Talk:Rene Portland

Untitled
This is a sensitive topic to cover, but I do know a lot about it. (Read: Keep it on your watch lists.) Would anyone care to build up this article with me? GChriss 01:22, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

Rene Muth Portland?
Her middle name is Muth? Is this verifiable? What a weird name. --Mithunc 20:11, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Is Muth pronounced like Muff? Inquiring minds want to know. Wiseacre —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.76.155.229 (talk) 00:59, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Objections to SpeakOut
Why must there be pictures of the SpeakOut kids at the basketball game on there? I think this should have pictures of Rene Portland, not the kids that protested her. Show something to do with THINK PINK where she helped start that, show pics of her cutting down to win the Big Ten or get to the NCAA Final Four. I personally think a seperate page should be set up for ALL the PSU Clubs, then what you do is just have a statement in there saying that "SpeakOut" protested at a few of the games. Also, it should be noted that there were over 6,000 people at those games and only about 10 SpeakOut kids. Maybe you should do that. You know, the stick that huge rainbow flag over seats and you should find out from them if they bought the seats or if they used empty seats. You know, do some good reporting or something, but don't put pics of kids in a club that disliked Rene on a page that's FOR Rene. It's ok to have the lesbian issue on there, but don't have that be her claim to fame, because it's not. Look on gospusports.com, they still have all of Rene's season's listed with records, etc. Put here stats up on the page.

Actually another better thing would be to create a page seperately about the lesbian issues and have a link to that as related to Rene Portland. I just believe Rene Portland's page should talk about Rene and little about the whole Jen Harris case. I also personally believe Jen Harris was cut do to her style of play ("ghetto baller") and she just used the lesbian stuff to get what she wanted. --ccgk51156
 * Hi, you have asked a number of questions. One at a time:
 * Per our Neutral Point of View policy, this article is not "for" Portland. The article is "about" Portland. The Harris lawsuit and reaction of the student body are significant, well-reported aspects of her tenure at Penn State. Although the appropriate amount and tone of coverage is debatable, no mention of the controversy decreases the quality of the article.
 * Most Penn State student organizations do not meet Wikipedia notability guidelines and such articles would be removed after creation. I have a few thoughts about a good home for Penn State articles.
 * I did snap a picture of a pink high heel related to Think Pink, but I am not aware of other free content pictures that would illustrate Portland's Final Four appearance or talent as a coach. I will include the picture.
 * A listing of awards Portland has received is now included in the article. More information, presented well, is a generally good thing.
 * I am open to suggestions on how to otherwise improve the article. Or, better yet, click the edit button. :-)
 * Hope this helps, GChriss &lt;always listening&gt; &lt;c&gt; 20:51, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Faculty Senate Question
For full disclosure I should mention that I asked President Spanier a question related to the Harris lawsuit during the 14-March-2006 Faculty Senate meeting. The full minutes are available. (The minutes are accurate, but I misspoke in referring to Policy AD20. AD42 is the pertinent policy.) The question was the extent of my involvement in the issue. Thanks, GChriss &lt;always listening&gt; &lt;c&gt; 14:37, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

The harm that Rene Portland did
Under Rene Portland’s 27-year tenure as Penn State’s head women’s basketball coach (from the 1980-81 season through 2006-2007), there were 113 student-athletes who appeared on the Penn State roster. Seven players from Portland’s final season remained on the squad when Coquese Washington became the next head coach. Hence, there were 106 young women who concluded their time with the Penn State Lady Lions under Portland.

Of these, 57 completed 4-year college careers at PSU; however, the rest (49, or nearly half) stayed less than 4 seasons as Lady Lions. Penn State usually has few student-athlete transfers from other colleges, so most, if not all, of those 49 played their first college ball at PSU and left before their 4 years of college eligibility were up.

Thus, close to 46% of Portland’s players left Penn State while they still had college eligibility remaining. In fact, none of her five international players stayed longer than two years. That percentage seems rather high, but let’s see how it compares to Coquese Washington, who took over from Portland.

Through spring 2014, 33 players have played under Washington, including the seven holdovers from Portland’s last season. Eleven of the 33 are on the current roster and have college eligibility remaining. Of those 33, seven players have left Penn State’s team after spending less than 4 years there, most before 2011. So the attrition rate under Washington has been just 21%, well less than half of Portland’s attrition rate.

To put it another way, for Coquese Washington to match and keep up with Portland's appalling attrition percentage, nine of the current 11 players continuing on Penn State women's basketball team would need to leave the team abruptly this year, 2014. It is safe to say that player attrition under Washington will not match that of Portland for a long time, most likely not ever.

Obviously, something was happening under Portland’s tenure that caused young women to leave the team at an alarmingly high and unprecedented rate. The departure of some of these 49 athletes may not have always been a result of Portland’s well-documented psychological abuse of players whom she suspected to be lesbian. (One of the 49 was her assistant coach for a time.)

However, it is reasonable to conclude that at least half of these 49 ladies were kicked off the team for no reason other than, at best, Portland’s discriminatory intolerance and, at worst, her spiteful vindictive abuse of her own power. The actual number is likely even higher.

Rene Portland was certainly not a loser in all this. She coached for another 21 years after her discrimination toward her players was first reported, rolling up 693 career coaching victories. Further, she has never publicly apologized, nor admitted in any way that what she did was wrong. A $10,000 fine imposed by her employer did not deter her from coaching another year. Only when she was on the verge of losing a legal judgment and damages to one of her former players (Jennifer Harris, ironically a straight woman who merely befriended a lesbian), did she suffer consequences: a confidential out-of-court settlement with Harris and her resignation one month later.

The real losers are all the talented student-athletes over the years who were denied education at the university of their choice, the chance to continue their college careers (because of Portland’s continuing spite), the chance to compete for the U.S. and other national teams, and a possible professional career, such as in the WNBA. But most of all, the psychological abuse and suffering that she inflicted on her own players has caused incredible pain that continues to this day.

If anyone deserves a public apology, these ladies deserve one. Whether Rene Portland ever is forthcoming with apologies or not, the university itself should invite all of these ladies to a home athletic event before a huge crowd to honor them and offer them a sincere apology in front of the world. If Penn State won’t do this, then the worldwide Penn State community itself will have lost in the end.

Jeff in CA (talk) 04:57, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

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