Towers furniture oft-cited violation

By J-W Staff Reports     Jul 17, 2005

In the two-year investigation of wrongdoing within the Kansas University athletic department, no stone was left unturned.

In the 125-page report released Friday, a 16-page section listed general and secondary violations throughout the department.

Many of the violations regarded mileage and meal fees for recruiting visits. Some look like bookkeeping errors, but they extend throughout the department.

The most thoroughly documented of the general violations involves student-athlete housing in the Jayhawker Towers.

The Towers, which were purchased from private ownership by the KU Endowment Association in 1980, are cited in the report for providing furniture rentals including more than what standard room furnishings include, which is against NCAA Bylaw 16.02.3.

The NCAA states that “receipt of a benefit by student-athletes or their relatives or friends is not a violation of NCAA legislation if it is demonstrated that the same benefit is generally available to the institution’s students or their relatives or friends or to a particular segment of the student body (e.g. foreign students, minority students) determined on a basis unrelated to athletics ability.”

Otherwise in the general listing of violations, minor blips were found just about everywhere and ranged from false mileage reimbursements to overpaying student-athletes for hosting prospective student-athletes on recruiting visits.

Among the general violations listed were:

¢ Kelly Miller, a former volunteer women’s soccer coach, attended two meals at off-campus establishments with the soccer coaching staff during an official visit weekend in 1999.

¢ An occasional home meal was provided to two football letter-of-intent signees at the home of former assistant football coach Mark Farley in 2000.

¢ Assistant track coach Doug Clark mistakenly wrote down $159 instead of $129 to reimburse a prospective student-athlete in 2000.

¢ In 1999, former women’s assistant basketball coach Pam DeCosta purchased a meal en route for a prospective student-athlete’s father outside the 30-mile campus radius.

¢ In 1997, rowing coach Rob Catloth spent funds to entertain a high school coach while on a recruiting trip to Atlantic City, N.J.

¢ Assistant golf coach Roy Edwards was issued a letter of admonishment for serving as a caddy for a student-athlete with eligibility remaining at a USGA sectional qualifying tournament.

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