UT athletics accused of influencing student discipline

The University of Tennessee athletics department inappropriately pressured officials in charge of campus discipline and exerted undue influence that placed students and institutional integrity in "peril," according to a former vice chancellor.

Tim Rogers, a 38-year veteran of the university, oversaw the office that investigated allegations of student misconduct. The former vice chancellor for student life confirmed to The Tennessean that he authored documents that outlined his concerns about pressure from athletics department administrators regarding how athletes should be disciplined for misconduct ranging from minor infractions to sexual assaults.

Rogers took his concerns to University of Tennessee President Joe DiPietro and Chancellor Jimmy Cheek in the spring of 2013 shortly before Rogers' abrupt retirement, which he attributed to an "intolerable situation." In a meeting with DiPietro, Rogers blamed Cheek for enabling athletics to wield undue influence over the Office of Student Judicial Affairs. Those concerns are enumerated in the documents obtained by The Tennessean.

At issue was whether Rogers' staff was pressured to be more lenient in the discipline imposed on student-athletes. Cheek told The Tennessean that by 2013 he had heard from several stakeholders, including the athletics department, that Rogers' staff was too strict in how it disciplined athletes and non-athletes.

The revelation of Rogers' 2013 documents alleging interference by the UT athletics department on student discipline comes amid growing scrutiny of the university after several misconduct allegations against football players. At least five players on the 2014 roster have been accused of sexual assault.

It also comes at a time when the Obama administration and members of Congress have been raising concerns about how sexual assaults are handled. Currently, 97 colleges and universities, including the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga and Vanderbilt University, are under investigation by the federal government over their handling of sexual assault claims.

Rogers confirmed he read from a talking-points memo when he met with DiPietro, but he declined to comment further for this article.

DiPietro told The Tennessean he took Rogers' allegations seriously. He said he met individually with Cheek several times. He also had one meeting with both Cheek and Vice Chancellor and Athletics Director Dave Hart to discuss Rogers' concerns. Both Cheek and Hart assured DiPietro there was no undue influence by athletics on cases involving student-athletes.

Asked if he investigated the concerns more closely, DiPietro said he did not.

"During his meeting with me, Vice Chancellor Rogers indicated he was not asking me to investigate his concerns," DiPietro said. In the meeting with Cheek and Hart, DiPietro said, he "made clear that I would not tolerate undue influence by the athletics department on the Office of Student Judicial Affairs and student disabilities services, and I was assured and told by both Chancellor Cheek and Vice Chancellor Hart that none was occurring."

DiPietro said he was "confident in the statements" from Cheek and Hart.

In a February interview in Memphis, Cheek strongly denied that he or the athletics department inappropriately influenced discipline of student-athletes. Rogers never cited concerns about a specific case involving a student-athlete, Cheek said.

Cheek said he and Hart were at times critical of punishments meted out to student-athletes. Cheek said Rogers' staff was too punitive and "legalistic" with all students, not just student-athletes, involving some offenses.

Allegations of heated confrontation

Rogers' allegations that Hart and the athletics department inappropriately influenced the work of the Office of Student Judicial Affairs are listed in his documents.

"It is patently apparent that Athletics, enabled by the way of the Chancellor's directives and interference:

a. Wields undue influence and diminishes or eliminates independence of thought and action necessary for unbiased review within individual departments.

b. Places our institutional integrity at peril.

c. Places our students in peril," Rogers noted in his memo.

In one incident referenced in Rogers' documents, Rogers witnessed Hart "shouting at" Jenny Wright, whose primary responsibility was determining discipline in student misconduct cases.

According to Wright, Hart told her that he did not agree with penalties she had given football players. He questioned whether she was harsher on athletes than traditional students and criticized her specifically over the punishment she had given a football player. Wright denied treating athletes differently than other students.

"During our discussion, Mr. Hart stood in front of me, leaned his face toward mine, raised his voice as he spoke and became visibly angry," Wright told The Tennessean. The confrontation occurred in 2012 in a hallway before a female athletics luncheon. "Vice Chancellor Rogers stood next to us throughout the conversation, and dozens of my colleagues walked past us in the corridor."

Hart, through a spokesman, responded that it was "patently and unequivocally false that he engaged in a shouting match with Jenny Wright."

In 2013, Wright found herself in the middle of a public controversy when she was accused of engaging in inappropriate sexual relations with student-athletes. The allegations led to her termination. However, an independent review subsequently commissioned by the university found no evidence to support the allegations against Wright.

The report on Wright included the summary of an interview with Becky Dahl, then an assistant director of programs at UT's Department of Recreational Sports. Dahl told investigators that in the summer of 2013, Wright had confided in her she was being pressured by the athletics director, "to perform her job in a certain way that she felt was not in the best interest of students" and he "could have caused her to be terminated or reprimanded and she was afraid of him."

The investigative report also recommended that "the Chancellor should issue a communication to all employees of the Athletics Department that threats against a University employee in an effort to impede the exercise of responsibilities related to student disciplinary actions and compliance matters would be a violation of the University's Code of Conduct and grounds for disciplinary action, including termination of employment."

In response to that recommendation, Cheek met with athletics department employees and instructed them not to interfere with student disciplinary cases, according to a university spokeswoman.

Report says office used 'punitive approach'

In an interview with The Tennessean, Cheek said shortly after he became chancellor in 2010 that he began hearing concerns from several vice chancellors about the Office of Student Judicial Affairs.

Under Cheek, the position of athletics director for the first time had been elevated to vice chancellor, giving Hart more power on universitywide issues than previous athletics directors.

Citing the discipline handed out in a 2010 case involving a non-athlete, Cheek said that Student Judicial Affairs was too punitive and legalistic and not focused enough on student development.

In that highly publicized 2010 case, a graduate student was suspended indefinitely after a conviction for reckless driving in another state — just months short of receiving her degree. Cheek later overturned that decision.

"My concern was this: Do we follow best practices of the best universities in the country, and are our penalties in proportion to what other best universities in the country would provide or to impose?" Cheek said.

After Rogers retired, Cheek commissioned a report on how the office was operating and put Provost Susan Martin in charge of it. The 2013 report, which included two outside experts from Duke and Clemson universities, concluded that the office was taking a "punitive approach in holding students accountable for their actions."

That assertion is not reflected in how the university handled at least two cases of sexual assault accusations against athletes.

In one case, former UT running back Marlin Lane was accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old high school student on April 7, 2013, in his room at Vol Hall after watching teammate Geraldo Orta have sex with her, police records show.

The university began an investigation, but the alleged victim refused to cooperate with investigators.

"As a result, the university was unable to pursue disciplinary charges," a statement supplied by Vice Chancellor for Communications Margie Nichols noted. Lane remains enrolled at UT as a senior.

On Feb. 15, 2013, former basketball player Yemi Makanjuola was accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old female freshman. He was granted permission to transfer and left the university in April "on good terms" to attend University of North Carolina-Wilmington, according to then-head coach Cuonzo Martin.

A month after Makanjuola transferred, campus disciplinary officials found him to have violated student conduct standards by sexually assaulting the freshman student. He is listed on UNC-Wilmington's roster but hasn't played in a single game this season.

Tennessee public institutions have traditionally taken a legalistic approach to student misconduct, said Brett Sokolow, president and CEO for the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management, which trains more than 7,000 campus administrators each year in conducting misconduct investigations.

But Sokolow said the choice is not between student development and being punitive — particularly when it comes to serious cases such as sexual assault or other felony offenses.

"The continuum is not between educational and punitive," he said. "It's between being educational and being protective of the campus community."

For minor infractions, "I am all for progressive discipline, I'm all for teaching them the error of their ways," Sokolow said. "But for more serious sexual misconduct and relationship violence, I'm a real big proponent for acting to protect the community. I think suspensions and expulsions should be default measures. I think the field is shifting because of political and public pressures, but it's slow."

Dorm policy changed despite concerns

In the documents written by Rogers, he said the influence from Hart and the athletics department reached beyond student discipline. To help with recruiting, the athletics department wanted freshmen to be able to live in Vol Hall, an apartment-style dormitory on campus. The dorm traditionally housed sophomores, juniors and seniors.

Rogers was opposed to the change, citing concerns that there had been an "inordinate number" of sexual assault allegations stemming from incidents at Vol Hall.

Ultimately Rogers backed down and the university changed its policy. UT began allowing freshmen to live in the dorm in fall 2013.

When asked about Rogers' assertions regarding sexual assaults at Vol Hall, the office of the Vice Chancellor for Communications disputed the claims, noting there were no reports of sexual assault at Vol Hall in 2011 or 2012, two reports in 2013 and one in 2014.

University of Tennessee police records obtained by The Tennessean differ from the university's numbers. According to the police reports, at the time Rogers approached Cheek and DiPietro with his concerns, his office was investigating three reports of sexual assault at Vol Hall that occurred between February and April 2013.

Nichols, the UT vice chancellor for communications, later clarified that UT was providing only student-on-student sexual assault reports from Vol Hall. The third alleged assault victim was a non-student, she said.

Rogers' recommendations

In the documents, Rogers gave recommendations to DiPietro to address the influence he said was bearing down on his office from the athletics department.

Rogers recommended:

• The creation of an inspector general, who could conduct reviews to make sure disciplinary cases were handled fairly. Rogers said the review processes for grievances, such as those available through the Office of Audit and Consulting Services, "do not foster efficient and substantive inquiries designed to address allegations of duress, undue influence, unethical actions, etc."

• The development of a new process to ensure Student Judicial Affairs maintains administrative independence.

• The university research the incidence and scope of sexual assaults on campus.

"Specific measures designed to curtail inappropriate influence and/or criticism by the athletics department, chancellor and/or senior level staff should be adopted," Rogers said in the documents.

Rogers concluded his memo to DiPietro saying the university should "ensure the ability of senior level staff within Student Life to conduct their business without personal attack or undue interference."

DiPietro and Cheek told The Tennessean that in the past two years since Rogers' retirement, UT has improved the student disciplinary process as well as how it reports and handles sexual assaults.

"Our first priority is to prevent sexual assaults on campus," Cheek said. "Any sexual assaults — male-on-female, female-on-male — is unacceptable at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. We have been proactive in developing a new policy and getting input from faculty, staff and students. We put together in the late spring, early summer a task force to have an interim policy in place by August of 2014 so that our students knew about it. We heightened the awareness of sexual assault considerably in our orientation programs."

Reach Anita Wadhwani at 615-259-8092 and on Twitter @AnitaWadhwani. Reach Nate Rau at 615-259-8094 and on Twitter @tnnaterau.