COLORADO: SHATTERED REPUTATION

As president of the University of Colorado, Elizabeth Hoffman hoped to build the school's reputation as a center for science and technology. Now she's just hoping to preserve the school's reputation, period. With the football team embroiled in an explosive rape-and-sex scandal, damage control has become a full-time job. Allegations that the football team used sex and alcohol to help recruit top high-school players first surfaced last month, in connection with a 2002 lawsuit by a female student who claimed she was raped by two recruits. Since then, rape allegations by six other women against players have come to light. It wasn't until coach Gary Barnett put his foot in his mouth last week--responding to rape allegations by a former female placekicker for the team by calling her an "awful" player--that Hoffman took action. "Rather than apologize, he tried to explain himself," Hoffman told NEWSWEEK. "I felt he just didn't get it." Hoffman suspended Barnett until April 30, when an independent commission is set to release the result of its investigation into the allegations.

© 2004