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| | Tuesday, January 25 | |||||
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| KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- As the University of Tennessee scrambled to react to
allegations of academic fraud and a potential cover-up by officials,
Tennessee athletics director Doug Dickey said Monday that he was not made
aware of possible NCAA rules violations involving tutors doing school work
for players.
Dickey, who has run Tennessee's men's athletics department since 1995, said that
school procedures were skirted when memos alerting officials in the academic services area to instances of alleged plagiarism were not passed on to him
or other proper officials.
NCAA rules require that member schools follow institutional procedures in the investigation of possible violations. If proven, they are mandated to report them. "That is a weakness in the situation," Dickey said. "We did not have the opportunity to do this last fall when the allegations were made. We recognize that and will deal with it." Dickey's comment comes in response to a six-week ESPN.com investigation that found a pattern of alleged academic abuse at Tennessee going back to 1995, when the Tennessee English Department originally threatened to bring charges of "institutional plagiarism" against the athletics department after problems were discovered.Volunteers head football coach Phil Fulmer declined comment on anything related to the allegations Monday. "If it is anything about football, I will be glad to talk to you," Fulmer told The Associated Press and about a dozen reporters who met him after practice. "The players are not going to allow it to be a distraction." The NCAA is monitoring news of the allegations, said NCAA spokeswoman Jane Jankowski. She said it was "too early to tell" if the NCAA would conduct its own investigation, or if the allegations could lead to any sanctions for the defending national champions in football. "I'm not able to speculate since we just read about these (allegations) today," she said. Tennessee notified the Southeastern Conference commissioner, Roy Kramer, on Monday about the possible violations, said John Clark, spokesman for the university. The SEC in turn, will formally notify the NCAA of the internal investigation. Dickey said that as far as he knows, the memos from Robin Wright, coordinator for academic programs in the athletics department last year, were never passed on by her boss, Gerry Dickey, or Dickey's boss, Carmen Tegano. Doug Dickey said the memos should have been forwarded to the proper third-party authorities for investigation. Asked if he believed there was an attempted cover-up in the academic services department, Doug Dickey said, "I'm not going to express an opinion one way or another until (Tegano and others) get to respond. I'm always concerned about procedures not being followed properly. And I'm always concerned about plagiarism -- we all are." At the same time, Dickey expressed sympathy for the role of Tegano, who like Dickey came to Tennessee in 1985. Dickey promoted Tegano to associate athletics director for student life last fall, a period when several of the allegations of academic fraud were made. "There are 330 male athletes," Dickey said. "That's a lot of athletes and grades" to monitor. "When I was there, I never ran across that problem," Joey Kent, a member of the class that entered in 1992 who now plays for the Tennessee Titans, told the AP."Of course you have tutors that know different professors and their tendencies. They try to give you every type of advantage that they can to help you succeed. But when I was there, they didn't do anything over their duty." ESPN.com's findings will likely trigger a university audit of the tutoring program at Tennessee, Dickey said. The men's athletics department has between 75 to 100 tutors available to players. University officials are conducting their own internal investigation into the matter. Tennessee president J. Wade Gilley denied a request for an interview. In a news release, he said "rumors and allegations have circulated involving certain improprieties related" to the football program and that the university is "following normal procedure and has turned this matter over" to university lawyers. | ALSO SEE Timeline: Events, allegations and memos related to academic fraud Alleged academic fraud spurs Vols probe Tennessee center's paper sparked accusations of academic fraud Vols clear four suspended players for Auburn game Whistleblower applauds reinstatement of Tennessee players Vols stripped of athletes-only tutor lab Tennessee to review athletes' grade changes Tennessee says probe finds no NCAA violations Tennessee cites 'differences' in no-violation report AUDIO/VIDEO   Phillip Fulmer gives a statement about the investigation.wav: 169 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 | |||||