NCAA investigation of UM Athletics called into question

Two and a half years after launching an investigation of University of Miami Athletics based on claims made by jailed Ponzi schemer Nevin Shapiro, the National Collegiate Athletic Association released a report on February 18 revealing missteps in its own information gathering process.

As a result, the NCAA fired its vice president of enforcement and tossed some 20 percent of the case materials.
In her response UM President Donna E. Shalala wrote, “We believe strongly in the principles and values of fairness and due process. However, we have been wronged in this investigation, and we believe that this process must come to a swift resolution….”

The next day, in the wake of the shakeup, the NCAA delivered UM’s Notice of Allegations, a document detailing alleged NCAA violations.

Again, Shalala responded: “The NCAA acknowledged that it violated its own policies and procedures in an attempt to validate the allegations made by a convicted felon.” Further, the NCAA enforcement staff had previously explained to UM that if Nevin Shapiro, a convicted con man, said something more than once, “it considered the allegation ‘corroborated,’” she wrote, “an argument which is both ludicrous and counter to legal practice.”

Shalala also pointed out that most of the sensationalized media accounts of Shapiro’s claims don’t appear in the Notice of Allegations. “The NCAA found no evidence of prostitution, expensive cars for players, expensive dinners paid for by boosters, player bounty payments, rampant alcohol and drug use, or the alleged hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gifts given to student-athletes, as reported in the media,” she stated. “The fabricated story played well—the facts did not.”

Emphasizing that it was UM who alerted the NCAA of alleged violations back in September 2010, Shalala added that the University has been working hard ever since to improve compliance oversight. It self-imposed harsh sanctions, such as enacting a two-year bowl ban and forfeiting its chance to play in an ACC championship game. Further, student-athletes were withheld from competition and required to repay a total of approximately $4,000 in benefits.

Athletics has hired highly respected football and basketball coaches as well as a new Athletic Director, Blake James, who has no involvement in the investigation. The University brought on Rudolph “Rudy” Green to fulfill the newly created position of vice president and chief compliance officer.

“We have been and should be held accountable,” Shalala acknowledged. “We deeply regret any violations, but we have suffered enough.”

The University is preparing its official response to the Notice of Allegations. The NCAA’s Committee on Infractions is scheduled to hear UM’s case in mid-June. For full coverage, go to miami.edu/ncaainvestigation.

The post Played by the Rules? appeared first on University of Miami: Miami Magazine.

Inbox

No Headline Needed

In an issue where the graphic simplicity and worldwide popularity of the U brand is discussed, hats off to the graphic designers responsible for the Fall 2012 cover! The image is both clever and thought-provoking—frankly, a headline wasn’t even needed. One of the best covers of any magazine I’ve ever seen!

Julio J. Barroso, B.S.C. ’03
Key West, Florida

Saluting UM

Your article “From Service to Scholarship” (Fall 2011) triggered a fond memory. I enrolled in the “Cardboard College” in 1949, after having served with the U.S. Marines in China for two years. I looked forward to four years under the G.I. Bill, but in 1950 the Korean War came, and I was called back into the Marine Reserves, serving at Camp Lejeune and Quantico. In 1951, as my discharge approached, I called UM to ask if I could still qualify as a student. The wonderful lady who ran the vets program said something like, “You get here as soon as you can, and we’ll try to work something out.” As soon as I was discharged, I packed my gear and hustled off to the train station. I was on campus the next day. The day after that I was attending my first class. The University has a history of helping veterans, particularly through the G.I. Bill of Rights after World War II.

Don Jeka, A.B. ’54
Mountainside, New Jersey

Newsworthy Mentor

Fred Mooke, A.B. ’56, made a big impression on students and alumni.

On January 29, 2012, we lost the man who was our UM documentary scriptwriting professor and who taught many UM communications alums how to write for television news.

Fred Mooke, A.B. ’56, was a pioneer in local TV who set the standard and then influenced how news was done at television stations around the country. As the assignment editor and executive producer of the number- one-rated The Ralph Renick Report on WTVJ, where he worked for 25 years, Fred was revered. He knew everyone and everyone knew Fred. He was a consummate professional who never missed a day of work. Somehow he also made time to teach, and we were all so lucky to learn from his vast knowledge, unparalleled expertise, and great experience.

He was a mentor to many students, myself included. I can safely say my career in television broadcasting was launched by Fred. He chose the script I wrote in his class, which earned an A+, and the scripts of three of my colleagues, including present Channel 23 news anchor Alina Mayo-Azze, A.B. ’81, giving us the opportunity to present our stories on WTVJ’s newscast in a special series he called “The Young Journalists.” We were each assigned a cameraman, an editor, and a seasoned reporter to assist us in our on-camera reporting and delivery. What an experience for a 20-year-old student!

Many of Fred’s students, and the reporters he worked with, have gone on to successful television careers. I’m sure many would credit Fred, in part, with their success. He was 80 years old and still teaching writing at another local college. His students there loved him every bit as much as we did at UM and WTVJ, where I went on to work after graduation, thanks to my experience with Fred. Those were the golden days of television news, and with his passing we could say it was the end of an era.

Marlene May, A.B. ’82
Miami, Florida

Fumbling the Ball?

Editor’s Note: In light of national news that the NCAA’s investigation of the University of Miami did not measure up to its own principles and rules of gover-nance, we’ve devoted space to a letter that ran in The Miami Herald on February 21.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the University of Miami, I wish to reaffirm President Donna Shalala’s expression of regret and our acceptance of responsibility for violations of National Collegiate Athletic Association rules by current and former student-athletes, coaches, and staff. Our institution can—and must—do a better job of ensuring compliance to NCAA and ACC rules, and that effort of strengthening our policies and procedures is well under way.

Unfortunately, over the last two and a half years, the University has lived under the glaring light of a protracted and sensationalized NCAA investigation, which often overshadows the wonderful accomplishment of our current student-athletes, most recently the dramatic rise of our men’s basketball team to unprecedented heights.

Despite the often unwieldy investigation, the University of Miami, at President Shalala’s and the Board of Trustees’ insistence, has held itself to the highest standards in its model cooperation with the NCAA. Our administrators, staff, and student-athletes have been forthcoming with information and transparency in their efforts to address any concerns. What has been lost in recent months is the fact that it was the University that first advised the NCAA of potential violations back in 2010.
The University has self-imposed unprecedented sanctions, including the football program’s two-year bowl ban and forfeiture of a hard-earned conference championship game. Student-athletes found to have violated NCAA rules were withheld from competition, and they repaid any inappropriate benefits that they had received.

Regardless of the many troubling aspects of the NCAA’s conduct, we must keep our focus on our core mission as an institution of higher learning: fostering our students’ intellectual and, in the case of our athletes, physical development. We must never lose sight of our role in helping them become effective and ethical leaders, both on and off the playing field. I believe our approach and conduct during this lengthy investigation has done just that. While I believe that the University of Miami will emerge stronger and more committed than ever to the letter and the spirit in which the NCAA’s rules of conduct were established, the trustees respectfully, but firmly, add our own voice to President Shalala’s in asking that no further sanctions be imposed on the dedicated, talented, and outstanding men and women who proudly repre-sent the Miami Hurricanes.

Leonard Abess, Chair
University of Miami Board of Trustees

From the Editor

Live from the Arena

I remember like it was yesterday the phone call I received about my brother’s test results. But it’s not yesterday. It’s nearly the fifth anniversary of his death from colon cancer at age 51. My brother died, but he never, ever gave up. For two years, he continued to run a business, take chemo treatments, and stay up late at night, hunting the Internet for the latest advances.

Lazaro Cordero was just 10 when his diagnosis came. He has since moved from Cuba to the United States. His leg had to be amputated here, and he has been a cancer survivor for almost half of his life. Cordero was one of the many participants of the 2012 Dolphins Cycling Challenge, written about by Robert C. Jones Jr. Cordero and his Miller School of Medicine physician J. David Pitcher teamed up to take on the ride in November. Cordero is now going to physical therapy three times a week to learn how to use a prosthetic leg. He is tall and strong and works out daily. Despite his youth and strength, he admits that learning to walk with his prosthesis has been grueling, painful work, but he has no intention of giving up.

Delivering his “Citizenship in a Republic” speech in Paris in 1910, Theodore Roosevelt posed, “It is not the critic who counts… The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood … who spends himself in a worthy cause … so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

The stories in this issue take place in that arena, where people act on ideals and set the highest standards for themselves and those around them. They dare, and sometimes accomplish, what seems impossible. Sometimes it’s what others have given up on; other times it’s what most would never attempt in the first place.

It’s a surgeon who leaves his operating room to take one of his patients on a multi-city bike ride to fight cancer.

It’s a college student walking through an unfamiliar neighborhood until strangers become friends.

It’s a professor who guides his students every day into a universe of color, form, and beauty.

It’s living our principles by using materials and technologies that show respect for and recognition of our precious environment.

It’s living—above all else, living.

—Robin Shear, Editor

WRITE TO US

Letters should be fewer than 300 words and may be edited for length and clarity. Please include contact information. WRITE TO: Inbox, Miami, P.O. Box 248105 Coral Gables, FL 33124 EMAIL: [email protected].

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