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For Immediate Release

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Contact(s)

Stacey Osburn
Associate Director of Public and Media Relations
317/917-6117

INDIANAPOLIS---The NCAA Division III Committee on Infractions has found Baruch College committed major violations in its women's basketball program. The majority of the violations involved extra benefits and compensation for work not performed. The case also included a failure to monitor by the head coach and the college, as well as a lack of institutional control. Penalties in this case include one year of probation, two-game suspension for the head coach, recruiting restrictions, a $5,000 penalty and vacation of record, among others.

This case was resolved through the summary disposition process, a cooperative effort where the involved parties submit the case to the Committee on Infractions in written form. When the NCAA enforcement staff, the school and involved individuals agree to the facts of the case and the school-proposed penalties, they may use this process instead of having a formal hearing.

In this case, three women's basketball student-athletes received almost $4,000 for work they did not perform while employed in the college's work-study program at the Athletics Recreation Center. The student-athletes were paid after submitting timecards containing inflated numbers of hours they had supposedly worked. The fraudulent payments were undetected due to a deficient system used to track the number of hours worked by the student-athletes participating in the work-study. While the investigation did not reveal any information indicating the head coach knew of the overpayments or allowed them to occur, the committee determined he failed to monitor the work-study program he administered by not taking steps to ensure the student-athletes submitted accurate timecards.

Further, an assistant men's basketball coach allowed two women's basketball student-athletes to reside at no charge in a Bronx, New York apartment in which he was subleasing but not residing.  One student-athlete stayed for 11 weeks and the second student-athlete for three weeks.  These extra benefits for the lodging totaled approximately $780.

The case also included impermissible participation for three academic years when the school allowed student-athletes to practice and compete without completing the appropriate forms. In addition, the committee found the school failed to ensure implementation of self-imposed sanctions for a previous secondary violation.

The committee determined the scope and nature of the violations demonstrated a lack of institutional control and a failure to monitor by the school.

The penalties in this case include, among others:

• Public reprimand and censure.
• One year of probation from March 16, 2011, through March 15, 2012.
• Suspension of assistant coach for two games in the 2007-08 women's basketball season.
• Assistant coach was prohibited from off campus recruiting for the 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 academic years.
• $5,000 penalty paid to charity and the NCAA.
• Vacation of all wins in which the three women's basketball student-athletes competed while ineligible. The public infractions report contains further details.

The members of the Committee on Infractions who reviewed this case include Keith Jacques, attorney; David Cecil, director of financial aid at Transylvania University; and Mary Jo Gunning, committee chair and athletic director at Marywood University.