The two law firms conducting an independent investigation of academic fraud in the men’s athletics department have completed 50 interviews, said Tonya Moten Brown, chief of staff for University President Mark Yudof, at a Board of Regents meeting Thursday.
Investigators expect to conclude interviews in September after interviewing another 70 people associated with the case, she said.
Jan Gangelhoff and Elayne Donahue, who both worked in the academic counseling unit, have already been interviewed, Brown said.
Gangelhoff said she wrote more than 400 papers for University basketball players between 1993 and 1998.
The interviews are tape recorded, and the tapes are kept confidential. Brown said interviewees are asked not to discuss the subject of the interviews with anyone except a lawyer.
In other Board of Regents news:
ù Yudof announced that the number of students applying to the University has increased significantly. Freshman applications have increased 11 percent since last year, and 25 percent since 1997, he said. The expected fall 1999 freshmen enrollment will be about 4,900 students.
ù College of Liberal Arts Dean Steven Rosenstone announced a $1 million gift for the School of Journalism and Mass Communication to fund programs in the Silha Center for Media Ethics and Law. University alumnus Otto Silha and his wife Helen presented the school with the gift, which will go toward maintaining national leadership in media ethics research.
ù While not expressing support for or against the graduate assistant union drive, which ended in defeat Tuesday, Regents’ Chairman William Hogan applauded the high voter turnout. About three-quarters of eligible graduate assistants voted in the mail-in election. The final vote was 1,298 for the union, 1,718 against.