SPLC

CCSU President Jack Miller announced that head coach Shaun Green will be suspended for 60 days without pay, suspended from coaching four games next season, is required to issue a written apology to the Recorder and financially compensate the paper for destroying the copies.

The athletic department will also face a $100,000 penalty and one of Green’s assistant coaches will not return next season.

In a press release, Miller said the university has “built a culture of freedom of expression and freedom of the press and personally defended those freedoms even when the result is criticism of us.”

Outgoing Recorder Editor-in-Chief Nicholas Proch estimated the 150 trashed copies were valued between $400 and $500.

“I'm happy with what they’ve done, and on behalf of my staff I can say that. They did everything that they could do, I'm assuming, inside of the university,” Proch said. “I’m happy that they took it seriously and it wasn't just a slap on the wrist. It was a true sanction, in my opinion.”

Green was caught on a security camera May 3 collecting copies of The Recorder from the student center and placing them in trash cans and recycling bins. Proch, who recently graduated, noticed empty bins after one of his classes that day and contacted police.

According to the Recorder, Green was unhappy with a story that reported the soccer team would be disqualified from the postseason next year because of academic sanctions.

CCSU also announced that assistant coach Paul Wright's contract with the university will not be renewed. Wright was walking along with Green on the security video, but did not actually carry any papers, Proch said.

“I think it was fair and I also think that even though he (Green) is not a representative of the entire athletic department, and I don’t think that other people in the athletic department should be tied into the same image, it was important that they put the athletic department on notice… to at least train or show other coaches in the system or future coaches that this is an important issue and that it shouldn't be taken lightly going down the road,” Proch said.

Proch said he may pursue the matter further and is looking into possible legal action.

By Nikki McGee, SPLC staff writer