Oregon State fans wonder: "Why is Bob De Carolis still the athletic director at OSU?"

Now that the LaVonda Wagner situation has been put to rest (to the extent that it can be) and Oregon State University recently hired a new coach, OSU fans are turning their attention to the handling of this situation by the athletic department, particularly Athletic Director Bob De Carolis.

Put simply: LaVonda Wagner was the easy story in this situation -- after being reported about for weeks, it's not difficult to find information about that. The more difficult story that seems to be repeatedly glossed over is the role of the athletic department in this:

Letter to the editor: Players didn't quit on Oregon State; Oregon State quit on them | OregonLive.com
We have followed the articles in The Oregonian and feel you have done an excellent job informing your readers of the situation. The one area that is lacking in our opinion is any insight into the athletic department's role in this debacle.

Where was athletic director Bob De Carolis, executive senior associate athletic director Todd Stansbury, associate athletic director/senior women' administrator Marianne Vydra, and nearly a dozen other associate, assistant, and/or executive minions when the girls requested help? What administrative oversight did any of them, at any time, exercise over the course of five years and 17 player defections? If the athletic department administrators were unaware of the situation, why? If they were aware, why was nothing done? In one of your articles you quoted one of the girls mother, Debra Champlin, asking De Carolis, "Where were you when we tried to say something was wrong years ago. Why did you let it go on this long?" We question what any of the athletic department administrators were doing in regard to this situation.

Wagner situation aside, the concern among some fans for a program and athletic department that is facing an arduous climb to respectability -- fraught with both financial and talent barriers -- is whether De Carolis is the right person for the job moving forward.

Letter to the editor: Solution to Oregon State's problems is to fire Bob De Carolis | OregonLive.com
Einstein said, essentially, that "We cannot expect problems to be solved by the same people who created the problems in the first place." I see no reason to expect better from De Carolis, especially with the money constraints that exist now. "She will be paid the remaining $1.2 million of her contract."

Paid? By me? That does not make me happy, to say the least. By the way, DeCarolis is a public employee. ... The solution to the OSU problems is to fire De Carolis.

To be clear, nobody is suggesting that Wagner's firing was unwarranted, financial burden aside. The concern here is that replacing Wagner appears to have addressed a symptom and not the root of the problem.

At what point will more investigative attention turn toward the person who is being paid to oversee and mitigate this disaster?