UC Berkeley is taking steps to address issues raised by an eight-month, $2 million investigation that led to the firing of Golden Bears women’s swimming head coach Teri McKeever, the most successful female coach in the sport’s history.
A university spokesman declined to respond directly when asked on Thursday if those steps included investigating Jim Knowlton, Cal’s athletic director, and Jennifer Simon-O’Neill, the school’s executive associate athletic director and a long-time friend of McKeever’s who had direct supervision over the Golden Bears women’s swimming program for years.
“While we won’t confirm that an investigation is ongoing nor will we contest or challenge any reporting that suggests as much,” Dan Mogulof, university assistant vice chancellor, said in an interview with the Southern California News Group.
The university’s confirmation that it is taking additional steps beyond McKeever’s January 31 firing was in response to a series of questions from SCNG about the McKeever investigation and whether Cal had plans to follow up on issues raised by the probe.
“Speaking generally there is nothing more important to the university than the health and well-being of our students and this administration will never hesitate to respond in an appropriate manner when it’s made aware of information related to the health and well-being of our students,” Mogulof said.
The investigation’s heavily redacted nearly 500-page report substantiated allegations of bullying and discrimination over a period of decades first disclosed by the SCNG last May, finding that McKeever, who coached Cal to four NCAA team titles, discriminated against swimmers on the basis of race, national origin and disability, including using the n-word, and abused athletes in violation of university policy.
After interviewing 147 people and reviewing 1,700 documents, attorneys for Munger, Tolles & Olson, the Los Angeles-based law firm hired by the university,…
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