Barta: Probe into what happened to Iowa band at Iowa State is 'ongoing'

IOWA CITY — Gary Barta said there are still few clear answers into what allegedly happened to the Iowa marching band at the Sept. 14 football game at Iowa State.

“It’s still ongoing,” Barta, Iowa’s athletics director, said in a media availability after football coach Kirk Ferentz’s press conference on Tuesday. “We have several incidents that are still open. We’re going to continue to support the students who brought them forward.”

Iowa band members said last week that they were subjected to physical and verbal assaults while attending and performing at the annual rivalry game at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames. One band member reportedly needed medical attention.

“At this point, there are some details that can’t be verified,” Barta said. “I’ve heard multiple descriptions of what happened. I still don’t know exactly what happened. I know we have one band member who required medical treatment, that’s what I know.

“I’m not to judge how serious or significant it was. I’m there to support our students who say they were mistreated. I believe them, and we’re just trying to help them get through it.”

Barta’s comments, along with a media availability in Ames with Iowa State athletics director Jamie Pollard, came a day after University of Iowa president Bruce Harreld said that if safety measures couldn’t be improved for the game in the future, the rivalry series might end.

In his sit-down with the Daily Iowan, UI President Bruce Harreld questioned whether the UI should play the rivalry-series game in the future pending improvements to safety.https://t.co/11giPXSkhD
— The Daily Iowan (@TheDailyIowan) September 24, 2019

“I’m not convinced at all that we should play this game again — here or there or anywhere — unless we can protect our fans, our band, and of course our athletes,” Harreld told the Daily Iowan.

“I know he said it. I know he meant it. I know what he meant by it,” Barta said. “And that is, he’s concerned, I’m concerned, that the safety of the participants in the game has to be No. 1.

“I have to say this — I think the vast majority of the fans who attend the game enjoy it responsibly, celebrate it responsibly. But we do have make sure the people who participate in the game are safe.”

Harreld’s comments bothered Pollard.

“Do I think that the Iowa marching band was subjected to profanity, rudeness and possibly even having something thrown on them?” Pollard said. “Unfortunately, absolutely. And why do I feel that way? Because I know it’s happened to our band, multiple times, in Iowa City. And that’s flat-out embarrassing. It’s shameful. It’s inexcusable. And we all have to do better. That means our fans have to do a better job of policing our fans, but so do the Iowa fans. This has got to be a collective approach to not let that type of behavior happen.”

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said in her weekly press conference on Tuesday that she didn’t believe cancelling the series was an option.

“I have full confidence in the two universities sitting down and being able to figure it out,” Reynolds said.

A joint statement from Barta and Pollard last week read, ““Both the University of Iowa and Iowa State University are committed to providing a safe environment for everyone attending events on their respective campuses. This includes members of the school’s marching bands. Unfortunately, both the Hawkeye and Cyclone marching bands have been the target of unacceptable behavior at football games in Iowa City and Ames in recent years. Some of the conduct directed at the students in our respective marching bands recently has been rude, vulgar, and in some cases, violent. We should all feel embarrassed when students in the bands don’t feel safe when performing at an away game. Each of our athletics departments is committed to doing whatever is necessary to improve the environment for visiting school marching bands in the future. A significant part of the solution is insisting our fans help address this issue by showing more respect to our visitors. We owe it to these hardworking performers to have a safe stage on which they can showcase their spirit and talent.”

Barta said that statement was not an indication that the investigation was closed.

“What I said was, at this point, it’s still difficult to ascertain all of the details,” he said. “In the meantime, we are going to start looking at future games. I never said there was an investigation that was closed.

“It’s still not closed. Every day, we’re checking in with these students who were wrong. They were wronged. We had students at that game who were mistreated. At this point, we’re working with them. We’re meeting with them. We’re still there to support them.”

“I know when I look at some of those social media, I see appropriately students and families really concerned about why we would ever close something so quickly,” Harreld said to the Daily Iowan. “There’s still a greater story to be told. That wasn’t our intent, and I apologize if any of that really created a sense that we’re washing our hands. We’re not washing our hands of this — this is a really bad situation. Something really bad happened in Ames.”

Pollard said during his press conference that five complaints from Saturday's game have been reported to him, including three incidents with the band — beer being dumped on a teaching assistant, a verbal encounter between the Iowa band’s director and ISU’s facilities director as the band began to leave the stadium, and an argument between a band member and security personnel when the band member tried to go through the ISU team entrance at the Bergstrom Football Complex next to Jack Trice Stadium. One band member who was carrying a ladder suffered broken ribs, Pollard said.

“We started to learn about it last Monday,” Barta said. “As soon as we started to learn about it, my first reaction is, ‘Let’s get to the band. Let’s find out if there has been any students who have been injured. And if they have, let’s be there and support them.’ That was my first reaction. After that, we started to follow up and say, ‘Now, where do we go from here?’

“We really didn’t conduct an investigation. What we did from day one, and we’ll continue to do, is when our students brought forward concerns, we’re listening to them, we’re meeting with them, we’re providing them options.”

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