“Our leadership team, our legal team, unequivocally it was the right decision," said SDSU President Adela de la Torre at a Wednesday meeting of the Associated Students of San Diego State.
De la Torre has previously defended the university’s handling of the rape allegations made by a now 18-year-old woman against three members of last year’s football team.
The San Diego Union-Tribune was there and shared its video recording of the meeting with KPBS.
De la Torre dropped the bombshell when the cameras were not rolling, but the quote was captured by U-T reporter Gary Robbins. She said, “The issue of sexual assault, sexual violence, is very, very present. It is something that I have personally experienced, is something that lives with me day to day, and something that informs how I feel about this issue.”
We reached out for further comment from de la Torre. A university spokesperson responded that she was not scheduling media interviews at this time.
We also reached out to the Associated Students leadership, but we were told they were in meetings all day.
At one point, a student asked de la Torre if a message was being sent by the university that student-athletes were valued more than others, though the alleged rape victim is not a SDSU student. De la Torre handed that one off to the university’s Vice President of Business and Financial Affairs, Jessica Rentto.
“Until the filing of the civil complaint that occurred last week, we did not have the confirmed names of suspects from the victim," Rentto said.
De La Torre also reiterated that the university did not launch its own investigation because the San Diego Police Department asked them not to.
The school has since gotten the green light to investigate and is moving forward with its own inquiry.
“It was the right thing to allow the criminal investigation process to occur unimpeded. ... And I would not be honest with you if I said I would change it just because of the media firestorm. One always has to do the right thing," de la Torre said.
