ASUI Senate officially asked University of Idaho Athletic Director Rob Spear to resign in a 10-5 vote Wednesday evening.

Spear is currently on 60-day administrative leave over his mishandling of a 2013 sexual assault under Title IX.

“Rob Spear’s resignation will not solve the culture of apathy in the athletic department,” said ASUI Sen. Nicole Skinner. “But, it’s a damn good place to start.”

ASUI’s resolution also asked for an addition to Spear’s contract that would terminate his contract if he mishandles a Title IX case again.

Spear, who attended the open forum before the resolution passed, said there was no Title IX training in 2013. Additionally, he said he was not aware of a temporary safety policy in place at the time. ASUI senators were handed documents at the start of the meeting by Gregory Rauch of Magyar, Rauch and Associates, PLLC representing Spear, showing UI’s safety policies in place at the time.

Spear declined to comment to The Argonaut and left immediately following his time at the podium during the open forum.

President Chuck Staben has announced a task force will be chaired by UI Dean of Students Blaine Eckles to solicit and address students’ safety concerns. Eckles said Wednesday he expects a 15-person committee, five of whom will be students.

The decision was made by students with the closest thing to the full story — otherwise-FERPA protected documents provided by Mairin Jameson from her case — the police report and emails and other documents from the UI Dean of Students Office. UI student and founder of Students for Accountability and Safety Sarah Solomon said she reached out to Jameson about two weeks ago and she agreed to share documents with her and the ASUI Senate only.

“It provided more evidence and solidified the fact that I was pretty confident that Rob should, in fact, be removed,” Solomon said.

Spear said he did contact the Moscow Police Department and that MPD’s campus liaison sits on a board, which includes the Dean of Students Office and the Office of Civil Rights and Inclusion.

ASUI President McKenzie MacDonald told the Senate she opposed the resolution.

“You’ve done your job,” MacDonald said. “Now let President Staben do his. Let’s stop making statements and let’s get to work.”

ASUI Sen. Zachary Spence said his constituents overwhelmingly asked him to vote no on the resolution.

The resolution cites Spear’s contract. It reads that he is required to “know, recognize and comply with all applicable laws and the policies, rules and regulations of the university, the university’s governing board, the conference and the NCAA; supervise and take appropriate steps to ensure that director’s assistant and associate directors, any other employees for whom director is administratively responsible, and the participants in the program know, recognize and comply with all such laws, policies, rules and regulations.”

“I do think we offer support in every one of the situations,” Spear said during the open forum. “We offer counseling.”

Though he said he feels he handled it appropriately at the time, he said more could have been done.

“Now I am remorseful, that that individual doesn’t feel supported. That hurts me,” Spear said. “We probably should have done more.”

Spear said the athletic department provides better support services to athletes now than it did in 2013 — the year of Jameson’s sexual assault.

One student-athlete also spoke against the resolution.

“Throughout my whole time here, I’ve felt completely supported and safe within the environment in the Kibbie Dome,” said Geraldine McCorkell, former captain of the women’s basketball team. “(Spear) knows me by name, he knows my family, he asks me consistently when’s my family coming. I think that creates a second family environment which we are all about. The statements written in an article by a fellow athlete – I believe that they do not represent the whole of the athletic department.”

Miles Whitling, ASUI director of athletics, also spoke against the resolution.

“The athletic department has exemplified and lived out what it means to be part of the Vandal family,” Whitling said. “I see it in the athletic department staff, when they come to every game and support our student athletes, especially on senior nights. They have been the ones cheering on our seniors as they play their last home games and matches as Vandals when the rest of us students were too busy or too lazy to come out in support of our students.”

Whitling said ASUI has not handled the issue in the right way.

Maddy Roppe, co-captain of UI’s dance team, said her experience being sexually harassed by fellow UI athletes has informed her position that change is necessary.

“Not for one minute did we think the university would defend Rob Spear. In today’s climate, we thought the university would hold strong to its no-tolerance policy on sexual assault and the way it’s happened. To say we were disappointed by the initial response is an understatement,” Roppe said. “This basketball season, 2018, I watched some of my teammates get catcalled by fellow Vandal athletes on our way to a game. These were not basketball players. While I appreciate the university’s effort to combat sexual harassment, the current culture in the athletic department made these athletes comfortable harassing my fellow teammates.”

Comments to a Google form set up by ASUI, read out prior to the vote, were mixed, including criticisms that ASUI senators aren’t responsible enough to handle the issue, reservations about making a decision without complete information, requests that ASUI pass the resolution and personal stories.

Spear denied quotes attributed to him in Jameson’s blog, in which he allegedly said the accused athlete had been in his office before and that he told Jameson to tell her teammates to watch out for him.

ASUI Sen. Jesse Smith said he does not think it is ASUI’s place to address the issue and that university administration should handle it.

“We’re hoping that the university does listen to the voice of the students and kind of be able to look at things objectively and look at the facts they know and make a decision based on that, because I’m pretty confident that the right thing will be done,” Solomon said.

The Argonaut will continue to cover this story.

Nishant Mohan can be reached at arg-news@uidaho.edu or on Twitter @NishantRMohan

UPDATE: This story was updated 11 p.m. Wednesday