The Baruch College Department of Athletics has cooperated fully with a six-year investigation by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) that closes the books on infractions that occurred during the 2004–2005 and 2005–2006 seasons.
Baruch participated fully and transparently in a review of specific violations in its women’s basketball program. The majority of the violations involved extra benefits and compensation for work not performed by three student-athletes, which, the NCAA determined, resulted from a systemic failure-to-monitor by College staff.
The NCAA took the College’s self-imposed corrective actions into account when determining Baruch’s penalties and imposed the following: public reprimand and censure; one-year probation; suspension for 13 games in the 2006–2007 season for the two student-athletes involved; suspension of the women’s basketball coach for two games during the 2007–2008 season; elimination of all off-campus recruiting for women’s basketball during the 2006–2009 academic years; vacating all the wins and statistical records from the time the student-athletes involved became ineligible to the time they were reinstated (the two student-athletes’ individual records for that time period were also vacated); a fine of $5,000 paid in part to a charity organization and in part to the NCAA; and public notification of the details of the case and the penalties imposed provided to prospective women’s basketball student-athletes during recruitment, as well as the general public and alumni via Baruch’s athletics website and an alumni publication.
The College’s experience with this case, though regrettable, has helped the athletics department address organizational weaknesses and develop a strong management and compliance plan for Baruch student athletics in the future. The changes that have resulted from this case illustrate Baruch’s commitment to maintain an exemplary program for the College’s Division III athletics program.