Every athletic department in the country is--or should be--asking itself whether the type of academic fraud that has recently occurred at several institutions across the country could happen on its own campus.
"In light of these events, we recently convened our athletic department senior staff, Student-Athlete Academic Services (SAAS) counselors, NCAA compliance representatives and our faculty athletic representative to review the safeguards that we have in place to prevent such abuse within USC Athletics," said USC athletic director Pat Haden. "USC takes academic integrity seriously and we believe we have established strong protocols, but we must remain constantly vigilant of potential issues."
Included among USC's detailed controls intended to prevent and detect any student-athlete academic irregularities are:
- A ban on coaches or athletic staff (except for full-time professional staff members in SAAS) communicating with faculty regarding student-athlete academic progress;
- A ban on SAAS staff discussing with professors what grade a student needs to be eligible;
- A ban on SAAS tutors assisting student-athletes on take-home exams or take-home graded assignments;
- A requirement that all SAAS tutors, prior to working with student-athletes, undergo thorough training that covers NCAA rules and academic integrity;
- A practice of bringing a representative from USC's Student Judicial Affairs office to speak with all teams about academic integrity, including what constitutes an academic integrity violation and what the penalties are for such violations;
- A practice during initial team meetings and at the middle and end of each semester of having SAAS counselors remind teams about academic integrity;
- A requirement that all tutoring of student-athletes by SAAS staff occurs in the Stevens Academic Center. Banning tutoring by telephone, online, off-campus, or anywhere else that lacks oversight reduces the opportunity for any improper assistance.
- A policy of attempting to keep student-athlete enrollment in any class below 20%, and of monitoring the grade distributions for any classes where student-athlete enrollment exceeds 15%;
- An active campus-wide oversight committee of faculty and administrators, appointed by the Provost, that monitors student-athlete grade and enrollment patterns, bringing any unusual patterns to the Provost's office for follow-up;
- A policy under which faculty athletic representative Clare Pastore (a law professor) personally contacts any professor submitting a grade change request for an athlete to confirm that the change is legitimate and was not requested by the athletic department;
- A protocol for investigating any situation in which a student-athlete has significant absences in class but is achieving a high grade.
"Despite our protocols, we realize that there isn't ever a foolproof system that will completely eliminate academic fraud," said USC senior associate athletic director Dr. Magdi El Shahawy, the director of SAAS. "That is why we must remain vigilant in reviewing our policies and procedures for educating our student-athletes on academic fraud and monitoring our program to reduce the likelihood of systematic academic misconduct."
