I think you're really missing the point here. Hoffman is
basically trying to cover for the football program, but on the other hand also needs to make it look (to NCAA, which hasn't gotten into this yet but will eventually) that CU cleaned things up on its own.

It's a very cynical balancing act she's carrying out, and she'll
use anything she needs. Her statement is purely defensive;
she knows exactly what that four-letter word means but she's
weaseling out of it whenever she can.

I'm a sports fan, but down with college sports. It corrupts everything it touches.

the durango herald had a bit more detail on the exchange as a whole:

http://durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/04/news040616_1.htm

the relevant bit is here:

The lawyer in the deposition was "very difficult," Hoffman said. "I can't even describe how nasty he was. I said, 'Look, it's a swear word. We all agree that swear words get used in lots of different contexts.' I must have said two or three times, 'It's a swear word.'

"He asked, 'Is there any polite context in which you can think of this word?' I thought of Chaucer: 'The Miller's Tale.'" That is a 14th century poem by the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Hoffman is a medieval scholar.

"I knew as soon as I said it that it would come out in the papers," she said. "I should have said, 'Read Chaucer's 'The Miller's Tale.'"

i wonder if we'll see the chaucer defense more often in the future....

"I'm a sports fan, but down with college sports. It corrupts everything it touches."

This is one time where I have to place the blame at the feet of those who normally vote Republican. Very few liberals are college sports enthusiasts. Dan Drezner is lucky to be currently at the University of Chicago. His school long ago got away from such silliness. These programs are also extremely costly. This is one of the reasons why students have to get into so much debt.

"This is one time where I have to place the blame at the feet of those who normally vote Republican."

??? Hard to argue with that logic. Wouldnt it be just as fair to say we should lay it at the feet of those who vote democrat because liberals have created and insulated college campuses as their personal PC laboratory?

On the upside, this foul woman has basically guaranteed herself being called a C everyday for the rest of her tenure.

Yes, I'm sure Dan congratulates himself constantly on not being "forced" to attend top-notch basketball games like his colleagues at, say, Duke or UNC. Pity those guys, shall we?

Come off it, you guys. To say that what happened at CU is reflective of ALL college sports programs is no different from saying that what happened at Abu Ghraib is genocide/worse than Iraq under Saddam/indicative of moral rot in the entire US military.

I agree with Dan on this one--the Prez needs to get off campus a little more. She really should have gotten a bit more creative, maybe suggesting that CU**ies are the new female mascots of the school, that it is part of a "subversive" strategy for feminists "reclaiming" the ugliest word in the English language, that it is her husband's secret "dirty talk" nickname for her and drives her insane....The Miller's Tale. Ho hum.

Hmmm... well Kelli I have known many college sports atheletes personally and while I wouldn't tar them all with the scarlett letter I'm afraid that the antics and such are in fact reflective of the culture as I've witnessed it second hand. There's a lot of promiscuity, a feeling of entitlement, and some misogyny. Last season I watched a visiting team bb coach allow a player suspected of rape - the DA was preparing the case - play on court with everyone else.

She needs to take a look at the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04/dcvgr10.txt where the f-word appears, minus its vowels, but the c-word is referenced simply as "the monosyllable" in the definition of "EVE'S CUSTOM-HOUSE, where Adam made his first entry." The word has been unacceptable for rather a while, it would appear.