The University Daily
KANSAN
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
Friday, February 6, 1981 Vol. 91, No. 90 USPS 650-640
Playing comes before studies at University, Times alleges
By REBECCA CHANEY and KATHRYN KASE Staff Reporters
University of Kansas officials refused comment this morning on reports published in a copyright story by the Kansas City Times that alleged academic standards for athletes at KU were compromised and that NCAA guidelines were violated by several KU athletes.
"We can't really say anything until we get a chance to talk to the people involved," Bob Marcum, KU athletic director, said this morning.
"The only thing we can do is look into the violator's eyes, and any validity to that. We'll have to go from here."
Acting Chancellor Del Shankel also refused comment until he could "carefully consider" the issue.
ALLEGATIONS IN TODAY'S story focused on
academic improprieties including cheating, grade changing and deliberate enrollment in easy courses.
Athletic academic counselor Mike Fisher and Dionysio Kounas, professor of history, who advises athletes, were mentioned frequently in the Times Story by athletes as having steered them into courses that they could pass but that
"He's our adviser," Jeff Schleicher, sophomore tight end, said of Kounas in the Times' article. "He tells us what we're going to take."
Schleicher this morning denied having told the Times' reporters this.
"How would they come up with these stories?"
"We're not told to take certain classes," he said.
"I'm always told to take them."
attend classes. How else are you going to get through?"
A former football player told the Times he received a C-1 in an English class taught by Kounaas even when Fisher said the player could not read or write. The athlete said no tests or final exam, except for one paper, were required in the class.
THE SAME ATHLETE enrolled in a class taught by Kounas in the summer. The athlete's tutor said in the Times story that the class still had not met halfway through the semester.
See REACTION page 5
Fisher was not available for comment
See REACTION page 5.
Athletes tight-lipped on allegations
By CINDY CAMPBELL
Staff Reporter
KU athletes greeted this morning's allegations of athletic misconduct with either a stern denial or apology.
Those were the replies when the Kansas canadian more than 50 athletes, including football, basketball, truss and baseball athletes. Most of them called calls to the Sports Information Department.
IN THIS MORNING' edition, the Kansas City Times reported that football and basketball players were guided into classes that required little or no work to gain credit hours, had other students complete work for them, and failed to attend classes and yet retained their eligibility.
"Obviously I don't think it's true," Joe Haus, a junior football player, said. "But if it is true, wish someone would let me in on it. Football players are stereotyped as good guys and stuff and we don't t. its all a big stereotype, a situation similar to a dorm having a test file.
"it doesn't surprise me (the charges). It works," she said, and something with KU athletics for a long time. "I don't care."
THIS MORNING'S Times story also surprised Frank Seerer, a freshman quarterback from Huntington Beach, Calif., and a key figure in rebuilding the football team.
"I had no idea about this stuff," Seer said. "I use UISU and a bunch of the Pac-12 schools do it."
THE TIMES SAID that many athletes, including former basketball player Donnie Moore, took easy classes that would not count when playing golf, and he knew of no one who took only easy classes.
"They try to get you to take the lighter load during the season so that we don't have as much conflict between the football and school," he said. "But everything is working toward a
DELIN MILLER, a fifth-year senior football player, said that when he first came to KU the academic advising was bad. Now, he said, it is much better.
Donnie Von Moore, a former KU basketball player who stared on three Big Eight championship teams, is shown here in a game played in Allen Field House in 1978. Von Moore said in a copyright story today in the Kansas City Times that he was a victim of questionable academic practices.
"They'd try to help then but they wouldn't give people what they needed to graduate," he said. "It's better."
Now, if the five basketball players contacted
this morning refused to comment to the Times,
they would have been reported.
DAVID MAGLEY, a junior starter for the Jayhays, said he had been told "not to discuss any of this right now."
Another player, John Crawford, a senior, said he had interviews with the Sports information Department.
"From what I know they are," he said. "So many different things have happened (with the Times' athletic series) that I'm not really surprised."
BUT VICTOR Mitchell, a junior and starter,
said he thought the Times' charges were
Athletes in the non-revenue producing sports said the Times' allegations did not apply to them. Keth Bodner, senior track team member, said the track team pushed hard for good academics.
urpressed
As for his academic advising, Mitchell said,
any adviser sat down with me and helped me pick some good classes."
"They make sure we get good classes," he
said. "I think the charges of phone abuse are believable but I don't know about the rest. I don't have any complaints about it though, because my team's football teams bring in the money for my program.
"They all get special treatment, but then they've the money earners, so go along with it."
Paper alleges lax academics at University
The University of Kansas, according to a copyright story in this morning's Kansas City Times, may have violated several state laws. The Department of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
The Times also presented a list of
themes in the academic practices allegedly
involving athlete
The Times' allegations:
See ATHLETES page 11
- Football and basketball players said they were guided into classes that required student participation.
- Other students did class work for
athletes, and athletes had done work for
- Richard Wright, KU professor of psychology, said he captured an athlete turning in work that was not his and in another instance was asked by an athletic department official to consider changing an athlete's grade.
- Domnie Von Mone, a former basketball player from Chicago who played on three Big Eight championship teams, said KU coach Kevin Siemian held him with a promise of a summer job.
Under NCAA rules it is not permissible for
space occupation or employment as an in-
stance during recruiting.
**joe Schleicher, a junior football player from Shawnee Mission North High School,**
**will be a member of the 2017 CIF championship team.**
John Hadl
Jeff Schleicher
Hadi bought dinner for him and his parents the night before he signed a letter of intent.
$\bullet$ The mother of former KU basketball player Ricky Ross was gifted to games by a contributor to the Williams Educational Fund, which provides money for athletic scholarships. The contributor was Thomas Haws. A Wichita doctor.
Coaches are not allowed under NCAA rules to entertain prospective athletics off
The NCAA prohibits a school and its representatives from providing transportation for players' relatives. The contributor could be viewed as a KU representative under the NCAA's broad guidelines.
- Von Moore said he kept Basic Educational Opportunity Grant money his senior year at KU, in violation of NCA4 rules. He said he did so on his own and without the knowledge of coaches or others in the athletic department.
The NCAA prohibits athletes on scholarships from keeping more than $100,000 in their money.
Times' story appears as recruiting day nears
By TRACEE HAMILTON
Head football Coach Don Fambrough is always animated when he talks about the KU football program. He is particularly happy when telling old recruiting stories.
This season may provide a recruiting story he'll never forget.
Associate Sports Editor
An article in this morning's Kansas City Times could scuttle the work Fambrough and his staff have done in putting together Super Weekend, which heins tomorrow.
Super Weekend was started last year to bolster recruiting, and was a huge success. Among the attractions during this crucial recruiting period were snowmobile and helicopter rides for recruits and a banquet for recruits and former KU athletes.
"We're down to the zero hour," Fambrough said earlier this week. "We've got a lot to do. We have a lot of former players back and it's important for us."
Among the returning stars are Bobby
Holton, Colin Cromwell, Leroy Bobby
and Larry Brown.
"Those young men are weighing their decision," Fambrough said of the recruits. "We've got to convince them this is where they should go."
The Times article, however, could convince them otherwise. It alleges that athletes at KU are pushed through with no regard given to their academic abilities. Today's story is the last in a series of five that has run, coincidentally, immitating Eight letter-of-inertion day, which is Wednesday.
"The signing date is largely irrelevant to us." Michael J. Davies, editor of the Kansas City Star and Tumus, said. "We looked into things that are not in our hands. Our leads led us to the schools in Kansas."
Davies said the Times would include an investigation of the University of Missouri, but he refused to say when a story on the Tigers' sports program would be published.
See RECRUITING page 5
By BRAD STERTZ
State legislators concerned about use of athletic funds
Staff Reporter
TOPEKA-Reports of college athletic scandals in Kansas have caused several state legislators to become "cautiously alert" about the distribution of funds to state universities.
“If there has been some misappropriation that has taken place,” State Rep. Mike Hayden, chairman of the House Ways and Means Comptroller, universities will need to answer some questions.”
Although lawmakers from the universities' home districts said the NCAA and the universities could handle the situation, other legislators also have some type of legislative inquiry into the matter.
THE LEGISLATURE, however, would not make decisions on the issue until all of the facts had been fully presented, Hayden, R-Atwood, said.
"First of all," he said, "we are not going to
have any problems; we assume guilt because of a
newspaper article."
Any questions that legislators might have, Hayden said, would first be directed to the Kansas Board of Regents and the administration of each university.
"If their explanations are not satisfactory," he said, "the ways and Means委员会 would send out its staff to find out where every member and who sign the vouchers for the money."
Hayden said his staff would be able to find out exactly how each state-appropriated dollar was spent. They also could find out where the money was spent and what it was spent for.
IN A SERIES of five stories this week, the Kansas City Times charged that the University of Kansas, Kansas State University and Wichita College violated several NCAA regulations.
See LEGISLATORS page 5
Senate committee OKs higher student activity fee
It will be partly to mostly sunny today with the high around 43, according to the KU Weather Service. Winds will be southerly to 15-8 mph.
Tonight will be partly cloudy and not so cold. The low will be around 22. Tomorrow, skies will become increased. The sun will be around the afternoon with a high near 37.
By KAREN SCHLUETER
Students will pay a $14.52 student activity fee if the Revenue Code recommendations finalized last night by the Student Senate Finance and Auditing Committee gain approval from the Senate, Acting Chancellor Del Shankel and the Board of Regents.
Staff Reporter
The increased activity fee would provide
the revenue from the current $11.00 fee is $4.19.
The increased activity fee would provide
the revenue from the current $11.00 fee is $4.19.
The committee voted to cut the Student Bar Association's increase recommendation from 12 to 10.
The full Senate will consider the recommendations Feb. 17 and 19.
LAST WEEX, the committee voted to
kill the Association of Asset Managers
Revenue Code, but recourse to the group
presented a budget making it an umbrella organization for funding three other law student
A rider attached to the recommendation
asserted that the association must give $1,500 of
its total income.
The recommendations grant a 31 cent increase to KU Bands. The bands' request a 51 cent increase, but the committee voted to cut $700 from the travel budget, and a $5,000 salary for a jazz coordinator and women's basketball band director.
Several committee members said the students were being asked to fund a proportionately large amount of the bands' budget, and that the University of Kansas Athletic Corporation and the School of Fine Arts should increase their support.
The University Daily Kansas's full $1 increase request will be recommended, bringing its fee allocation to $3.
THE STUDENT SENATE's increase request was approved as a $46,497 block allocation. The Senate now receives $21,245 from the fall and spring activity fees, and $21,600 from summer activity fees. An increase in the $4 summer fee would fund the increase.
The committee voted to increase University Theatre's allocation from 80 cents to $11.4.
The Student Legal Services Program's full increase request was approved, raising its allocation from $1.25 to $1.97. The Legal Services' budget provided for the addition of a part-time attorney to relieve the full-time attorney's case load.
The committee approved a proposal by David
THE COMMITTEE approved a 19 cent increase for the Graduate Student Council, bringing its allocation to 60 cents. The Graduate Student Council is part of its funds to the graduate student group.
Van Parys, Student Senate treasurer, to reduce the 37 cent allotment for the code's unallocated account to 30 cents. Seven cents would be added to the money allocated to student organizations in March budget hearings. The student organizations' allocation is now $1.35.
- Chamber Music Series, 18 cen.
* KU Forensics, 14 cents.
- The recommended allocations passed Tuesday night were:
- University Concert Series, $1.16.
- Recreation Advisory Board, $2.55
- KU forensics, 14 cents.
* KJ HK FM Radio, 3 cents.
- Associated Students of Kansas, 40 cents.
The committee voted last week to remove the School of Architecture and Urban Design Student Council from the code. It is eligible to apply for funds in March.
The Consumer Affairs Association's request to be classified as a Revenue Code group was discontinued.