Nov 4, 2014 3 min read

CALIFORNIA – The national media attention given to the arrests last week of six California University of Pennsylvania football players in an off-campus assault temporarily damaged the school’s reputation, California University’s interim president said Tuesday.

Geraldine M. Jones said she ordered a “top-down review” of the football program, which also made news Monday night because the arrests of the six players brought the number of Cal U. football players with scrapes with the law to 27 over the past two years.

“We will not stop until we find out what happened in what appears to be issues with the athletic program,” Jones said while meeting with members of the university’s faculty Senate. “The actions of a few have affected this entire university.”

The condition of the victim in the Oct. 30 assault has improved. Lewis Campbell III, 30, of West Chester, was initially admitted to Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, in critical condition with brain trauma. He was in fair condition Tuesday at AGH, a hospital spokeswoman said.

California Borough police said Campbell was assaulted after his girlfriend became involved in an argument with one of the players about 2 a.m. outside Spuds restaurant at 227 Wood St.

Police arrested the following five players at a football practice that day: James Williamson, 20, of Parkville, Md.; Corey Ford, 22, of Harrisburg; Jonathan Barlow, 21, of Pittsburgh; Rodney Gillin, 20, of Reading, and D’Andre Dunkley, 19, of Philadelphia. Each is charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, harassment and conspiracy and is being held in Washington County jail on $500,000 bond.

The sixth suspect, Shelby Wilkerson, 20, of Harrisburg, faces the same charges after turning himself into police Saturday. He was jailed on $50,000 bond.

The arrests prompted Jones to cancel a football game last Saturday and suspend the players from the university.

Jones said she met again Tuesday with football coach Mike Kellar, his staff and the players, and reminded them the university has “zero tolerance” for such allegations.

Without defending the brushes with the law the other 21 players encountered, Jones said most of the crimes were misdemeanors for such offenses as “being at a party that was loud.”

A review of the cases by the Observer-Reporter confirmed the majority of the players were cited for being at a disorderly house party.

Some of them were charged with such offenses as marijuana possession, public drunkenness, underage drinking or criminal mischief.

“We can’t control what people do here,” said Jones, who also addressed other concerns brought to the table by professors.

Jones, who has been in the president’s office for 2 ½ years, said she was surprised to learn the state System of Higher Education does not require her to undergo an annual job performance evaluation. The discussion arose during a request by the faculty to be more involved in performance reviews of administrators.

“This university has not been good at evaluations for whatever reason,” said Jones.

She said the school under her leadership had to eliminate jobs, furlough employees and make program cuts to deal with deficits to deal with a large amount of debt.

“We didn’t get this way overnight and we’re not going to fix it overnight,” she said.

Cal U. also is operating with an expired strategic plan. Jones said she asked the provost to form a committee to update the plan and present a draft proposal of it in March to the university’s council of trustees.