University action lacking for senior

Women's basketball star Rachael Honegger, a senior forward, pleaded guilty to stealing more than $10,000 from her former employer, the Ellettsville IGA. The judge sentenced her to three years, but suspended the sentence to six months of house arrest.\nMonroe County Circuit Court Judge David Welch sentenced Honegger to six months of house arrest, but he didn't assign a traditional version of the punishment. According to Welch's version of house arrest, an IU athlete may travel around the country. That is no punishment. \n Honegger is already getting time credited to her sentence for the home detention she spent while awaiting trail. It is as if she got off scott free. Welch gave her a sentence that tells the athletic community they can commit felonies without worry. Monroe County will be happy to give you a punishment that requires no jail time and home detention that lets athletes go on the road with their teams. \nAthletics director Clarence Doninger is also committing an injustice by allowing her to continue playing.\nThis comes after Doninger's athletic code of conduct policy, which stipulates athletes must be held to a higher standard than the rest of the student body, not only in their own actions, but in their choice of friends. The code states that athletes are not allowed to be friends with people who have committed crimes. \nThis creates a predicament for the team, as no one on the team will be able to associate with her.\nWhen Doninger said the University took "internal disciplinary action," it seems he meant the University would do nothing at all. Honegger was first put under house arrest in October, when she pleaded guilty to forgery, a felony. Since then, she has been a starter on the women's basketball team.\nMen's basketball sophomore guard Tom Coverdale has had two run-ins with the law, neither as serious as Honegger's, and he was punished. Interim head coach Mike Davis put Coverdale on a curfew for the rest of the year, making it clear that another infraction would cost him his scholarship -- visible punishment for an illegal consumption charge, a crime much less serious than Honegger's. Of course, she is being punished "internally," although it is in a manner than still allows her to keep all the privileges she had before she was convicted.\nHonegger started in Sunday's road game against Iowa. She gets to travel with the team, play with the team and start in games, just as she did before she was convicted. Fair punishment for stealing $10,000?\nStaff vote: 11-0-2