By Jeff Agase
Daily Bruin Reporter
The NCAA announced Thursday that it is placing the University of
Southern California athletic department on probation for two years
because of three separate incidents of academic fraud, false and
misleading information and a lack of institutional monitoring.
The USC football team will lose two scholarships and the
women’s swimming and diving team will lose half a scholarship
for the 2002-2003 seasons. The probation covers the entire USC
athletic program.
Although the probation has no effect on USC postseason football
bowl game participation, the entire athletic program is now subject
to the NCAA’s repeat violator provisions for a five-year
period. Another violation could lead to the “death
penalty” ““ suspension of an entire sports program.
Repeated requests by the Daily Bruin to contact USC president
Steven Sample, athletic director Mike Garrett, football coach Pete
Carroll and women’s swimming and diving coach Mark Schubert
were routed to a statement by executive vice provost Mike Diamond
on behalf of the university.
“We self-reported these incidents to the Pac-10 and the
NCAA after conducting an extensive review of (Student-Athlete
Academic Services),” read the statement. “Today’s
announcement by the NCAA of limited probation and limited reduction
in scholarships brings closure to this unfortunate
episode.”
According to the report, the student-athletes proceeded to turn
in the papers from three different tutors as their own work and
receive academic credit.
The first such infraction occurred in summer 1996 when a
football student-athlete was assisted by a tutor coordinator for a
paper in his political science class. After turning in the paper,
the student-athlete received an A-minus in the course.
In 1997, an effort by a women’s diving student-athlete to
submit a fraudulent rough draft in the tutor’s handwriting
and final draft in her own handwriting was detected by the
professor, who awarded her an F in the class.
Another paper-writing incident occurred in 1998, when a football
student-athlete submitted a fraudulent paper for a religion
class.
“In all three cases, the tutor coordinator or tutors
provided false and misleading information to the university or was
unwilling to be interviewed,” reads the report of the NCAA
Division I Committee on Infractions. “The committee also
found that the institution failed to properly monitor the
administration of the institution’s SAAS program.”
Jack Friedenthal, chair of the Committee on Infractions, said
USC took actions when the incidents occurred, but the committee
deemed them inadequate. USC’s corrective actions included
termination of two tutors involved in the incidents and a revision
of the student-athlete handbook that addressed academic
integrity.
“The steps they took were important steps and USC deserves
credit for being diligent,” Friedenthal said in a conference
call. “But they didn’t take many steps in terms of what
might be said to be punitive actions against themselves in terms of
scholarships.”
The committee declared that the university failed to take a
number of actions, which ranged from following its own policy and
procedures regarding academic tutorial assistance to
student-athletes to adequate monitoring and oversight to ensure
compliance with NCAA and SAAS rules.