Iowa State University administrators said Tuesday that they need more information and cooperation to ascertain the details of any confrontations between spectators at a home football game and members of the University of Iowa's marching band, who have said they were physically attacked.
ISU leaders held a news conference to declare that they have no doubt the state's largest universities will continue to compete annually in football — the UI's president had on Monday pondered whether safety might prompt the yearly game's cancellation. That question was largely subsumed Tuesday by a blitz of assertions about the actions of spectators, band members and officials at the schools before, during and after Iowa's lightning-delayed victory on Sept. 14.
ISU's athletics director, Jamie Pollard, condemned harassment of band members but repeatedly coupled that denunciation with insistence that Iowa State's band has been mistreated in Iowa City over the years.
He also accused leaders of the UI band of leaving Jack Trice Stadium through a gate crowded with fans after being advised by ISU that there was no traffic in a different direction.
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And Pollard and ISU's police chief outlined at the news conference the steps they'd taken since learning of five specific misconduct allegations and said they could not do more unless UI students approached police to report their stories.
Pollard's counterpart at UI, Gary Barta, told reporters Tuesday that he'd heard "multiple descriptions" of skirmishes and said, "I still don't know exactly what happened." After telling the Iowa City Press-Citizen last Thursday that he and Pollard had decided "it would be difficult to verify details and elected to focus on moving forward on future events," Barta asserted Tuesday that "at no point did I say the investigation was closed."
Iowa State released surveillance videos showing the Hawkeye band leaving the field in formation and reaching a stadium gate; the videos were captured from such a distant vantage point that any confrontations with fans would be difficult to make out.
UI marching band leadership, and members who spoke out publicly last week to express frustration with the university's responses, could not be reached to comment about Tuesday's developments, including Pollard's criticism of the route the band took.
More at: https://www.press-citizen.com/story...yclones-hawkeyes-press-conference/2427484001/
ISU leaders held a news conference to declare that they have no doubt the state's largest universities will continue to compete annually in football — the UI's president had on Monday pondered whether safety might prompt the yearly game's cancellation. That question was largely subsumed Tuesday by a blitz of assertions about the actions of spectators, band members and officials at the schools before, during and after Iowa's lightning-delayed victory on Sept. 14.
ISU's athletics director, Jamie Pollard, condemned harassment of band members but repeatedly coupled that denunciation with insistence that Iowa State's band has been mistreated in Iowa City over the years.
He also accused leaders of the UI band of leaving Jack Trice Stadium through a gate crowded with fans after being advised by ISU that there was no traffic in a different direction.
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And Pollard and ISU's police chief outlined at the news conference the steps they'd taken since learning of five specific misconduct allegations and said they could not do more unless UI students approached police to report their stories.
Pollard's counterpart at UI, Gary Barta, told reporters Tuesday that he'd heard "multiple descriptions" of skirmishes and said, "I still don't know exactly what happened." After telling the Iowa City Press-Citizen last Thursday that he and Pollard had decided "it would be difficult to verify details and elected to focus on moving forward on future events," Barta asserted Tuesday that "at no point did I say the investigation was closed."
Iowa State released surveillance videos showing the Hawkeye band leaving the field in formation and reaching a stadium gate; the videos were captured from such a distant vantage point that any confrontations with fans would be difficult to make out.
UI marching band leadership, and members who spoke out publicly last week to express frustration with the university's responses, could not be reached to comment about Tuesday's developments, including Pollard's criticism of the route the band took.
More at: https://www.press-citizen.com/story...yclones-hawkeyes-press-conference/2427484001/
