The NCAA placed Arizona State University on two-year probation last week, ruling the university showed a lack of institutional control and provided impermissible financial aid to students.
The violations were brought to light in September 2004 when a football student-athlete told a member of the coaching staff that he had been given additional benefits from a compliance officer in the athletic department.
"We discovered this, we investigated this, and we reported this to the NCAA," ASU Vice President for Public Affairs Virgil Renzuli said.
The investigation found a compliance officer allowed the football player to use her personal charge account to purchase $900 worth of tires and wheels for his automobile and to open a utility account under her name, saving him $200.
The compliance officer also provided the student-athlete with financial aid for the enrollment of two summer classes, while the student-athlete only attended one. This provided the student-athlete with $890 of impermissible financial aid.
In addition to these violations, the compliance officer let two other student-athletes take textbooks from her office and resell them for cash.
"You can't prevent [this kind of infraction]," Steve Malchow, University of Wisconsin Associate Athletic Director of Communications, said. "All you can do is do your best to educate people on what the rules and regulations are."
The compliance officer has been fired, and the NCAA has placed her on a six-year "show cause" penalty. Under the penalty, any NCAA institution that wishes to hire her within that timeframe would be required to appear before the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions to decide if her duties should be limited.
"The committee noted the immediate response by the institution when the violations were disclosed and its complete cooperation with the Pacific-10 Conference and the NCAA," Gene Marsh, chair of the investigation committee, said in a release. "Arizona State University should be commended for its response."
During the investigation of the compliance officer, ASU also discovered problems with their distribution of financial aid. The investigation found 61 students inadvertently had been given additional financial aid, ranging from $4 to $833.
The NCAA ruled this discrepancy was a result of a lack of control over the distribution of financial aid and textbooks.
"All of these violations appeared unintentional and the student-athletes seemed unaware that they had received too much aid," Marsh said in a release. "However, the widespread and preventable nature of these violations compelled the committee to find lack of institutional control."
The probationary period will be in effect until November 2007. During this time, ASU will review and revise their financial aid distribution and textbook distribution processes.
Renzuli views the incident involving the compliance officer as an "aberration" and said it does not detract from the credibility of the university, as he said it acted responsibly.
"We see this as behind us, we are moving ahead, there should be no damage to the reputation of the university," he said.
