NEW YORK ― Baruch College gave 30 student-athletes more than $255,000 in improper benefits over the course of five years, NCAA officials said in a decision issued Thursday.
The NCAA Division III Committee on Infractions said the school’s former vice president for student affairs and enrollment management and its former head women’s basketball coach both violated NCAA ethical conduct rules.
The committee said in its report that it had not seen a high-level campus administrator who had such “breadth and scope of responsibilities in an infractions case” as the former vice president. The administrator and coach were not named in the report.
“The former vice president wanted to raise the profile of athletics at the college and as part of that effort he was closely involved in the recruitment, admission and awarding of financial aid for prospects and student-athletes, especially in the sport of women’s basketball,” Gerald Houlihan, a member of the infractions committee.
The former vice president, who was with the institution for 10 years, and former head women’s basketball coach “knowingly arranged or provided impermissible financial aid and extra benefits to student-athletes,” according to the NCAA.
However, the former vice president claimed he did not receive education on NCAA rules, therefore the violations were inadvertent. The former head women’s basketball coach also said he had insufficient rules education, according to the NCAA.
The penalties include four years of probation, a one-year postseason ban for the women’s basketball team and prohibiting the coach and vice president from all athletically related duties for one year.
