[Ed. note -- Front Page'd]

I am fortunate to work for a company where trust and transparency are core values. My company was recently named in a Forbes Magazine article as one of the 100 Most Trustworthy Companies in America for 2011. This is something we reference with clients all the time as proof that what we talk about is what we deliver.

The same cannot be said for Boston College Athletics.

Today's post regarding former Women's Lacrosse Coach Bowen Holden and the secrecy surrounding her dismissal is just another of the many firings handled so terribly wrong by the athletic administration. Holden, Sylvia Crawley and Kevin Rogers' mysterious illnesses. Isn't it just enough to call a spade a spade and stop with the charade?

There have been a lot of people critical about those who refer to Boston as a pro sports town, but this is a classic case where that is proven out and most importantly is allowing the BC Athletic Administration to escape any scrutiny surrounding not only their decision, but the realities behind those decisions. This would not happen if this were a pro sports team or if the program was in a major college market. There would be a drastic rise in the level of accountability and transparency into the workings of the athletic department that just aren't there right now.

This carries right over into the football program and how it handled the Montel Harris situation and of course the continuing farce that is the Frank Spazani regime. How could a player who was never disciplined to the point of even a single play suspension, suddenly be tossed off the team for repeated violation of team rules? How can the entire world see one thing when it comes to Spaz and the administration see another. It's like the Emperor's New Clothes!

We all know the answer is that they just aren't willing to tell us the truth. They hide behind these flimsy stories and sit in ivory towers, virtually untouchable.

The saddest thing though is that this isn't a state university (no offense UMass, not directed at you), but it is a Jesuit Catholic institution of higher education. Wouldn't you think that honesty and transparency would be values espoused and demanded by the administration? Unfortunately, this has never been the case, not in the days of Bill Flynn and not in the days of GDF. In that way, BC is run no differently from so many businesses. BC has historically kept its skeletons and its problems completely in house, ignoring even the wishes of its students and alumni for information. The Rick Kuhn point shaving scandal, the Martin Clark expose surrounding the preferential treatment of athletes, anything that shows BC in a negative light is quickly squashed internally. It's done under the guise of student privacy rights, it's done under the guise of being a private and not public institution so not held to the same standards of information exchange. But the bottom line is...all they do is lie...it goes for the secular and non-secular...and it's a shame. The physical gates surrounding the university really do act as if it BC were a separate kingdom, completely beholden to it's own laws...they keep things in..they keep things out as well.

The call needs to go out from all of us to build back trust in the university and its athletic department. They can start by telling us the truth when you fire a coach. I think we can stomach those realities.