It's time to lift the 'veil of ignorance' when it comes to campus assault

— -- Baylor's former president and chancellor Ken Starr sat with ESPN's Joe Schad for a televised interview after a Pepper Hamilton report alleged systematic disenfranchisement of students who reported being sexually assaulted by other students, including some players on the football team.

Starr called for transparency and simultaneously hid behind his "veil of ignorance," a garment that can be found next to the cloaks of deniability in Aisle 5. It's a gutsy move, calling for others to be forthright when you can't lead by example.

Starr was evasive throughout the interview, even on a question about how Baylor handled the assault claims.

"From what I know -- I've had limited access; I've had some background briefings but I've not had full access to the full panoply of information -- we did not adjudicate well, we did not counsel well in a number of respects," Starr said. "Overall, I think we were a very good operation and we cared about the students because we are caring community."

So it was terrible and then very good. You can see why he's keeping his post at the law school. Holding two opposite positions in one thought is a skill. As for his last contention, one woman (called Sarah for the purposes of the interview) appeared on OTL ( listen to the podcast here) saying she sent an email to Starr personally to inform him of her assault but didn't see much of that caring community. She said he never responded.

At one point in the interview, after much hedging, Starr said: "I don't believe there is any episode of [sexual assault] on campus."

This wasn't a hard thing to check. ESPN's Paula Lavigne, who has done an excellent job investigating the Baylor case, tweeted after Starr's interview aired that there were 10 incidents on campus recorded by the campus police department going back to 2010. But whether an assault involving a student is alleged to have occurred on or off campus, according to Title IX and the Clery Act, the university has a duty to investigate.

Starr seemed unclear about that, and so many other facets of the issue, which is unacceptable when it comes to keeping students safe. How can a person with such a lack of clarity hold a leadership position for so long?

The fallout at Baylor isn't over. Lavigne reports that more football staffers have been fired. Investigations by the NCAA and the Department of Education could follow, as could reprisals from scholarship loss to bowl bans. Seven football recruits who signed national letters of intent have requested they be released. Baylor should grant that immediately.

Baylor athletic director Ian McCaw resigned from his post after interim coach Jim Grobe was brought in. Baylor should keep going.

"The captain goes down with the ship," Starr said.

Except that he will still cash a Baylor paycheck. Starr finally stepped down from the fundraising chancellorship but will stay on as a law professor.

He can teach a class on how power takes care of its own.