As a woman who works as a scientist at this university, I am appalled and outraged — to the point of feeling violated — that the WSU administration continues to whole-heartedly support and heavily finance WSU football Head Coach Mike Leach, despite his obvious engenderment of a culture of ‘locker-room talk’ amongst his players.

The fact that one of Leach’s star players, Gabe Marks, felt comfortable in remarking to an Evergreen reporter in reference to the Trump scandal, “I’m sure that that stuff is said anywhere, people talk like that all the time,” clearly illustrates that the Leach-led WSU Cougars have no issue with using highly discriminative, abusive, rape-culture-encouraging language toward women.

With second-degree assault charges pending against linemen T.J. Fehoko and Robert Barber for their role in a brawl at a party in July, one begins to wonder if Cougs could, or have, exhibited a similar lack of physical control toward women on this campus.

It is obvious that, in some cases for some Cougar football players, words are not always enough.

It is one thing to hold political views privately, but the fact that Leach — the most high-profile ambassador of WSU — has openly endorsed Donald Trump, despite Trump’s unpardonable utterings on the 2005 video, is reprehensible.

Leach is bizarrely well-paid with university funds.

He has no right to use his position as a launch-pad for his political views when, by mere association, they appear to reflect the views of WSU.

I am disgusted that this institution values its thousands of women students and faculty members less favorably than a small group of men who “talk like that all the time.”

The WSU administration needs to step up and act to discipline Leach before he sullies our good name further.

It is important to remember that we are an academic institution, whose purpose is the honorable pursuit of education and knowledge.

It doesn’t make any sense that a ridiculous game, one that we are not very good at, rules us and shapes how we are seen by the world.

How did it come to this?