The University of Oregon expelled Ducks wide receiver Tristen Wallace in March 2017 and changed his transcript to not mention sexual assaults after a UO Title IX investigator found him responsible for two rapes, according to an investigation from USA Today.
The story, written by former Daily Emerald sports reporter Kenny Jacoby, said that with the aid of the U.S. Department of Education, UO later removed a note from Wallace’s transcript that acknowledged the rapes as the reason for his expulsion. Wallace, who denies the accusations against him, according to USA Today, transferred in 2017 before the university informed him of its findings and formally expelled him. There weren’t just problems at UO — USA Today “identified at least 33 current and former athletes since 2014 who transferred to NCAA schools despite being administratively or criminally disciplined for a sexual offense at another college.”
Read the full story from USA Today
UO senior Blake McKay, who Wallace allegedly raped, said she remembered feeling “really surprised” and “really disappointed” upon learning that his transcript would be revised.
“It just felt like the system was kind of broke and also, I wasn’t really included in that conversation,” she said in an interview with the Emerald. ”It was kind of like a[n] abrupt kind of thing, and looking back on it now, I was still healing from that trauma and trying to understand what all of these processes were.”
In reports to UO officials, the two students alleged that they met Wallace after he reached out to them on Instagram and said he raped them less than two weeks into his first term as a freshman. Wallace has denied both of these accusations, according to USA Today’s reporting.
University of Oregon Police Department reports say that both women denied Wallace’s attempts to have sex multiple times, which he ignored, raping McKay once and the unnamed woman three times within a day.
According to USA Today, “the Lane County District Attorney’s office decided in May 2017 that it would not move forward with either case due to the greater burden of proof placed on criminal cases.”
Both women reported their rapes to UO in October 2016, prompting investigations from campus administrators and police, USA Today said. Five months later, a UO Title IX investigator informed Wallace in a notice of findings email that he would be expelled and that a notation would be added to his transcript that showed he “was found responsible for sexual misconduct.”
USA Today reported that following his departure from the Ducks, Wallace signed with the football team at Trinity Valley Community College in Athens, Texas in January 2017, before transferring to his current football team at Prairie View A&M in Texas in February 2018 and joining its basketball team as a reserve player last year.
But if a university brought Wallace in with knowledge of the rapes listed on his transcript and he sexually assaulted another person, that school could be held liable, according to USA Today’s report.
McKay told the Emerald that in her administrative hearing she specifically asked that the notation be included in Wallace’s transcript to deter other universities from accepting him. “I’m not trying to be ignorant or vengeful or anything. I was looking out for other students,” she said.
USA Today reported that Wallace’s mother filed a complaint to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights two months after he was expelled, accusing the university of “automatically assuming that a male is guilty of sexual misconduct because a female simply says so,” as well as race discrimination.
While OCR dismissed the latter claim, USA Today reported, OCR records stated that it would investigate her accusation of sex discrimination.
OCR oversaw a resolution agreement between the two parties in August of 2018 — Wallace’s mother recanted her complaint and the university changed the note on his transcript to a more general explanation: “expelled for student conduct,” according to USA Today.
UO spokesperson Kyle Henley told USA Today that a change was made “to make it consistent with how transcripts are noted in all expulsion cases.”
McKay said she thinks UO made the revision to avoid a lawsuit from Wallace’s mother. “I think that was their motive,” she said. “Which, in my opinion, isn’t a very valid reason, considering they’re a university and they should have, you know, the right legal staff on their team. So I don’t know, in my opinion, money would never make me make those decisions.”
In a statement to the Emerald, a university spokesperson said that “multiple factors went into the decision to resolve the Office of Civil Rights complaint without incurring the substantial costs (including emotional and other non-financial costs) associated with an OCR investigation. Fear of a lawsuit was not a factor, however.”
McKay is now the director for the Organization Against Sexual Assault at UO and has interned at the child advocacy center Kids First, where she provided support and counseling for children who suffered various forms of abuse. She said her rape was “the initial push and drive” that led her to become heavily involved in sexual assault prevention and survivor advocacy. She said she has felt empowered in doing that work and said, “Because I can kind of relate to what they are feeling in the moment, I feel like I am able to give them the help they need and I am aware of what to say and what not to say to help them heal,” she told the Emerald.
Since learning about the university’s decision to remove the note about the rapes from Wallace’s transcript, McKay said she has felt “a little weird going to school at U of O.” But she said she’s directing her attention to helping better the way these situations are handled; McKay said she wants to pursue a law degree and has ambitions of becoming a Title IX coordinator. “People are trying to ask my opinion to try to change the system,” she said. “I feel like being able to be open with people and try to give them advice about how to change is just better than me being really angry.”
McKay said she was not fully aware of the “sketchiness” surrounding her case until she spoke to USA Today. She said if the university had kept her in the loop and revealed sooner that it was considering altering the transcript, she would have emphasized the impact that the rape and subsequent investigations had on her personally.
“I feel like there’s so many survivors of sexual violence,” she said, “and at points, it really becomes abstract if you don’t hear how the impact has been in their lives.”
National Signing Day began as it always does for Oregon. Before 9 a.m. the Ducks had officially signed eight prospects, including versatile four-star athlete Tristen Wallace and three-star linebacker Keith Simms. The Ducks even gained a late commitment from three-star defensive tackle Wayne Kirby. Kirby signed his letter of intent …
