The Herald runs a story today about the resignation of Jeremi Suri, the faculty-appointee on the UW Athletic Board who resigned last month, alleging the board was not fulfilling its role as a check on Athletic Department, and further accusing some board members of stifling voices of dissent on the committee through intimidation. [The Wisconsin State Journal ](http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/307628)also covered the letter. Although the article doesn’t mention it, the actual letter seems to rather strongly imply that racism and sexism played a role in his decision to resign. Suri referred to two occasions in which female board members called him in tears after having been verbally abused by groups of male colleagues. Later in the letter, describing the obsession with stamping out dissent, Suri says that “people of color” are often the targets of the board’s ire. I will try to get a link to the letter up soon. Chairman of the Athletic Board, Walter Dickey, said he “disagrees with everything” in the letter. I can’t say who I believe — I am predisposed to give Suri the benefit of the doubt — he may very well be the best professor I’ve ever had in my time here. Although he was an extremely objective historian, he was never shied away from discussing morals and ethics in very frank terms. Unless he was in an uncontrollable fit of rage, it doesn’t seem like him to exaggerate as grossly as Dickey seems to believe, or at least suggest.