UM System President Tim Wolfe will recommend to the Board of Curators that it hire an independent counsel to investigate MU’s handling of the [Sasha Menu Courey case](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2014/1/26/report-alleges-mizzou-athletics-failed-investigate/).
Wolfe will make the recommendation during the board’s next meeting Jan. 29-31.
“We are going to fully understand what happened (in the Menu Courey case) and be better because of it,” he said at a press conference Wednesday.
Wolfe will recommend hiring an independent attorney to allow free rein in the investigation. He said that all administrators associated with the system could be subject to investigation under this plan, including himself.
Wolfe said he believes this is the best plan of action because the attorney will be free of any ties to the university.
“(By hiring an independent counsel) they will be able to make recommendations without constraints of reporting schedule or title,” he said.
Wolfe said he will not recommend hiring a specific counsel, and he will leave that decision up to the Board of Curators.
The UM System is already looking at its policies and developing improvements, he said. Wolfe said he hopes this will help prevent future similar cases.
“I want to help the Sashas of the world so that (this) won’t happen again,” Wolfe said.
Wolfe said he has also asked all four chancellors to develop plans to improve how their respective campuses deal with mental illness and incidents of sexual assault. Wolfe promised to put system funding behind improvement programs once they are developed.
“You can never spend enough. You can never do enough,” he said.
There is no specific time frame for the independent attorney’s investigation because the decision has not been approved yet, Wolfe said. But he does plan on talking to all chancellors by the end of next week.
The system’s investigation is separate from the criminal one currently being run by the Columbia Police Department.