Official announcement. Hagel and the president have been discussing his departure over the last several weeks. Lets get to the pentagon and Barbara Starr. Although the white house is saying it was a mutual decision, you say its not . Well, carol, good morning. The white house and officially here at the pentagon the sword it was a mutual decision between the president and secretary hagel for the secretary to go. But in reality, the political reality, several officials now tell us here at cnn is that hagel basically was forced out, pushed out, whatever you want to call it. The secretary and the president had been talking over the last several weeks about what the president wanted to see in the final two years of hiS Administration in National Security. They had been talking about it and, you know, once you Start Talking about the future, it opens the door to all of these issues of stay or go. There had been a lot of chatter about all of this, that the president wanted to make a change in personnel, that he wasnt happy with his National Security team, and when you look at the three key players, you have susan rice, the National Security advisor at the white house and obama intimate, shes not going anywhere, secretary of state john kerry in the middle of iran negotiations, very vocal, very high profile, hes not going anywhere. Secretary hagel, perhaps publicly not always smooth and articula articulate. Very much an implementer of the what the white house wanted so perhaps making himself a bit vulnerable on that point. Theres no question about that. Very much a respectable secretary of defense, didnt do anything wrong, did what the white house wanted them to to do. At the end the president wanted a change and hagel was the last man left standing. They are saying its mutual. Nobody wants to sort of make him appear to be lesser than he was. He was very competent as the secretary of defense, he had lot of initiatives. He was carrying out the white house strategy on the fight against isis but in raises the big question. If hagel goes which he will and he was carrying out the president s war strategy what is the strategy now . Will it change . Is this opening the door to potential changes in the fight against isis . We do know secretary hagel had written a memo to the white house saying he was very concerned that not enough attention was being paid to the syria part of the equation. Hagel himself raising questions about the war strategy. So this now becomes the big open question. When a new nominee goes through the confirmation process before the Republican SenateArms Services committee chaired by john mccain who very much wants to see a stronger military presence, what will happen . What will be the stated strategy, what will a new secretary of defense face and what will it mean for American Forces on the ground in the middle east. I think these are the Big Questions now as the secretary prefires go. Barbara starr, stay there. I want to check in with athena jones. Athena, the president s Foreign Policy has been roundly criticized. Is that the reason chuck hagel is being pushed snout. Good morning, carol. This is being seen as a way to reassure the critics. But as barbara mentioned folks are saying hagel was not pushed out. You would expect that response from here. We also know sources telling a white house official is telling my colleague jim acosta on the short list are michelle foreigner, the former undersecretary of defense, senator jack reid, a democrat from rhode island and a former officer with the armys 82nd air bonn and also Ashton Carter who is a former deputy secretary of defense. So we dont expect to get the announcement today on who from that short list will be chosen but we do expect to hear the official resignation. Texas senator ted cruz has suggest there had would be fights when it comes to nominations. He said the new republican led senate should block any nominations of officials that the administration puts forward in response to the president s move on executive action on immigration just last week. So a lot of fighting that we could see coming. Carol . Athena jones reporting live from white house, stay right there. I also have Lieutenant ColonelRick Francona. Is he on the phone . Hes live, okay, hi colonel, francona, thanks for joining me. Apparently theres a discord between the pentagon and the joint chiefs and the white house. Chuck hagel is out, what does that tell you . You know, secretary hagel has never really fit in at the pentagon. Hes had a lot of resistance from his top leadership there, especially among the general officers. Over the last couple of months weve seen this distancing between hymn and 2 chairman of the joint chiefs, general dempsey. General dempsey has sort of taken the lead at the pentagon. I think it was just a matter of time before secretary hagel was forced out or resigned on his own. So this doesnt come as a surprise. The timing is a little interesting right after the election but think the president s needs a stronger voice at the pentagon and is probably looking for that. Theres a lot of problems going on right now, as everybody knows. We have the talks with iran that are probably going to go into an extension, we have the ongoing for what isis which doesnt seem to have any real focus. So it was time for a shakeup at the pentagon and secretary hagels head was on the block. He was quite critical of the Obama Administration strategy, especially in syria. Remember he wrote that memo to National Security advisor susan rice sharply criticizing the white house strategy. There was this twopage memo it detailed concern about the overall serious strategy and called for a more defined plan for handing the regime of syrian president bashar al assad. I could go on, but hagel did push back. Wouldnt you want a member of your cabinet to do such things, colonel . Thats his job. Hes he and the chairman both are to provide that military advice to the president and give the president his options. Evidentedly president didnt like those options but on that one particular point the secretary was right. But i think he was reflecting the views of the military leadership of the pentagon and going to the president. It was the generals who said we have to address the syria part of this and were not doing this. You have to look at isis as one target, not a target in iraq and a target in syria, which is what the administration wanted to do at the beginning. So it looks like the president is going to put somebody in who follows his thinking. Im going head to vienna and check with nic robertson. Word of this is leaking out. Its already hit vienna because jim sciutto mentioned it. How will the generals on the ground that i can news . Well, of course, the fight against isis which chuck hagel has been significant part and force in is made up of several different nation, you have britain and france both involved in air strikes in the region swell, as well as the uae and the saudis as well. There has been a sense in these partners that there does need, particularly from the middle eastern partners, that there does need to be a refocusing. Certainly youve got key players here in vienna like sergei lavrov, the Russian Foreign minister who, after the talks on iran, had a short meeting with secretary kerry. Lavrov just on saturday in moscow meeting with the Saudi Foreign minister, they were talking mostly about the fight against isis in syria. That was the prime content of their conversation. Both those men came here to vienna, both of them meeting with secretary kerry as well. So there is certainly an understanding here at least that the isis issue a big issue that isnt going away. The tackling of it needs to be reframed. How that gets affected by secretary hagels departure obviously unclear. But the key allies in that fight, their part is unlikely to change in the short term, although they may now push for a sort of reframing of how its all done. Okay. I want to go to Lieutenant Colonel reese, another one of our military analysts. Hi, colonel. A question for you, this definitely means a change in strategy. We dont know what the change in strategy will be but might it involve boots on the ground and more involvement in syria for american troops . Well, carol, good morning. Yes. The bottom line is this. The Rick Francona said it a couple minutes ago. I think secretary hagel has been trying to push the general officers, the joint chiefs, the centcom commanders, general austins agenda, as he should have been as a secretary of defense to the civilian leadership and those are that we cant get locked into one way. We are looking at an asymmetric threat. What we cant do here 1 have a micromanagement type leadership. We need an intent based environment our commanders can work at and allow them to execute that intent. One of the issues that everyone keeps saying, we keep dancing around it, is the whole assad issue in syria. The turks want him out, the saudis want him out, everyone in the area wants him out and that becomes we have been been talking about this on cnn for over two months now, its the the center of gravity of this whole issue. So unfortunately i think senator hagel, the joint chiefs, general dempsey has a great relationship, hes a great commander and i think when this is all broke out, youll see secretary hagel became the man on the chopping block for the administration and it is what it is. Lieutenant colonel reese, Lieutenant ColonelRick Francona, nic robertson, Barbara Starr and athena jones, we veal more as the day goes on on cnn. Ill be back in a minute. I can. Order safety goggles. Play music for seedlings. Post science fair projects. Schedule guinea pig feedings. Video chemical reactions. Take pics of mr. Bones. Time the next launch. Calm down principal jones. I can do all that with my android from tracfone. 90day plans start as low as 20. Unbeatable nationwide coverage. No contract. The Samsung Galaxy centura android smartphone. Tracfone. Do everything for less. Alright, so this tylenol arthritis lasts 8 hours but aleve can last 12 hours. 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Earning your diploma. Providing for your family. Real associates, using walmarts benefits to build better lives for their families. Opportunity. Thats the real walmart. Stunning breaking news to tell you about this morning. Defense secretary chuck hagel stepping down. The Obama Administration saying its a mutual decision but we hear chuck hagel was forced out. Well see what the president himself has to say. Hes expected to officially make the announcement at 11 10 a. M. Eastern time. Of course cnn will carry that live. In other news this morning, student leaders at the university of virginia are facing the media right now to address a rain scandal thats rocking their campus. All fraternities and sororities at the school have been suspended following an explosive report in Rolling Stone magazine. A student told the magazine she was gang rained by seven men at a frat house two years ago over a threehour period. Cnns joe johns is in charlottesville. Reporter more protests over the weekend at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house, the scene of an alleged gang rain of a female student alleged in a Rolling Stone magazine. No one has been charged in the incident which allegedly took place two years ago. The frat house was recent livan dahlized. Uvas president took heat for her initial response that was called tepid by some but she did call on local police to investigate. Then Decisive Action over the weekend including suspending activities of all uvas fraternities for the rest of the year. She showed outrage in a written statement. Rape is an abhorrent crime that has no place in the world, let alone on the campuses and grounds of our nations colleges and universities. The school says last year 38 students went to the dean of students to talk about Sexual Assault allegations. Nine filed complaints. No uva student has been expelled for Sexual Misconduct in the last decade. A friend of the accuser in the alleged gang rain tepe saying i welcome news. Absolutely. And for as vulnerable as shes probably feeling, im sure shes also feeling very liberated. I know all survivors leer feeling almost that same feeling of, yes, finally, this is happening and this is big. Reporter its not just a uva problem. 88 colleges and universities, including harvard and ohio state are under investigation by the u. S. Department of education for the way they handle Sexual Assault allegations. One disturbing question all right, that was joe johns reporting. Im sorry about that. Before i get to you, mr. Philbert, professor at Oklahoma State and former professor at uva, the students are addressing the media on the campus of uva right now about the Sexual Assaults on campus and they want to make it clear its not just a uva problem, its a problem nationwide. Lets listen. The amount of people that have reached out to us in the Advocacy Community who have not been involved before and have said what can i do . How can i help . People who want to know how they can help in their daily lives and through other advocacy and activism outlets. How they can get involved in this issue. So thats been something thats very encouraging. There has been a bit of backlash, weve even seen it while weve been on campus people saying they shouldnt be here and posts online saying this is hyperbolic, we dont believe this story. What has the reaction of the fraternities and do people believe it . Did you believe it . Absolutely. First and foremost i was inspired and really empowered by the Fraternity Community and my admiration that was shown to survivors who came forward with such a difficult story and to share in the such a public manner as to put this issue into the spotlight. One of the things that we talked about, this group behind me, because weve met quite frequently over the last year since we first were put into leadership in our organizations, one of the things that we talked about is that a lot of the students are really doing great work behind this and care deeply across organizations behind this. One of the issues that weve had is galvanizing individual change. So we want a collective Community Change and how we get that is by empowering every individual to get behind this issue and think about how they themselves can like ashley was saying, foster better environmentings for survivors. Be promoters of Bystander Intervention to to prevent Sexual Violence from occurring. Some of the allegations in this case are, quite frankly, shocking. And if this wasnt shocking enough to you to think maybe this isnt true, can you talk about how the culture at these frats has gotten to the point where this is a possibility . This is something you all seem to believe could happen at one of these part zbleez how has that happened. I think that when i first read Rolling Stone, when i first heard about the article, it made me angry more than anything and it made me sad that this could happen in a community that we all value so highly. It was disorienting. But i think that what were trying to do is harness this energy, harness this shock and this frustration into positive movement going forward, developing more sustainable and longterm actions. And i think brian said it really, really well in his statement. This story will fade from the news cycle in one two days but this story will not fade, this energy will not and cannot fade from uva from the students, from the administration moving forward. I think its imperative that we harness it and make positive steps to eliminating problem of rape in our university community. The students at uva expressing their concerns over this article in Rolling Stone. With me, john faubart, a former assistant dean at uva, now a professor at Oklahoma State university. Welco welcome, zblir thank you very much, carol. Thank you for having me. The article in Rolling Stone was so chilling because the woman the article is about this woman named jackie, she was a freshman at uva, she had a date with an upper classman and a Fraternity Brother and it seemed so planned. The Fraternity Brother brought her to this