The Rhodes Trust has declined comment on the allegations, raised in a New York Times story, that former Yale quarterback Patrick Witt's Rhodes Scholarship candidacy was over before he pulled out of consideration because of a scheduling conflict.
Here is the official statement released by the Rhodes Trust, which I just received from Rhodes Trust American Secretary Elliot P. Gerson.
Statement of the Rhodes Trust
On November 1, 2011, Mr . Elliot Gerson, American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust, told the Yale University Institutional Representative for the Rhodes Scholarships, Ms . Katherine Dailinger, that the Trust had learned of a complaint lodged against Mr . Patrick Witt, a candidate for a Rhodes Scholarship. Mr . Gerson asked for a conversation between him and a Yale official regarding the matter. On November 2, Ms . Dailinger told Mr . Gerson that Mr . Witt would phone him the following evening.
On November 3, Mr . Gerson explained to Mr . Witt that the Rhodes Trust had learned of a complaint lodged against him at Yale. On Friday, November 4, Mr . Gerson informed Yale officials that the Trust would require Yale to re-confirm in writing by November 15 its endorsement of Mr . Witt and asked Yale to explain to Mr . Witt the Trust's decision to ask for Yale's endorsement anew.
On Monday, November 7, Mr . Gerson contacted Ms . Dailinger to confirm that the Rhodes position had been communicated to Mr . Witt. Ms . Dailinger replied that she was waiting for Mr . Witt to call her back.
Mr . Gerson has been told by Yale that Mr . Witt was informed on November 8 that his continued eligibility would be contingent upon Rhodes' receipt of this new endorsement.
Mr . Witt initiated communications with the secretary of the Rhodes interviewing committee in Atlanta on November 7 regarding the possibility of scheduling his interview in Atlanta to allow him to play in the Harvard game on the day of the interviews (November 19). He was advised that the arrangements he sought were not feasible in view of Rhodes' standard procedures. The Rhodes interviewing committee in Atlanta was not ever told about the complaint and the Trust's request for re-endorsement because the Rhodes Trust did not want the Committee to be prejudiced should Yale have elected to issue a new endorsement.
On November 13, before Yale's re-confirmation was due, Mr . Witt informed the Rhodes Trust that he was withdrawing from the Rhodes competition.
Elliot F. Gerson
American Secretary
Rhodes Trust
In the e-mail, Gerson repeated what he was quoted as saying in the New York Times story "as to the one question, I can say to you too Jim, as I did to the NYT reporter, that the words used in the original New York Times article, that 'his candidacy was suspended unless the university decided to re-endorse it’ were a very reasonable characterization of what happened."
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