An anonymous party submitted a Title IX complaint to Occidental College and the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) on behalf of an unspecified number of football players Oct. 4, alleging that Director of Athletics Jaime Hoffman and the department of athletics hold an anti-male bias that has compromised the football team and its players’ reputation.
The complaint implicates President Jonathan Veitch and the Occidental Board of Trustees for their support of Hoffman. The Occidental Weekly obtained the text of this complaint legally from a source on the football team.
According to the text of the complaint, the anonymous party submitted this complaint to Danica Myers, interim Title IX coordinator, and the OCR. The anonymous party copied Veitch, Interim General Counsel Rachel Cronin and Chair of the Board of Trustees Susan Mallory on the same email.
Myers confirmed via email that the college received this Title IX complaint.
“To protect student privacy, we cannot comment on the specifics of a complaint other than to say that the college has responded promptly and in accordance with its policies and procedures,” Myers said via email. “More broadly, the college is committed to the success and well-being of all of its students, in and outside the classroom.”
According to Myers, the OCR will make a decision to proceed with the complaint independently. She said via email that the college has a policy to prohibit gender-based harassment and discrimination. This policy encourages individuals to report misconduct and allows for anonymous complaints.
“While college policy provides for anonymous complaints, the college’s ability to respond may be limited depending on the extent of information available,” Myers said via email.
According to the complaint, the anonymous party highlighted two points among numerous alleged examples of an anti-male bias from Hoffman and the athletics department: a pattern of mismanagement of and a lack of material support for the football program, as well as a history of unpleasant interactions between Hoffman and the football team.
As an example of the first point, the complaint detailed the provision of inadequate practice pads and damaged helmets at the start of the 2017 football training camp this past summer.
Football wide receiver Carlton O’Neal (junior) — commenting specifically on the state of the football program — said that he and his teammates had personal experience receiving inadequate gear.
“A lot of the players on the team bought their own helmets, because they didn’t feel the helmets that were being provided were adequate,” O’Neal said. “I know my high school, which had more players [than Occidental], had far better equipment, helmets and shoulder pads.”
O’Neal said his equipment was outdated in addition to being inadequate.
“I’m wearing a type of shoulder pad with this elastic band that I haven’t worn since I played Pop Warner in fourth grade,” O’Neal said. “They’re old pads. I don’t think anyone’s made pads with elastic band straps in a while.”
Josh Greaves (sophomore), a quarterback on the football team, said that while the college canceled two football games due to the thin team roster size, other schools of similar sizes and academic quality such as Pomona and Claremont McKenna have been able to field full teams.
O’Neal said he was surprised that the college did not have adequate equipment for even a reduced team roster.
“I think the target number for Occidental college football is about 70-ish, and it shocked me that we only had 40 guys and we didn’t have good helmets for 40,” O’Neal said.
According to the complaint, Robert Cushman, head coach of the football team, brought the inadequate equipment to Hoffman’s attention at the start of the training camp. The complaint states that this incident is reflective of the hands-off approach of Hoffman and the athletics department that had consequences for players’ safety, recruitment and retention.
The complaint states that any investigation of Hoffman should include a consideration of how funding is split between male and female teams. Occidental’s 2017 Equity and Athletics Report, published Oct. 12 in accordance with the 2008 Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA), covers the 2016–2017 fiscal year. The EADA report stated that the football team received $455,505 in revenue, which is made up of institutional support, donations, ticket sales and any other revenue that can be attributed to intercollegiate athletics. This revenue was greater than what any other men’s or women’s sport received, including men’s track and field and cross country combined, which received $246,360 for the same period. In terms of respective roster sizes at the beginning of the 2016 season, the football team had 63 players while the men’s track and field and cross country teams combined had 77 players.
The second point highlighted unpleasant interactions between the team and Hoffman, specifically the meeting between Hoffman and the team Sept. 14 when she informed the team that their Sept. 16 game against Pacific University would be canceled.
It is disputed whether players were disrespectful to Hoffman at this meeting. Cushman sent an email to the football team the night of Sept. 14 referring to the meeting with Hoffman, reprimanding the team for reactionary, abusive and disrespectful behavior. According to an anonymous* alum, an unspecified number of football players shouted an expletive at Hoffman when she informed them that the college canceled their game. The Title IX complaint stated that Hoffman mischaracterized the players’ questions at this meeting as disrespectful.
While Greaves said the meeting was intense and William Grossman (sophomore), a linebacker, said it left some players in tears, both said that the team’s questions and conduct were not disrespectful. According to Greaves and Grossman — and included in the complaint — Hoffman confronted the team at a Saturday practice Sept. 16 and berated them over their behavior.
The complaint stated that Hoffman’s actions were a personal campaign to inflame the community against the football team. Grossman said the Title IX complaint is also a response to the mistreatment of football players by the Occidental community.
“The idea is that there has been a systematic pattern of mistreatment of football players here, whether it’s [by] students [or] the administration — and, quite honestly, we’re students just like anyone else,” Grossman said. “Just because we happen to wear pads and hit people on a Saturday doesn’t make us, we feel, any different than anyone else here.”
According to Greaves — who said that he has not seen the text of the Title IX report — the lawyers who drew up the complaint did not talk to him directly, but the complaint represents the team’s experiences.
“The information and details inside of the Title IX report were from the perspective of us as players and what we’ve heard and seen and have been through because the lawyers consulted us,” Greaves said. “They talked to us. So it wasn’t like they’re not a part of the program and they’re just, you know, typing away, not knowing anything.”
The Occidental Weekly reached out to Hoffman and Cushman multiple times to discuss the Title IX complaint, but neither was available for comment at the time of publishing. According to Jim Tranquada, director of communications and community relations, Myers’ statement will be the only college response on this Title IX complaint.
*The Occidental Weekly granted the alum anonymity to protect against employment retribution.
Update: This article was updated Oct. 20 to include clarification regarding O’Neal and Greaves’ statements.
I’d be curious to know about Hoffman and Cushman’s prior relationship before he accepted the head coach position. Well known that he accepted only a one year contract to leave his team in Minn and fly all the way out to CA to relocate with only one week before training camp. Why would a coach do that? Could it be that he had an agreement with Hoffman to get a paid relo and a full years salary even if the team ended up not playing? He mentions he is from CA and always wanted to come back. Word on the street is that Hoffman’s hiring process was not properly vetted and that he was the only one she really looked at. What was his agreement and what were the terms?
Sounds like a load of crap. Let us know the outcome of this investigation. Please explain how the fb program gets the most money of any program and is mistreated.
It seems to me, that some of the current Oxy Football team have earned their reputation. Clearly, the facts are they get more resources than any of the other 20 varsity sports and they are saying there’s a bias against them? How does that make any sense? If anything, there is clearly sexism happening the other way. Why is it ok for the head football coach to reprimand them, but when the AD does her job and addresses their poor behavior it’s described as “berating?” Let’s use some critical thinking skills and look past the noise at the facts…
Hoffman has been engineering the destruction of the football team for some time, with Veitch’s full support. Hoffman is a cancer that has spread throughout the athletic’s department, and Veitch doesn’t give a rat’s patoot.
Is it a coincidence that Jamie Hoffman was born in 1984, the same year the Los Angeles Raiders beat the Washington R-words to win their first and only super bowl, only to have the guts of LA fans ripped out when the team was moved by the great Al Davis 10 years later? Just connecting some dots, folks.
I am a senior student athlete at Oxy and I also find these claims confusing to say the least. The football team traveled to Hawaii last year. They have a brand new locker room ( many of us do not have a locker room). They have robotic tackling dummies that they tweet about. They spend more money than any other program according to the figures. And our AD is anti-male or anti-football somehow?? Sound like the opposite to me.
Football program’s revenue is higher than expenditures. This revenue does not include alumni contribution which have always been high for the football program. Expenditure per athlete in the program is higher in many of the sports. These are also sports with much less revenue. There is a link to the report in the article titled Occidental’s 2017 Equity and Athletics Report
Football program’s revenue is higher than expenditures. This revenue does not include alumni contribution which have always been high for the football program. Expenditure per athlete in the program is higher in many of the sports. These are also sports with much less revenue. There is a link to the report in the article titled Occidental’s 2017 Equity and Athletics Report
One critical element the writer did not include here— the “expletive” used against Hoffman by the team was a GENDERED SLUR; specifically, c**t. This, by the way, comes from a team that last year was the subject of controversy after women were drugged at their house. Do these cowards know why Title IX exist? The law states: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity.” Football teams are by far and away the best funded teams across the board. You know why your team doesn’t have good helmets? Because Oxy’s sports are not on par with elite high schools and colleges. Repeatedly berating someone by calling them a c**t? Raping women and terrorizing them after they resist and/or report? That’s the stuff that ACTUALLY matters, and the stuff that these weak cis men couldn’t even conceptualize happening to them. This report is indeed a symptom of Trump-era white supremacy and violent patriarchy. I doubt my mother, a Title IX era athlete who fought alongside fellow womxn for equitable standards in sports (and a victim of sexual assault from, of course, a football player), could have ever imagined that the hard work and determination she underwent for this law would ultimately be flipped around to protect her oppressors.
Not to mention, the 1984 summer olympics were held in Los Angeles, during which olympic teams stayed at Oxy. I’d bet you at least 5 dollars that those damn soviets birthed hoffman and left him as a plant to destroy western football. Report that “The Weekly”… or are you run by the soviets as well????
Football program’s revenue is higher than expenditures. This revenue does not include alumni contribution which have always been high for the football program. Expenditure per athlete in the program is higher in many of the sports. These are also sports with much less revenue. There is a link to the report in the article titled Occidental’s 2017 Equity and Athletics Report
Evidence of gendered slur?
I think we should consider the prevalence of Australian punters in today’s NCAA football landscape. Sick c**t is actually a term of mutual respect and platonic affection in Australia.
Smith: The gendered slur is alluded to in the article, my guess is that it is not publishable in detail in the Weekly at this time because of the privacy regulations around Title IX. It of course was observed by everyone in the meeting (and has been passed on through personal networks, as these things always do). At this time evidence is probably not allowed to be shared over official platforms.
Alum96: Yeah, well in America c**t is an extremely derogatory term used to inflict gendered violence, and no men in this country should ever use it. Don’t try to justify these boy’s actions by saying they must be more familiar with Australian vernacular than American. They knew exactly what they were doing, and so do you.
To these football players… I can imagine that you are completely heartbroken and utterly disappointed to hear the season that you worked so hard for was cancelled. I’m sure many of you chose Occidental with your football career in mind and now feel duped. That is understandable. But your anger is misplaced. An unfortunate series of events, some having to do with national trends, culminated in the program not having a healthy roster. And that sucks. But more importantly, there is literally zero chance any of this would be happening if Hoffman were a man. It is ironic at best and sexist and homophobic at worst to believe that Hoffman has conspired to end the football program because she is “anti-male.” I know all of this seems so important right now, and it is. But in less than even 5 years you’ll realize that your D3 athletic career was a lot of good memories but otherwise totally meaningless. On the other hand, your character lasts forever and right now you’re being embalmed as ignorant, disrespectful, and ungrateful young men. I hope you find the integrity to rise above.
Love,
A former fellow mediocre Oxy athlete
In response to Alum17: I understand you’re upset, but your ill conceived rant won’t help anyone or anything. We all need to work together to promote Oxy in all forms. If members of the football team did drug women, those involved should be prosecuted. If team members used a gender slur, then they should be disciplined. Don’t fall into the trap of broad accusations meant to paint all members of an organization by the incorrect acts of a few. It wasn’t too long ago the football team was representing Oxy across the nation as repeat SCIAC champions in the NCAA playoffs. Our student body gave the team their full support. The football team supported other athletic teams and student groups. Oxy was a proud family who, despite any disagreements, was able to support each other. So how do we get back to that point? The school received positive press on a continual basis from many different sources. That is what we should all be working toward. Those who have done wrong, should be disciplined. The equipment is a safety hazard and needs to be dealt with. The entire Oxy student body, including the football team, needs to mend open wounds on both sides and move forward for the school as a whole. I wish you the best and hope you can find a resolution for your anger.
I have had the displeasure of interacting with Jaime Hoffman for several years. To say that she has mismanaged an athletic program and is unpleasant is a gross understatement. Gender-bias towards the football program? Probably not. She is an equal opportunity offender, inconvenienced by both male and female athlete’s concerns and requests for her time. Maybe it’s because of the indifference that has settled in after too many years of incompetence, happy hours, and declining participation in a subpar athletic department. What I know for sure is that she will NEVER miss an opportunity to condescend and neglect. Regardless of whether or not the football player’s accusations are true, they should be thoroughly explored and investigated to the fullest extent. If the college is truly committed to the well-being of “all students, in and out of the classroom” then perhaps it’s time to take a hard look at the root of the problem: the complete and utter failure that is Jaime Hoffman.
One critical element you didn’t include here was that this was an unsubstantiated report with no witnesses except for Hoffman herself. A repeat of an episode she reported in the past, years before this team came on the scene. You should really check your facts before you propagate these tired old falsehoods. Check the records. As for your interpretation of the law, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity.” you might want to also check how often students from Occidental have denied the team participation in campus events, booed them at games, and refused to engage with them on the basis that they are football players. Your blog is a symptom of sheer ignorance, typical of the very atmosphere perpetuated at Oxy. You, and others do not know the team, won’t take the time to get to know them. You would prefer to spout white supremacy and violent patriarchy slogans, jumping on the bashing bandwagon. These men have solid families, many of them not white, all of them with loving supportive fathers. It’s so easy to hate, isn’t it? I am sure your mother, who I am sure must be a wonderful person, would be glad to know that the law protects everyone. Finally, if we must speak of cowardice, it is not these guys who are willing to step up and bear the vitriol of the uninformed so the next group of football players will not be subjected to such stereotypical harassment, but people who hide their rantings behind an alias. What say you, Alum17?
[…] Gabriel Dunatov of the Occidental Weekly reported an anonymous source filed a Title IX complaint against the school on Oct. 4 “alleging that Director of Athletics Jaime Hoffman and the department of athletics hold an anti-male bias that has compromised the football team and its players’ reputation.” […]
I’m not sure you understand the concept of evidence.
Alum17: Again, get your facts straight. The alleged GENDER (nod to Smith) slur was supposedly shouted as a drive by insult, not at the meeting, which of course was not observed by everyone there because it didn’t happen. It was indeed, falsely “passed on to personal networks as these these always do.” You really need to get some more reliable sources.
And LL, Although your sentiment is appreciated, many of these young men are not mediocre athletes, there are very few good memories attached to being members of a team that despite being people of strong character are constantly being described as rapists and racists, and have no need to rise to the level of integrity. They live it every day. The labels of ignorant, disrespectful, and ungrateful young men come from just one source-the person who was supposed to do her job, but who threw them to the wolves to cover her ineptitude and incompetence.
Correct. If she were a man, she would have been fired already.
OXYTIGER~ you assume that it is reported correctly that the email came from the football coach~ he is a man with a one year contract~ do you suppose he was forced to write that email or sign his name to it? did you read the email? are you a player or have a son on the team? do you have any knowledge of what is really going on or did you just read this and put your two cents in?? there were other staff at the meeting~ higher ranking than Hoffman~ who spoke up in defense of the team and stated that Hoffman was in the wrong~ that person has since been silenced. why? You state that they have earned their reputation~ what is that reputation and pls list personal experience with players that would justify that statement!! Reverse sexism? again~ have you read the whole complaint that was filed? do you think all matters in the complaint are talked about in this article? do you suppose they left out the most damning evidence against the AD and the school to skew what is really going on??? I know for a fact that is what happened!! do you really believe you have the full story and the players on this team deserve everything that is happening to them on campus buy the administration, professors and students?? You would be appalled to hear the truth as to what these student athletes go through in a day!!! so yes. pls look past the noise and learn the real facts before you choose to speak against the football players!!!!!
Jeffery~ do you know who paid for the team to go to Hawaii??? Pacific paid the difference in price for Oxy to go to Hawaii and not to Pacific~ which we repaid them in canceling the game 1 day before they were to catch a plane to play oxy this year?? Who do you think ate those costs? before judging a program, do some research and get the facts!!! The new locker room~ yes they have a new one~ is it adequate for the football team? have you seen the size of it? is there room for a rooster of up to 70 players? are the lockers big enough for their equipment? do all of the lights work in that new locker room? have you talked to any football players about their new locker room or about the facts of what is happening on campus?? do you know all the things Hoffman has done and said to and about the players to determine whether she is anti-male or anti-football? or are you just reading this and throwing your 2 cents worth in and not really caring about what is going on?? as a student athlete~` if you have been experiencing half of what the football players were experiencing from administration, staff and other students~ you would be upset too!!! how about speaking to a player and standing up for the right side!!!
alumi7~ sorry to say but you guess wrong. and that is what happens when you don’t know the facts!!! it was not said to her at all let alone at the meeting!!! in fact~ there was someone at the meeting who is higher in ranking that Hoffman who has stood up for the football players and said they did or said nothing wrong in the meeting. What Hoffman claims happened with no witnesses, no way of proving, and off campus!!!!! did you know that?? she also made this same claim against the football team years ago and was found to be false. did you know that??? do you have proof that women where drugged at their house last year?? why would they be able to continue to have events at their house if that was true?? do you know any of the football players? have you talked to any of the football players? and what the heck does Trump have to do with any of this??? I would suggest you get your facts gathered before you make slanderous comments about these young men who have done none of the things you have claimed. I’m not so sure your mother would be proud of the person you presented yourself to be. Easy to hide and spew behind an alias and not know facts!!
LL~ do you know that facts of what is going on or did you just read this article and now believe you are up to date and know the truth that is going on??? have you read the full title 9 complaint? do you really believe they reported the meat and bones of the true offenses??? You are now calling a group of student athletes sexist and homophobic. do you know any of the players? have you talked to any of the players as to what they are experiencing on campus do to the administration, staff and fellow students?? do you know any of the facts that have been going on in the football program for the last 3 months? Do you think the players are the only ones behind this title 9 complaint?? it is amazing how many of you on here~ read an article and believe you are experts and are ready to condemn a group of young men~ who entered oxy with the same academic requirements as every other student on campus. you have no idea of the integrity and maturity these young men have to be able to endure what they have endured. I will tell you, if Hoffman was a man and pulled the same stunts, their would definitely be complaints filed!! again, you don’t know the facts of everything that has been going on. if you were in their situation~ would you want someone reading one article and condemning you???
@Mary, Hoffman’s children were present and also heard it. The season was cancelled so athletes would not lose a year of eligibility. So it was lose every game and lose a year of eligibility or not lose either…easy decision. Instead of filing this complaint, why not place blame on the poor recruiting practices? Work to change the team’s success and culture, rather than continue to complain. Aaaand remember, vote pence
[…] Gabriel Dunatov of the Occidental Weekly reported an anonymous source filed a Title IX complaint against the school on Oct. 4 “alleging that Director of Athletics Jaime Hoffman and the department of athletics hold an anti-male bias that has compromised the football team and its players’ reputation.” […]
[…] Gabriel Dunatov of the Occidental Weekly reported an anonymous source filed a Title IX complaint against the school on Oct. 4 “alleging that Director of Athletics Jaime Hoffman and the department of athletics hold an anti-male bias that has compromised the football team and its players’ reputation.” […]
The Soviets boycotted the 1984 Olympics in retribution for our boycott of the 1980 Moscow games. Which, interestingly enough, was done as a response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Okay so someone heard it. Give me proof that it was a football player? In fact, someone drove by my house last night and yelled an expletive. It was Jaime Hoffman. My kids heard it. It was her. Prove that it wasn’t her.
It was also Jaime Hoffman who didn’t hire the existing OC, who hired a coach who runs an entirely different offense resulting in a majority of key returning players to quit thus depleting the roster before camp even started. Why didn’t she call these players directly and talk to them? Why didn’t she have the coach call them? She must have known that 1/4 of the roster, key players would potentially quit. If it’s bad recruiting and Semones is gone then who is Semones’ boss? These are just a couple of examples of all the little steps she’s taken or not taken to put a final nail in the coffin of a once proud program.
Bottom line, she’s either guilty of incredible ignorance and incompetence OR she didn’t care what happened to the program and wants it to end anyway. Take your pick. Both justify immediate dismissal.
These people need a reality check and to go tutor in local high schools and work in local health clinics. Crying about a cancelled football game or trip to Hawaii pales in comparison to the millions of children who will never get a chance to even attend college.
Yes, perhaps the football team is financially solvent. Who cares if they can’t understand their opportunity to attend college within the larger issues of inequality society faces. I hope Oxy football uses this situation to earn their place at this school by way of being not just decent financially unburdened student athletes, but exemplerary socially-conscious ones.
She was born in 1984?
That means she will be at her job for another 30 years.
The world is doomed with you and your ilk in it.
Wesley. What a cop out. Typical weak argument: “Stop crying about X when there is world wide poverty, homelessness, millions of children who can’t attend college, inequalities and injustice in the world.” Give me a break. You probably wrote that on your $2000 laptop, sitting in your $500 ergonomic chair while sipping a $5 chai tea latte.
Don’t stand on your soapbox and delegitimize people’s issues by comparing them to the world’s problems. I know for a fact there are freshman football players on this team that have volunteered a lot of their time before coming to OXY – in homeless shelters serving food, children’s shelters building bikes, tutoring disadvantaged youths on speaking skills and math, writing letters of encouragement to grade school kids entering school in some of the toughest urban areas in the US, and social time at adult care facilities to name a few. And don’t talk to me about their privilege. These men worked their asses off to get great grades and test scores while playing 4 years of sports to get into this school. You see, in D3 you have to meet the standards of the school just like all other students in order to get in – unlike D1 where they give athletic scholarships and grades barely matter. The players earned the right to be at this school. Don’t delegitimize who they are because they care about and love to play football. Football doesn’t define them. Their hard work and fine character define them. Their actions mentioned above define them.
If you didn’t like me trying to define you with what I wrote above then don’t try to define these men without knowing a thing about them.
For those who continue to focus on the idea that the team is filing the complaint because of
cancelled games and lack of equipment: The complaint was filed in their behalf to protest
not the cancellations of the games, or to ask for more funding, but to bring to light the
systemic defamation of a group of young men because they happen to be football players.
This prejudiced attitude is based on outdated stories, hearsay, and rumors fostered by
students at the expense of men who had nothing at all to do with those “reports.” There is
a history going back before this season of insulting and exclusionary behavior on campus
towards football players. This is allowed and ignored by administration, and, in certain
cases, promoted. Take a look at the Oxy confessions blog page if you believe that Oxy
students are tolerant and accepting of differences. It is an offensive, profane, and hate-
filled rant. It uses a “say it, and it becomes truth,” mentality. And now, it seems that even
some of the professors feel that they are free to single out and humiliate students in their
classes and online. Since when is tolerance and acceptance extended only to certain
groups, but withheld from others? Ironic, because many of these student athletes chose
Occidental for its ideals of equity, diversity, and acceptance. Apparently, it is a selective
diversity. This toxic atmosphere has contributed and encouraged the contempt that the
Athletic Director seems to hold for the team, and has gone to some effort to make clear to
the rest of the student body. Over the years, it has led to the neglect of the program, the
denigration of the players, and allowed an ugly culture of hate to flourish at Occidental. Oh, and Wesley,
there are no athletic scholarships at Occidental. These men are 4.0s just like everybody else except they spend the time
they are not on the field studying, working, and volunteering, not sitting on their phones spewing ignorance and hate.
I cannot speak to the situation involving the football program, however; that this is even an issue under Hoffman’s leadership is not surprising. In my opinion, the best example of her poor leadership has been her inability to hire and retrain quality staff.
(Counting Interim Coaches)
Football: 5 head coaches.
Women’s Basketball: 3 HC
Volleyball: 3 HC
M/W Swimming: 5 HC
M/W Water Polo: 4 HC
M/W Tennis: 5 HC
M/W Golf: 4 HC
Baseball: 3 HC
Softball: 3 HC
LAX: 2 HC
M Soccer: 2 HC
W Soccer: 1 HC
M Basketball: 1 HC
M/W XC & Track: 1 HC
42 different head coaches, for 21 teams over 10 years.
Hoffman has hired approximately 30 different head coaches during her tenor. To date, only three have lasted longer than five years.
It’s interesting that it was observed by everyone at the meeting, since she reported it from her house. So this is either another lie, or she is now bringing her children to the meetings. Oh, the truth is so confusing….