The NCAA is satisfied with the University of Tennessee’s investigation into allegations of possible academic wrongdoing, UT Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Anne Mayhew said Tuesday.

After reviewing course enrollment records, any grade changes or incomplete grades and “all of the student records that we could get” about Urban Studies 450 over a 10-year period, UT found no abuse, she said.

Mayhew is UT’s NCAA faculty representative.

UT officials met with the NCAA June 19 to respond to accusations that student-athletes were misusing the course. One week later, the NCAA sent a letter to Athletic Director Doug Dickey saying that, based on UT’s review, “there appears to be no need to conduct a further inquiry at this time.”

The letter also said new information could become available that would “necessitate further review.” This is standard procedure, said NCAA spokeswoman Jane Jankowski.

“In any case, if there is new information that becomes available that leads us to believe that we need to look into something again, then we do that,” she said.

With the end of this particular review comes the closing of another chapter of UT’s reviewing of alleged academic fraud.

The two-year saga began September 1999, when allegations arose that some student-athletes were receiving too much assistance from tutors. After reviewing UT’s report on the allegations in March 2000, the NCAA found that there was no need for further inquiry.

Fraud allegations surfaced again when an NCAA investigator met with associate English professor and Director of Composition Linda Bensel-Meyers to discuss other wrongdoings regarding student-athletes’ enrollment in too many easy courses and/or majors.

After the August 2000 meeting with Bensel-Meyers, the NCAA asked the university to turn over academic histories of 47 student-athletes, which had been prepared by Bensel-Meyers. The NCAA then requested information about the eligibility of two of the 47 athletes and asked UT to answer to the claims of the course misuse.

In the cases of the two athletes, Mayhew said, the situation was cleared up, and, “there was no controversy about this whatsoever.”

And when the NCAA heard UT’s report on the urban studies course, the NCAA, “complimented us on our investigation,” she said, adding that in the last two years, some changes have been made to improve the student-athletes’ academic opportunities.

Mayhew cited the combining of men and women athletes’ tutoring programs and the moving of student-athletes’ academic support under the supervision of the provost as positive steps.

“I feel very good about what we have put in place,” Mayhew said. “I’m not going to speak for all of the faculty – that’s always a very dangerous thing – but I think a lot of people feel a lot better about what we’re doing.”

One faculty member who doesn’t feel better is Bensel-Meyers, who says the new Thornton Athletics Student Life Center is a facade, and the university is compromising its academic integrity for athletics.

She said the Thornton Center – an athletes-only study facility which opened April 2001 – is more of a recruiting tool than an educational one.

“It clearly is a living monument to the two-culture campus we have right now and it shows where the priorities lie,” she said.

Private donations funded the $4.2 million cost to build the center, and Mayhew says that the Thornton Center is another step in the right direction.

“I think we have, right now, one of the very best systems in the whole country for oversight of academic support,” she said.

Although she said she’s pleased with the progress, Mayhew said that some work is still needed, saying that the student-athletes’ tutors need to be better trained.

Bensel-Meyers, who sparked the tutor-abuse allegations in 1999, agrees. She disagrees, however, on how it should be done.

“They’ve not recognized that the faculty are the professionals in the field of tutor training,” she said.

Bensel-Meyers is also upset with what she says is the university being more concerned with athlete eligibility than academics.

She said that doing so leads the university to “override whatever standards the faculty have tried to put in place.

“I have no faith that they will ever put education before athletics on this campus,” she said.

Mayhew, however, said work is being done to ensure the quality of student-athletes’ education.

“One can always improve the things that we do at the university,” she said. “I sometimes think that we in the academics side of the university ought to thank the athletics department for helping us improve a lot of our procedures.”