An independent review of how the University of Hawaii and its athletic department handled complaints and issues surrounding the tumultuous 2021 Rainbow Warrior football season and then-head coach Todd Graham found that no policies, rules or laws were broken, according to a report released Friday by the university.
However, recommendations in the 570-page report by the Georgia-based athletic consulting company College Sports Solutions include that UH do a better job communicating existing policies and procedures to address complaints from student-athletes and that UH consider creating language in coaches’ contracts and establishing standards to address how they treat players.
The UH Board of Regents, which commissioned the report, is scheduled to discuss it and the university’s next steps at its meeting Thursday.
“From our review it appears that appropriate policies and procedures were and are in place to hear, address and react to student-athlete complaints and issues,” the report found.
Complaints raised about Graham and his program through the 2021 season, including allegations of a negative team culture and severe language toward players, “although not common, do occur in major college football programs,” the report continued. “The efforts to deal with the specific UHM football issues were dealt with appropriately and in a timely fashion throughout the season by University and athletics department personnel, and in our opinion, did not warrant official notice to the Board during that time.”
The review said that UH Board of Regents policies were followed; no criminal behavior was found; no rules, regulations or policies of the NCAA, the Mountain West Conference or the Big West Conference were violated; “and there were no major public behavior issues that went unreported to the Board.”
Responses at the time by university and athletic department leaders — including UH President David Lassner, athletic director David Matlin and his staff, and UH Manoa faculty athletics representative Scott Sinnett — “appear to have been both appropriate and timely,” the report said.
UH officials appeared to embrace the report. Matlin said in a March 14 memo via Lassner to regents Chair Randolph Moore that his department welcomed the report’s findings and conclusions, adding that they “validate the dedication of the athletics department staff and other individuals within the University to the student- athletes within the program.”
The report also dedicated a section in its findings to making “considerable note” of how testimony was disproportionately skewed against Graham during a Jan. 7, 2022, state Senate briefing led by state Sens. Donovan M. Dela Cruz, chair of the Committee on Ways and Means, and Donna Mercado Kim, chair of the Committee on Higher Education.
The initial briefing notice had said no public testimony would be taken, but it was amended two days before the briefing to announce that testimony would be accepted. Graham and the football program were slammed by nine speakers who testified live during the briefing.
The briefing “presented testimony only from those respondents who were negative toward the Hawaii football program, Coach Graham, and Hawaii athletics coaches and staff, even though a considerable number of written responses were supportive. This fact was admitted by Senator Kim in her interview with CSS,” the report said.
In addition to the live testimony, 56 written statements were submitted the day of the briefing and 15 after the briefing, the report said. “When eliminating redundancies, 67 separate individuals testified either live or in writing. Of those 67, 30 were critical of the program and 37 were positive,” the report said.
Neither Kim nor Dela Cruz immediately responded Friday to Honolulu Star- Advertiser requests for comment.
The report documents in detail the period when the UH football program and Graham became the subjects of intense scrutiny and controversy beginning in late 2021, when some student-athlete complaints about Graham’s leadership and coaching style became public. The report says the allegations included a “negative culture,” having team prayers, conflicts between practice schedules and class schedules, “verbal, negative communications, particularly at practice,” COVID- 19 rules enforcement and favoritism.
Around two dozen players with remaining eligibility left the program around that time, including two co- captains and other starters. As mounting public complaints, player defections and news of a four-hour meeting between Matlin and athletes in various sports and the Senate briefing made national headlines, Graham resigned Jan. 14, 2022. He walked away from the final three years of a five-year contract, forfeiting the $1.27 million buyout he would have been owed if he were released.
In September the UH Board of Regents commissioned the review by College Sports Solutions at a cost of $59,000. The company describes itself as a “leading full-service and integrated provider of collegiate athletic consulting, strategies and solutions to universities, intercollegiate conferences and collegiate organizations.”
The scope of the commissioned report included matters associated with the 2021 football season and the handling of student complaints, the report said. Specific attention was given to reviewing UH athletics’ responses to concerns identified in the football program, determining whether there was and is an effective system in place in which concerns are heard and acted upon, and examining whether any UH regents’ policies and NCAA or conference rules had been broken.
For the report, 21 interviews were conducted with UH administration athletic officials and state senators, including Lassner, Matlin, Moore, Kim and Dela Cruz.
The report also includes a mountain of documents: 17 exhibits, including several letters sent between Kim, Dela Cruz, Moore and Lassner; 16 written statements from people connected with the UH athletic department; and emails, text messages, forms, news articles, meeting notes, social media and other records, including a prior review of the events by the athletic department.
The report said there was timely and open cooperation with the investigation by leaders and staff of the UH administration, athletic department and Board of Regents.
Among its key findings:
>> With Graham’s resignation in January 2022, “many of the issues related to his leadership, style, communication, and team culture became moot. The hiring of new Head Coach (Timmy) Chang, coupled with his subsequent leadership, have resulted in the elimination of many, if not all, of the issues raised by players relative to Coach Graham.”
>> Steps taken by the UH administration at the time in response to complaints about Graham included having Graham discontinue his participation in prayers on the field and in the locker room and stop attending chapel on road trips, and changing practice schedules and excusing athletes to accommodate class schedules. “Coach Graham agreed to be mindful and improve on the negativity and profanity, although there did remain questions, particularly regarding the negativity, about the width and breadth of the implementation of these changes,” the report said.
>> While appropriate policies and procedures were and are in place to hear, address and react to student-athlete complaints and issues, the report said, the UH athletic department “can significantly improve its communication of those policies and procedures and its encouragement of student- athletes to voice thoughts and concerns about their sports and their overall well- being and welfare — athletically, academically, medically, and personally.”
“The department can also continue to improve timely and meaningful responses to these student-athlete communications, even when the responses are contrary to the student-athlete’s desires,” the report continued.
Recommendations in the report include that the university:
>> Ramp up communication avenues for student- athletes. This includes considering identifying a person to serve as an ombudsman to help players voice concerns and get feedback, and establishing a student- athlete council in every sport at UH. The university’s Student-Athlete Handbook already addresses multiple ways students can express concerns, the report said; it recommended it be updated and that an annual session be held with all players to review it. The report also supported enhancement of the role of the faculty athletic representative.
>> Consider language in all coaches’ contracts that addresses treatment of student-athletes. “Most, if not all current coaches’ contracts include language relative to coaching behavior. That language is typically located in an initial preamble or under the ‘termination for cause’ section of the contract,” the report said.
>> Establish a departmentwide set of behavioral standards for all coaches. While many athletic departments want latitude to allow variation in coaching style, the report said, “we believe that a simple set of minimum standards that addresses how student-athletes are to be treated by coaches can be an effective way to create a positive culture with student-athletes and in the UHM athletics department.”
>> Seek a stadium solution — “continue to work diligently with the state legislature to either build a replacement stadium for Aloha Stadium, or continue the building of the current on-campus stadium,” the report said.
>> Continue to improve mental health services for student-athletes. “Mental health issues … are prevalent for students at UHM, and in fact for students throughout institutions of higher learning in the United States. Most, if not all are considering and/or implementing plans to employ professionals to address the issues of the many students who need mental health care and support.”
Matlin said in his memo that “after careful review, and in the interest of continuous improvement, UHM Athletics embraces the recommendations in CSS’ report,” and offered the regents a list of proposed follow-up actions.
CSS Hawaii Final Report for… by Honolulu Star-Advertiser
