University of Oregon Interim President Scott Coltrane said that the allegations in a lawsuit filed Thursday against the university and head basketball coach, Dana Altman are untrue.
The suit, filed by the survivor of an alleged sexual assault committed by three UO basketball players in March, claims that the plaintiff’s civil rights were violated when the basketball team recruited Brandon Austin, one of the alleged assailants, from Providence College in Rhode Island. Austin had been previously accused of sexual assault at Providence and suspended from the school’s basketball team.
The plaintiff says that the UO and Altman knew of Brandon Austin’s former allegations of sexual assault at Providence when he was recruited to UO.
Coltrane says that the UO was not aware of the allegations against Austin.
“I believe the university was not told of any wrongdoing on his part,” Coltrane said. “The allegations that are made we disagree with. We believe we acted in accordance with the law, including the Title XI law, so this doesn’t really undermine what we’re doing, and we’re also committed to supporting this student.”
Coltrane said the lawsuit was not a surprise because the UO’s general counsel had been in touch with the plaintiff’s lawyers.
Austin, as well as Daymean Dotson and Dominic Artis, who were also accused in the sexual assault, has been suspended from the UO for at least four years.
The suit details a request for the university to “readdress its violations” regarding sexual assault policies. Coltrane said the UO has been in the process of reviewing how it handles sexual assault for several years.
“We have several investigations going on, on how we can improve our policies.” Coltrane said. “I  would say no university has everything right about this, these are complicated issues and we have to do better, but we are doing a lot of progress in this area.”
Coltrane also said that the lawsuit “won’t drive any changes necessarily,” but that the university has been looking into improving such issues.