The University of Minnesota will conduct an "independent review" of its handling of allegations of sexual assault involving Gophers football players last fall, the head of the Board of Regents announced Friday.
Dean Johnson, the board chairman, said he hopes the review will help settle questions that have been swirling for months around the case, including the decision to discipline several players even though no criminal charges were filed.
"We must take a step back and learn so we can do better," Johnson said Friday.
Johnson said the review will be led by the university's chief auditor, Gail Klatt, with the help of outside experts "as needed." He described it as independent, because Klatt will report directly to the regents.
But another regent, Michael Hsu, said that the U should have hired outside investigators instead. "It just feels like a mistake to me," he said. "Why put ourselves in a situation where people could say, 'Well, that's not truly independent'?"
Hsu said he had been prepared to introduce a resolution calling for an outside investigation, but that there seemed to be little appetite on the board for such a move.
Jim Carter, a onetime Gophers football star who ran unsuccessfully for regent this year, said he, too, was disappointed that the U isn't seeking an outside investigation. "Any thinking person in the community is going to say that the university cannot investigate itself," he said. "And there were plenty of mistakes made."
The university has been both praised and criticized for its handling of the case, which began when a female student accused several Gophers football players of sexually assaulting her at a postgame party in September.