baylor Law School.
The statement also said that, effective immediately, the school is suspending Head Football Coach Art Briles “with an intent to terminate” and that Athletic Director Ian McCaw has been sanctioned and placed on probation.
(RNS) The nation’s largest Baptist university has reportedly fired its president, Kenneth Starr, over his handling of a sexual assault scandal — a turn of events that drips with irony for the former prosecutor’s critics.
As independent counsel in the 1990s, Starr vigorously investigated the Clinton White House over several purported breaches of public trust, but most controversially, over the former president’s affair with intern Monica Lewinsky.
At Baylor University, where Starr has served as chancellor and president since 2010, the board of regents Tuesday (May 24) reportedly booted Starr in the wake of accusations from female students that school officials disregarded their reports of rapes and other sexual assaults. Several accusers charged that the Waco, Texas, university swept their complaints under the rug to protect football players.
@Baylor Anyone else see the irony in Starr being impeached as president because of a sex scandal?
— Dagny Hope (@LexiOhPhile) May 24, 2016
Chip Brown of HornsDigest.com, a website that covers Texas sports, first reported the firing Tuesday, and was followed by several other media organizations, local and national.
Baylor University officials responded to the reports with a statement Tuesday from Assistant Vice President for Media Communications Lori Scott: “We will not respond to rumors, speculation or reports based on unnamed sources, but when official news is available, the University will provide it.”
Some in the Baylor community took to social media to blame the regents for making a fall guy out of Starr, and misdirecting their attention away from football coach Art Briles and athletic director Ian McCaw.
Others who have been following the Baylor scandal noted another irony: The same day that Baylor reportedly fired Starr, The New York Times ran a story reporting that Starr has nearly “seemed to absolve” Clinton of his alleged misdeeds.
