What’s wrong with profiting a little off tragedy, I ask you?
Leading lawmakers Tuesday pressured the University System of Maryland to divulge more details on how it rang up a “jarring price tag” while investigating an allegedly toxic culture at the state’s flagship football program.
In a letter to Chancellor Robert L. Caret, the House of Delegates’ fiscal leaders expressed their “renewed and increasing distress” over the university system’s response to the death of Jordan McNair, a 19-year-old lineman who suffered exertional heatstroke at a team workout in May. The letter states the lawmakers’ “serious concerns” about the circumstances surrounding the tragedy “but also about the inconsistent, inadequate, and opaque response” by the university system and its board of regents, who took control of the investigations from the College Park campus in August.
The letter is signed by the six House of Delegates leaders with the most influence on the university system’s budget, including House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) and Del. Maggie McIntosh (D-Baltimore City), the chair of the House Appropriations Committee.
While the regents oversaw the investigation, the $1.57 million tab rung up by the eight commission members was passed on to the College Park campus.
If that’s the shot, here’s the chaser.
Some more people need to lose their jobs over the debacle.