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College Athletics Scandals Erupt Nationwide
A new crop of college athletics scandals came to light in recent months involving individuals with a history of trouble in this area. In February, the president of California State University at Fresno canceled his team's basketball season after it was reported in the local press that a team statistician was paid in 2000 to write seventeen papers for basketball players. Former Fresno head coach Jerry Tarkanian, who was allegedly involved in the academic misconduct, had had a series of run-ins with officials of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at previous jobs. Both California State University at Long Beach and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, were punished by the NCAA for violations that occurred during Tarkanian's tenure. Tarkanian is now a consultant at Fresno State.
At St. Bonaventure University, the board of trustees demanded the resignation of the institution's president in March. The board acted following the president's admission that he had violated university and NCAA rules to admit an ineligible basketball player to the institution. As a result of the rule-breaking, the student was barred from the team and St. Bonaventure was banned from the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament. In April, the board asked for the resignations of the university's athletics director and an assistant basketball coach who is the president's son, and it terminated the contract of the team's head coach.
Two years ago, the president, Robert Wickenheiser, moved to dismiss a tenured professor after athletes complained about his teaching style; a faculty hearing body found in the professor's favor, however, and he was subsequently reinstated. St. Bonaventure was placed on the AAUP's list of censured administrations in 1995 after the administration terminated the appointments of eighteen tenured professors without the requisite academic due process.
In March, the University of Georgia's president withdrew the institution's men's basketball team from the Southeastern Conference and NCAA championships after university officials determined that three basketball players had received unearned high grades in courses taught by the head coach's son, also a coach. The two players who still remained on the team at the time of the determination were suspended; the son, Jim Harrick, Jr., was fired; and the head coach, Jim Harrick, Sr., was suspended (he has since retired). Harrick, Sr., had previously been fired from the University of California, Los Angeles, after reportedly lying to administrators about an expense report that had been doctored. He is also under investigation by the University of Rhode Island for allegedly arranging grade changes in order to keep players eligible, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
The NCAA is investigating all three situations. The AAUP's next annual governance conference, to be held October 9-11 in Indianapolis, will include a day convened at NCAA headquarters and devoted to the topic of faculty governance and collegiate athletics.
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