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.