Remembering Humanity in the Wake of Tragedy
OPENING STATEMENTS
There’s been a lot on my mind this week in the wake of the Brown University shooting. My heart breaks for the victims, Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, their friends and family, the Brown community, and everyone impacted by this horrific tragedy.
As a mother of a college student, I know the feeling of dropping your kid off at campus – a place meant to nurture and inspire – and just praying they'll be safe. And, as a Connecticut native, I know how deeply such tragedies can shake a community. My mother served as head of nursing at Danbury Hospital, where many of the Sandy Hook victims were brought years ago. That experience permanently shaped how I understand trauma, grief, and the ripple effects that tragedy has on families, communities, and institutions. It also further shaped how I show up now: as a mom, a friend, and a lawyer.
These reflections have been compounded by other recent losses on college campuses: the passing of a Rice University soccer player earlier this month, and the tragedy at Cal State Fullerton in November. Different circumstances, yet the same unimaginable heartbreak and the same hope left unfulfilled: that students would be cared for and protected.
Moments like these force us to pause. To remember how fragile life is, and to reflect on what truly matters, and what urgently needs to change within our campuses.
Safety. Accountability. Care. And above all, the human element: empathy, understanding, and meaningful support.
I see the absence of that humanity all too often in my work with student-athletes. Approximately 30% of female and 25% of male student-athletes report anxiety. Between 15% and 33% are at risk for depression. Yet only 10% of college athletes with known mental health conditions seek care from a mental health professional. Only about half of student-athletes believe their institutions or coaches truly prioritize mental well-being, and fewer than half feel comfortable seeking mental health support on campus.
None of this exists in isolation.
Every policy decision, budget allocation, and institutional response surrounding support and protection on college campuses affects a real person – often a young adult still learning how to ask for help, still forming their sense of self, and still carrying the weight of expectation.
All of this must be handled with care, empathy, kindness, and a clear understanding that supporting students and student-athletes means supporting their full humanity. That is what I strive to do in my work – as a lawyer, an advocate, and a partner to young adults. Not by minimizing the complexity of these issues, but by meeting them honestly and humanely.
As we process the grief that continues to unfold, I hope we channel it into something constructive: honest conversations, systemic accountability, and compassionate action.
Human support shouldn’t be a privilege. It should be a promise.
EXHIBIT A
Missouri head football coach Eli Drinkwitz sounded the alarm on college sports this week saying: “We’re paying them [athletes] as 1099 employees, not offering any type of retirement or health benefits… We’ve worked around the system instead of creating a functioning one to move forward.” He went on to challenge the core issues that often get overlooked…What about the well-being of the student-athlete? What about graduation rates? What about tax implications? What about handling and understanding financial literacy?”
That reality was reinforced during our company’s annual offsite last week, where leaders like Dr. Donna Lopiano and Julie Sommer reminded us just how misaligned the economics have become. Division I athletics generates nearly $15.8 billion annually, yet only 18.2% of that revenue returns to athletes through scholarships, and less than 1% supports medical care or insurance. These numbers raise serious questions about duty of care, risk allocation, and fairness in an enterprise that depends on athlete labor. If college sports continue to function at this scale, the legal system will eventually demand a more sustainable solution. The real question is whether we choose to build it now or wait until litigation forces it upon us.
EXHIBIT B
Last week, I wrote about the entrance of private equity into college athletics, and this week confirmed what I anticipated: Utah’s deal seems to have opened the floodgates, with the Big 12 now reportedly closing in on a potential $500 million private‑capital agreement.
As I noted then, private equity presents a host of challenges, but one in particular crystallized for me this week as I thought about it more: Title IX accountability. As more athletic departments spin off private‑equity‑backed entities or limited partnerships to manage revenue, those entities may fall outside the scope of public records laws, depending on how they are structured. That means FOIA requests, which are often critical tools for investigating Title IX compliance and gender equity, could become even harder to access.
The result is a troubling paradox: the more “corporate” college sports becomes, the less public accountability there may be for institutions still bound by federal law. Title IX doesn’t stop at the door of a private equity fund, but if we’re not careful, transparency might.
ON THE DOCKET
All eyes were on the Patterson case this week after the NCAA circulated a memo stressing that “there is no request for broader preliminary injunctive relief on behalf of all Division I student‑athletes and the court is not expected to address eligibility for any other student‑athlete.”
That statement could be a preemptive signal that the NCAA expects it may lose, while trying to quarantine the impact of an unfavorable ruling. If the court sides with the plaintiffs, I don’t expect the logic to remain confined to five names on a docket. A win in Patterson would almost certainly invite a wave of follow-on cases challenging the NCAA’s authority to ration eligibility.
FOOTNOTES
"We have screwed up college sports for 1%... 1% of players who probably make all the money, but we're going to end up screwing up the 99% who actually need college (sports) to get a free education..."
- Charles Barkley on the NCAA’s impact on college sports (via Outkick).
