Miami Hurricane, November 03, 1995

              SPOTLIGHT ON DEFENSE

Defense will decide Saturday's game against the Baylor University Bears.
SPORTS, Page 4
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UM REVEALS NCAA ALLEGATIONS
Guilt admitted on six offenses
By DEREK HARPER
Associate Sports Editor
It has been said that the only I things in life that can be counted on i are taxes and death. The University I of Miami football team going on probation is close to being the third I item on the list.
Tuesday, University President I Edward T. Foote II and Athletic Director Paul Dee held a press conference to address the 10 possible violations detailed in the NCAA’s | Official Inquiry given to the school ] last week.
Foote also said the NCAA has informed the University that it is on the agenda to be heard by the I Committee on Infractions Nov. 10 | in Kansas City, Mo.
In a summary of the response I sent to the NCAA by the school, Foote said the University has admitted guilt on six of the violations. Questions still remain with the other four allegations, which happen to be the most potentially I damaging to the football program.
Three of the four in question deal | with a scandal involving the award ing of Pell Grants during the 1989-[ 90 and 1990-91 academic years.
> The possible violations centei around former University employee Tony Russell, who is now in prison for arranging numerous Pell Grant funds for student-athletes who may
not have qualified for the aid.
“Our position is that there was extensive wrongdoing with the Pell Grants, but it was orchestrated by one employee,” Foote said. “One employee who has admitted he did it and is long since gone from this University.
“We know of no other representative of this University who was involved in any respect. Our position is that it is not a lack of institutional control when you have one person who has admitted that they did something wrong and has implicated no one else.”
The other violation the University intends to discuss with the Committee on Infractions has to do with an alleged student-athlete performance cash pool during seasons from 1986 through 1992. The possible violation states that football players occasionally contributed to a pool of money to be given to the player who made the best tackle of a game.
Foote said the school does not deny any wrongdoing, but that there are some questions concerning the facts and applicability of these violations.
Now that the NCAA has presented Miami with a list of possible violations, the attention turns
See NCAA • Page 2
Foote takes blame for NCAA allegations
By RICK GOLD
Associate News Editor University of Miami President Edward T. Foote II personally took the blame for the NCAA’s allegations against UM in a press conference on Tuesday.
Foote responded to the NCAA's 10 possible charges against the University by admitting that UM has had its problems, but refuses to look at only the negatives.
‘T’m disappointed in the sense that we didn’t do a better job in some respects, but I’m still very proud of this program of intercollegiate athletics,” Foote said. "It has a very high graduate rate and it is a very fundamentally sound department and when we’ve had a problem we’ve admitted it. I take responsibility for it. I’m the president here.”
Foote maintained that UM has been cooperative throughout the investigation and that the University has made a sincere effort in the past to seek out any wrongdoing within the athletic problem
and correct them.
“I’m pleased to say that the information given to us by the NCAA was no surprise,” Foote said. “It was the information about which we had known for a long time. There were no new allegations of wrongdoing and we cooperated fully in the investigation from the beginning. We have self-reported every instance in which we knew of a violation and we have taken corrective action in every way that we could.”
In the press conference Foote also refused to place any blame on former head coach Dennis Erickson or anyone else in the athletic program or the University.
“I don't think it would serve any purpose this afternoon to cast blame or look backwards,” Foote said. “The coach is gone. He served this University for a number of years and did a lot of good for this university. I’m not about to look back and blame others. It’s a day not to look back, but as far as I'm concerned, it’s a day to look forward.”
The University is scheduled to be heard by the NCAA Committee on Infractions Nov. 10 in Kansas City, Mo., concerning 10 possible rules violations.
FOOTE
DEE
ERICKSON
POSSI BI E NCAA RULES VIOIATIONS
The following is a review of the 10 possible violations detailed in the NCAA's Official Inquiry and the University of Miami's position regarding each possible violation. The University has admitted wrongdoing concerning six of the possible violations:
•	Innacurate Room and Board Calculation
•	Innacurate Room and Board Stipend Calculation	.
•	Student-Athlete Employment Compensation
•	Excess Books to Student-Athletes
•	Failure to Properly Follow Self-Imposed Drug Policy
•	Extra Benefits to Football Student-Athletes
Without denying any wrongdoing, the University has questions con-cerning the remaining four allegations and plans to discuss these topics in a hearing with the NCAA Committee on Infractions November 10 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Violation:
• Awarding of Pell Grants:During the 1989-90 and 1990-91 academic years an institutional staff member arranged for numerous student-athletes who participated in various athletic programs to receive Pell Grant funds that some would not otherwise have received.
• Lack of Institutional Control Related to Pell Grant Possible violation: The possible violations in awarding of Pell Grants demonstrate a lack of appropriate institutional control.
•	Unethical Conduct Related toPell Grant Possible violation: The acts in awarding of Pell Grants are contrary to the principles of ethical conduct of the association for individuals directly responsible for perpetrating the fraud.
•	Student-Athlete Performance Cash Pool: During the football seasons 1986 through 1992 football student-athletes from time-to-time contributed to a pool of money for the purpose of providing cash to the player who made the best tackle of the game. At least one former player contributed to this pool.
Source: UM Sports Information Department
University's Response:
•	This was discovered during an internal compliance review within the Athletic Department. It was fully investigated by the University. The University made a complete disclosure of its investigation to the U.S. Department of Education; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the office of the United Stated Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and the NCAA.
The University acknowledges the serious wrongdoing which occurred and does not minimize it or excuse those acts. However, in reviewing NCAA precedent there is a substantial uncertainty with respect to whether the possible acts fall within some scope of NCAA Legislation, for which reason the University believes there should be a full hearing of the issue by the committee.
•	The University believes it had an active and functioning compliance program that detected the fraud, fully and completely investigated the facts and disclosed the information to the federal authorities, fully cooperated with the multi-year and multiagency investigations, and completely disclosed the Issue to the NCAA.
•	Should it be determined that the possible violations are within the rules, the University acknowledges that an individual ethical conduct violation would have occured.
• The University acknowledges that the facts developed constitute a violation of the NCAA's principles of Amateurism to the extent former student-athletes contributed tot he pool. With regard to current players' participation the University does not believe the rule applies.
Dee
answers Pell grant charges
By RICK GOLD
Associate News Editor
The most severe charge against the University of Miami is a lack of institutional control dealing with possible Pell Grant violations which surfaced in 1991. The degree of the penalty will hinge on the decison by the NCAA Committee on Infractions as to whether the possible violations fall within the scope of NCAA Legislation.
It was in 1991 that tne University discovered a number of student-athletes may have filed inaccurate federal financial aid applications which may have resulted in federal student aid funds the students were not entitled to.
"I think we did have institutional control." PAUL DEE UM athletic director
CHRISTINE KINSEY/Graphics Editor
Former assistant academic coordinator Anthony Russell was found to be responsible and fired in May of 1991.
Because -------------------------
the fraudulent applications not only violated NCAA rules but federal law as well, the case was investigated by many agencies. Among the investigative bodies were the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami, the FBI, the U. S. Department of Education Inspector General’s Regional Office and the NCAA.
The NCAA has ruled that the University’s inability to prevent the situation constitutes a lack of institutional control.
UM Athletic Director Paul Dee countered in a press conference on Tuesday that UM did in fact have control and that is why it was able to detect the violation.
“We believe that when we go back and we look at what happened in the Pell Grant case and we look at the fact that it was because of the fact that we had a compliance officer who was reviewing some of the clients information... that allowed us to discover what in effect had been going on with respect to the Pell Grants,” Dee said.
"I believe that the efforts and the activities of the University with respect to having its compliance officer in place, if it had not been there I don’t know much longer it might have gone on before it went undetected, and to that degree I think we did have institutional control.”
File Photo WHO'LL STOP THE RAIN: Heavy rain during the summer has delayed construction of the George A. Smathers Wellness Center. It was originally scheduled to open Oct. 14, and then rescheduled for Nov. 1 7. The date of the Center's opening is still uncertain.
Center opening delayed
By KIRK GIMENEZ
Staff Writer
Will it or won’t it open?
That is the question students are asking about the George A. Smathers Student Wellness Center, which was scheduled to open Nov. 17. The date of the opening is now expected to be pushed back further.
The Wellness Center was supposed to open Oct. 14, but according to Director of Campus Sports and Recreation Norm Parsons, the “weather has beat us upside the head.”
There is little doubt that this was both the wettest summer and October in recent memory, but that is not the only reason for the delay.
Project Supervisor John Geeslin attributes the delay to additional construction.
"We have added over $2 million worth of scope [additional items] to the project, like the Center Court that wasn’t in the original contract,” Geeslin said. “Additional scope wasn't in
the original time frame.”
Parsons said that delivery problems have also plagued the project, further hindering construction. Both Parsons and Geeslin said that a crew of over 200 are working hard to finish the Wellness Center, but a Nov. 17 opening is not very likely.
“I don’t want the students overly expectant on a November opening," Geeslin said. "There’s been a lot of progress, but it's more likely we will not get the inspections in on time for a mid-November opening.”
According to Geeslin, the Wellness Center will be a 100,000 square-foot building, and it cannot be rushed.
"It’s not like an office building,” Geeslin said. “We have to convince inspectors the building is ready to open."
Still left to be done are exterior painting and
See WELLNESS • Page 2