Perhaps you have already noticed the pointed anti-violence video and audio featuring four University of Hawaii coaches that was to have begun airing on TV and radio on Monday?

If so, you would not be alone in wondering about the timing of its release while football star Kennedy Tulimasealii’s appeal of his dismissal from UH under the student-athlete conduct code is pending.

A UH spokesman insisted the timing is “just coincidence,” adding, “it (the PSA planning) was already in the works before spring ball started.” UH maintains that it mirrors a long-held position.

If so, the announcement that “UH athletics views the issue of domestic and campus violence as a top priority,” more and more has the look — and sound — of publicly drawing a line in the sand on the issue.

One that, if the school holds to it, wouldn’t seem to portend well for Tulimasealii’s appeal.

In its PSA, UH is saying all the right things about one of the major issues of the day and referencing disturbing numbers. It is even displaying some of its prominent coaches — Nick Rolovich (football), Laura Beeman (Wahine basketball), Eran Ganot (men’s basketball) and Michele Nagamine (soccer) — to underline its points in the professionally produced PSA.

UH said it plans to show the “Speak Up” PSA at its sporting venues, including Aloha Stadium, the Stan Sheriff Center, Les Murakami Stadium and Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium, as well as in educational programs at the school and in the community. Effectively it is making it the school’s strongest voice on the subject.

For example, a UH announcement quotes Rolovich as saying, “Domestic violence has no part on our football team and will not be condoned. Our team understands this and we hope it sticks with them for the rest of their lives. Our responsibility as representatives of this university and the state is to be good citizens and we, as coaches, preach to them the importance of living aloha each and every day.”

It should be noted, UH officials said, the decision on Tulimasealii’s appeal “is out of athletics’ (hands)” and left to higher powers on campus. And overseen by a restructured Office of General Counsel.

History tells us it would not, of course, be the first time UH has seemingly put its foot down on something and then proceeded to do a quick pirouette in an opposite direction.

In the past UH has been willing to overlook or minimize transgressions if they impacted the product on the court or field. Too often it hasn’t had a problem with convenience overriding principle.

But more recent events also suggest a current UH administration, upper campus and athletics alike, willing to stake out some high ground and hold it in the face of controversy. Witness the decision to make wholesale changes in its men’s basketball program. Not to mention shakeups in some areas of administration.

The “Speak Up” PSA lasts 30 seconds.

Now, we wait to see the shelf life on UH’s stance.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.