Joe Newton was a family friend. My grandfather, a CEO of Chicago's largest company, supported Joe at York as he lived two blocks away from York when he started in the 50's. Joe was a friend and had generated lots of respect from us, even though my brother and I led two teams that beat him soundly.
He told me once that he thought Al Carius was the best coach there ever was at the university level. Great person too. I am not a great follower of the sport, especially since I know little about coaching, but it strikes me that is about as good of role model as you can have.
I talked to a couple of the Notre Dame kids at the UVA ACC XC two years ago - most recruited by Carlson and not surprisingly they were great kids, articulate, polite and all about education too. Again the human aspect would seem to matter here. Dont get me wrong - XC teams have a lot of great citizens - but that is the point - they deserve a presumption of being treated well, at least historically.
So I too am perplexed by this action. Again, times may have changed where this action at CU was a necessity or a de facto one. It just raises questions as to its long term efficacy.