Miami Hurricane, March 25, 1994

              Grant scandal reaches dramatic close, Russell jailed
Pell
By LIAM FITZGERALD
Contributing Editor
It is a burden that has hung over the University of Miami Athletic Department for three years, though with the imprisonment of a major culprit, the malodorous Pell Grant scandal appears to finally be drawing to a close.
Following a three-year government investigation into Pell Grant fraud, former UM academic counselor Anthony Russell was sentenced last Thursday to three years in federal prison.
UM is not of the woods completely, however. The school still faces an NCAA investigation which could lead to sanctions if the NCAA determines the fraud scam should have been detected earlier. “Lack of institutional control” is
the name given to such acts the school may be sanctioned for.
Two Miami football players, linebacker Rusty Medearis, who is attempting a comeback after a career-threatening injury, and Frank Costa, testified last Thursday that the opportunities to get fraudulent Pell Grants was for the most part common knowledge among UM athletes. Athletes who compete in basketball, baseball, tennis, crew, golf and track also looked into getting a piece of the action.
Both Medearis and Costa received Pell Grants that Russell had arranged by falsifying applications and tax forms. Along with many other athletes, the two players sought out Russell when they heard how cheap the Pell Grants were being offered to athletes.
"Eighty-five dollars turns into $1,500,” Medearis said. After hearing from former teammates Bryan Fortay and Jason Marucci, Medearis "thought it was a pretty good deal.”
“The money obtained wrongly became
spending money used (by student athletes) to buy beer and food and purchase electronics and other luxury items and subsidized travel," Assistant U.S. Attorney Martin Goldberg said in a pre-sentence memorandum.
Medearis and Costa walked away from the trial, not receiving any sentencing for their actions, since they had cooperated and made agreements to make restitution. They were also entered in a pre-trial diversion program.
Russell pleaded guilty last June to a federal fraud charge in an investigation involving 91 student athletes at UM.
At last Thursday’s trial, he was accused of forging forms for the program, which provided needy students with grants to help pay for tuition. He was also accused of charging from $85 to $100 as fees for handing over the grants.
When the fraudulent Pell Grant payments were totaled, the amount came out to an astonishing $240,263, as reported by the Associated Press. The Miami Herald
reported a total of $173,744.
While his son Twan, a linebacker for the Hurricanes looked on, Russell, 46, simply repeated what he had said many times before, that no Miami student had any involvement in the scheme that included at least 57 football players from 1989 to 1991.
“I’m glad it’s over,” Russell said in court Thursday. “What I did was wrong. I acted alone. 1 accept full responsibility. It’s been a hard three years...This is the happiest day of my life.”
This, however, was not the first time the elder Russell had committed fraud.
Russell illegally obtained Pell Grant funds for students as an assistant coach at West Virginia State College from September 1987 through June 1989. He resigned his position when the school discovered he was using postage for personal use.
During the trial, Costa said he had informed of Russell’s scheme when he first arrived in Miami as a freshman in the fall of 1990. Costa did not act on what he
heard, rather he was approached the following spring by Russell, who inquired as to why Costa had not yet applied for a Pell Grant yet. Though Costa ignored this question, Russell did not back off, attempting again a few weeks later.
“He said ‘This is your money. Just come to the office and get it.’ ” Costa said. “1 thought it was a great situation. I heard other players were doing it. I figured they had done it and hadn’t gotten caught. I trusted Tony.”
All Costa had to do was give Russell the names of his family members, while Russell filled in everything else, including his family’s yearly income and marital status. Fulfilling another request of Russell, Medearis and Costa forged their parents signatures.
When Goldberg questioned Costa as to whether he thought football players received special treatment, Costa elicited a simple, truthful response.
“Yes,” Costa answered.
■ Russell
Med School studying insulin use
By MADELINE BARO
Hurricane Staff Writer
The University of Miami School of Medicine, along with nine other centers nationwide, is participating in a study to delay or prevent Insulin-Dependent Diabetes (Type I Diabetes) through the use of insulin.
Insulin-Dependent diabetes is caused when a person's immune system destroys the body's insu-lm-producing cells, known as beta cells. Insulin, a hormone, is necessary to sustain life.
Type I Diabetes usually develops in people under age 40 and is treated through the use of insulin injections. The study will treat people who are at a high risk of developing the disease with insulin before they develop the disease.
“We think that it may be possible to delay Type 1 Diabetes, if not prevent it," Study Coordinator Lisa Rafkin-Mervis said.
The study will consist of two trials. The first trial will involve people with more than a 50 percent risk of developing the disease within five years. Half of the people will be treated with low doses of long-acting insulin twice a day along with periodic intensive treatments of insulin but they will not have to alter their diet or lifestyle. The other half will be under close supervision, but will not be treated with insulin.
The second trial will involve people who have between a 25 percent to 50 percent chance of developing diabetes within five years. This trial will try to determine if taking a capsule which contains insulin and other beta cell materials will reduce the chances of developing the disease. Half of the people will receive the drug while the other half will receive an inactive, harmless pill.
Rafkin-Mervis said the first trial, which has already begun, will involve 340 people while the second trial, which begun in 1995, will involve 400 people. To find these people, Rafkin-Mervis estimated that between 60,000 and 80,000 people would have to be screened nationwide. People will only be screened for the next few years and both trials will end in the year 2001.
Screening will involve an initial blood test to determine the levels of antibodies against beta cells. If a person tests positive for this, they will be invited back for more testing to determine their chances of developing diabetes. The blood tests are free.
Rafkin-Mervis said they are looking for people who have relatives with Type I Diabetes because they run a greater risk of developing the disease.
To be eligible for the first trial, a person must be between the ages of four and 45 if they have an immediate family member with the disease or between the ages of four and 20 if they have a distant relatives between three and 20.
The program’s pamphlet noted that the first trial treatment carries a minimal risk of causing low blood sugar levels.
People interested in information on the study, can call 1-800-HALT-DMl (1-800-4258-361) and they will receive a brochure, along with a blood-testing kit that they can take to their doctor. Those who want to set up an appointment for a screening at the UM School of Medicine should call 547-DPT1 (547-3781).
Sharp shooter
CHRIS BERNACCHI/Photo Editor
■ IN THE POCKET: Sophomore Lorenzo Pearson III plays pool Wednesday In the Whitten University Center.
Brokaw to host panel on network news
By LISA J. HURIASH
Associate News Editor Tom Brokaw, anchor of “NBC Nightly News” and co-anchor of “Now,” will be one of seven professional communicators on a panel of “A Public Forum on Network News” at 3 p.m. Saturday at the UM Ring Theater.
The hour-long program is open to all UM students. Two hundred seats will be open to the public.
The Television News Workshop is scheduled to produce a show
from campus at least once a year. Angotti said this year’s theme is the network news’ changing role in society.
Other panel members are: Barbara Cochran, Washington Bureau Chief for CBS News; Kathryn Christensen, senior producer ABC World News Tonight; Chris Cramer, head of news gathering, BBC News, London; Ed Turner, executive vice president of CNN; and, Ken Bode, moderator of “Washington Week in Review.”
The panel members will provide a brown-bag lunch 1:30 p.m. Saturday by the Learning Center. All undergraduate and graduate students are invited.
The program will be broadcast on C-Span within one week.
“I think this is as important for the people who are coming as it is for the students,” Joseph Angotti, former NBC Executive Producer and Senior Vice President, said. Angotti is currently the School of Communication Studies Chair.
Computer stolen from University Center
By ZULIMA ROSENOW
Hurricane Staff Writer
Sometime between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning someone broke into The Miami Hurricane Business Office, 1540 Levante Ave., UC 221, and stole the newspaper's Macintosh Quadra 700 — the 21-inch color monitor, keyboard, mouse, software and the graphic and layout programs installed in it.
The computer is valued at $4,545. A swivel-mauve chair valued at $350 was also taken.
Arlene Watts, staff associate for The Miami Hurricane, discovered the theft Monday morning when
she came to work.
"As soon as I walked in I saw that the computer was gone and noticed that the desk had a hole. Then I noticed that the inside ventilation screen was broken," she said.
Apparently, the thiefts) removed the outside ventilation screen with a screwdriver but replaced it so that no one in the hall could tell they were in the office.
Jason Molinet, editor of The Hurricane Magazine, said he was working in the office Sunday afternoon and the computer was still there.
Jeff Brooks, The Miami Hurri-
cane Graphics Editor, said he “is pissed oft.
“I have to recreate all the graphics," Brooks said. Brooks spent Wednesday night recreating them and said he still has at least seven hours more of work to do.
Julio Fernandez, The Hurricane business manager, said meanwhile the paper will borrow the Ibis yearbook computer.
The computer must be replaced but no one is sure where the money will come from. Raymonde Bilger, director of Budget and Per-
See page 2/ CRIME
Board of Trustees powers decisions
By LUCIA SOBRIN
Hurricane Staff Writer
The University of Miami Board of Trustees plays a crucial role in setting the University’s policy and managing its financial affairs.
“[The Board of Trustees] is the ultimate governing authority of the University,” said Cyrus Jolivette, secretary of the University.
The Board’s scope of authority covers all aspects of the University.
“The role of the board is to set the policy of the University and assure financial solvency. It plays an advisory role for the University ... members are advocates for the University on a local and national level,” said Rose Ellen Greene, vice chairman of the Board’s Academic Affairs Committee.
Created in 1934, the present Board of Trustees now has 86 members including elected members, alumni representatives, ex-officio members and emeriti members. The Board is a self-perpetuating body, meaning that the present members nominate and elect the new members.
The 60 elected members serve for one, two or three year terms. Their terms are set so that about one-third of the members’ terms expire each year. Members are community leaders and business people such as Dante Fascell and H. Wayne Huizenga.
Other trustee responsibilities include the election or removal of the president of the University, approval of the University’s long range plans and major changes in academic policy, maintenance of the physical plant and fund-raising.
Responsibilities
Decisions made by the Board of Trustees have an impact on students and faculty.
“Not a month goes by when the Board of Trustees doesn’t make a decision that affects the student body," said UM President Edward T. Foote II.
At the December 1993 meeting, for example, the full board set the general budget policies for the University which included the tuition increase, room and board rates for
the residential colleges, the amount of money which will be allocated to the library and how much of the budget will go towards student scholarships. At the last month’s meeting, the Board decided whether or not to grant tenure to University professors who had submitted tenure applications.
The Board of Trustees also oversees the construction that goes on at the University. The Master Planning and Construction Committee has set long-term goals for the campus’s physical enhancement.
“We are trying to build a campus that is attractive and builds a fine quality of life statement for the students at the university,” said James W. McLamore, Chairman Emeritus of the Board.
The Board of Trustees approved a site for the Wellness Center and found the necessary funding for it. It was also responsible for the creation of the new parking structure, the new music performance hall and a new wing for the library which will be built in the near future. They also decide to whom construction contracts for these projects are given.
The Master Plan includes the construction of a new residential college in the future, said Judge Peter Fay, a fifth-year trustee.
Patrick J. Cesarano, a trustee of 25 years, said the UM Board also determines where the monies in the endowment fund will be invested. The Board tries to get a 15 percent return on the fund every year. About five percent of the fund goes into operation of the University while the rest is reinvested, Cesarano said.
The Board of Trustees was also recently involved in the restructuring of the UM School of Medicine.
“We [the Board of Trustees] spent a great deal of time in evaluation of the medical school... a committee spent time with Dr. [Bernard] Fogel [Dean of the School of Medicine] and helped him with the reorganization of the medical school,” Fay said. Final decisions
See page ¿’/TRUSTEES
This Issue...
■ RESURRECTED SEASON: One hit broke junior Mat Erwin out of his season-long slump and has propelled him to his current 11 game hitting streak.
See Sports, page 10.
■ What happens when a student's First Amendment Rights aren't considered to be picture perfect?
See Opinion, page 6.
■ HOMECOMING: UM
Alumnus of Distinction Bruce Hornsby will be back in Miami this weekend.
See Accent, page 8.