NMSU Sports Cultural Issues Continue

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The NMSU sports program is again garnering national attention as ESPN investigates via open records requests and is now reporting that “New Mexico State University officials have insisted that culture problems in their athletic department were isolated to men's basketball, but documents obtained by ESPN show an official for the women's team was found to have sexually harassed a student in the past year, and they reflect at least three other ongoing Title IX investigations involving incidents in the arena that houses athletic offices and an apparent lack of scrutiny in officials' hiring practices.”

For NMSU, athletics have been under scrutiny and have driven the news cycles all year. The scrutiny began when forward Mike Peake shot and killed a University of New Mexico student in what police called self-defense last November and issues continued to build.

Another investigation followed in February, when a men's basketball player accused his teammates of a monthslong hazing campaign.

Head coach Greg Heiar was fired Feb. 14 after less than a year on the job, and the rest of the men's basketball season was canceled, but questions linger about both incidents.

There is recent allegations that a former football coach physically abused players under the threat of taking away their scholarships.

And now school records have been obtained by ESPN under open records laws that show that a Title IX investigator took less than a week last year to find that George Ross Jr., the director of operations for women's basketball, had sexually harassed a student who was working in his office.

According to reporting by ESPN Sports: the student, who worked as a janitor at the arena, said in her complaint that Ross generally got to his office around 6 a.m., when the building was empty of witnesses. In July 2022, she was vacuuming his office when he asked if she wanted to hang out and began "pushing" to take her out for a beer, according to documents.

The student said she tried to deflect and eventually left to clean a different office, but he followed her there and stood in the doorway, the documents say.

She said Ross told her, "Don't forget what I said," then asked three or four more times for a date, according to the documents. The woman felt threatened and told a co-worker what happened, and that person took the story to the Title IX office on July 14.

In a follow-up letter, Title IX deputy coordinator Annamarie DeLovato wrote that Ross described the interaction as well-intended "small talk." In her finding of responsibility, DeLovato gave Ross a warning and, four days after opening the case, issued a no-contact order that barred him from interacting with the student.

Notes from the case file indicate an unidentified person interviewed in the case said Ross' behavior should prevent him from coaching or being around other women.

But even as DeLovato forbade Ross from speaking to the student and forced him to review basic staff conduct rules, she wrote in her report that the action didn't rise to the level of violating NMSU's nondiscrimination policy. That policy specifies that a single act of harassment is serious enough to be considered a violation, and includes harassment that's both "unwelcome" and "of a sexual nature."

Ross continues in his job with the women's team. He did not respond to efforts by ESPN to reach him directly by email and phone.

NMSU's Title IX office is investigating three other complaints of sexual harassment or abuse stemming from reported incidents at the address for Pan American Center, which houses the basketball arena and athletic department offices, according to documents. The school declined to release any details on the incidents.

The men's basketball team is set to resume in 2023-24, although virtually the whole team -- including Odunewu, Benjamin, Peake, Jaden Alexander, Doctor Bradley, Kyle Feit, DaJuan Gordon, Shahar Lazar, Issa Muhammad and Mady Traoré has each entered the transfer portal.

The university is tight lipped to ESPN and local media. AlamogordoTownNews.com and Krazy KALHRadio.org have reached to the university for comment. We have not received a statement as of press time. This continues to be an evolving story.

The sister campus to NMSU is a satellite campus NMSU-Alamogordo. There are no pending investigations reported tied to the local campus nor issues in other departments reported at this time. 

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