My favorite March Madness video: Al McGuire dances to “”Cuse Is in the House, Oh My God” after the Orangemen advanced to the 1996 Final Four. Watch for bench player Donovan McNabb mugging in the background.

Message from Chancellor Cantor

This is a letter I just received via e-mail, sent to Syracuse University alumni from Chancellor Nancy Cantor, regarding the firing of Bernie Fine.

Dear SU Community:

Tonight, in the wake of troubling new allegations that emerged in the media today, I am writing to let you know that Bernie Fine’s employment at the University has been terminated effective immediately.

Frankly, the events of the past week have shaken us all. The taped phone call that ESPN revealed today was not provided to the university by Mr. Davis during the 2005 investigation by our legal counsel. Like the media review of the case a few years earlier, no other witnesses came forward during the university investigation, and those who felt they knew Bernie best could not imagine what has unfolded.

Since I last wrote to you, we have been cooperating fully with the authorities. On Friday, November 18th, as the District Attorney has noted, we turned over to his office the results of our 2005 months-long investigation. Also on November 18, our Board of Trustees retained an independent law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, to review our procedures in responding to the initial allegations when they first came to the University’s attention. I fully supported that decision and it is vital that we examine our protocols and actions in dealing with such serious allegations. We need to learn all we can from this terrible lesson.

All of us have the responsibility, individually and collectively, to ensure that Syracuse University remains a safe place for every campus community member and everyone with whom we interact on a daily basis on campus or in the community as part of our learning, scholarship, or work. We do not tolerate abuse. If anything good comes out of this tragedy, it will be that this basic principle is reinforced.

Sincerely,

Nancy Cantor

The Bernie Fine case just went to 11, as ESPN releases this taped 2002 conversation, provided by accuser Bobby Davis, between Davis and Fine’s wife.

“I know everything that went on, you know,” Laurie Fine said on the call, obtained by Outside the Lines from Davis. “I know everything that went on with him … Bernie has issues, maybe that he’s not aware of, but he has issues … And you trusted somebody you shouldn’t have trusted … ”

She continued: “Bernie is also in denial. I think that he did the things he did, but he’s somehow through his own mental telepathy has erased them out of his mind.”

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