Are there immunity provisions that obstruct or limit the liability of University officials and the Board of Regents actions in this matter? If so, is it reasonable to suggest that anecdotal evidence would imply that immunity promotes corruption and a misuse or abuse of power?
It would seem to me the rule of law should serve as a constraint upon behavior, including behavior of university officials. A form of tyranny may be described and observed when students are forced to live by and under different sets of laws and codes of conduct than those applied to university officials or the board of regents. Such tyranny is especially scandalous when university officials are free to breach tacitly understood, but potentially unwritten codes of conduct without consequences being uniformly applied. At issue here is the fact that Leath sat on Bubu’s appeal for 3 months before suspending him from the team. This virtually eliminated any assurance of an effective transfer. Those specific actions seem to have been "universally condemned" by the majority of those in the cyclone nation as has the rubber stamp process applied by the board of regents in this matter.
That said, such condemnation does not in any way discount what I believe to be the University’s right to rule and function within the purview of their jurisdiction with regard to the established code of conduct. Nonetheless Leath’s inaction and the board's rubber stamp does point out a very troubling breach of a code of conduct that should also be applied to university officials and the board of regents in the handling of such matters. A parallel to such reasoning has been clearly established in the American concept of “equality before the law.” This establishes that no one shall be above the law and that the law should be implemented uniformly and evenly.
Obviously, high-profile cases with sordid facts receiving the current level of media attention tend to appeal to voyeuristic tendencies. Egregious errors in judgment are evident on both sides of this issue. Nonetheless, I look forward to the time we can put this matter to rest and sincerely hope this serves as “smelling salts and teaching moment” for counsel, university officials, the board of regents and the student body.