TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL)-- Florida State Quarterback Jameis Winston is facing a disciplinary hearing soon at the university. It's related to an incident back in December 2012 when a female student accused Winston of raping her.
According to our media partners at the Tallahassee Democrat, Winston was given a letter from Vice President of Student Affairs Mary Coburn and Interim President Garnett Stokes on Friday. He has five class days to have an information session.
FSU administrators are also getting help from a third party, a retired state Supreme Court justice, to help determine if Winston violated FSU's student code of conduct and if he did, what discipline he may face.
"They're stepping out front and getting in front of the issue to prevent the situation from getting worse," said Trimmel Gomes, media analyst. Gomes says it's a move that could help the school's image, especially after a New York Times article was released Friday and argued the university didn't do enough when the accuser first came forward.
"Using a third party -- it allows us to see and understand that this is a transparent process and it's not being influenced by anyone, like you know anyone in the university, to sway one way and go in favor of one party over the other," said Gomes.
Also on Friday, the university released a letter with a rough timeline of events, defending their involvement in the investigation.
"This is a step that they actually needed to move from a PR standpoint," said Gomes, "to show that they're not complacent, sitting down and being caught without taking action, because what people are looking for and what they're being criticized for is not taking enough action and the right action to remedy the different crises on their hands."
