University officials postponed a planned meeting with a federal grand jury because they needed more time to gather evidence subpoenaed April 11 about the men’s basketball academic misconduct scandal.
University General Counsel Mark Rotenberg met with FBI and U.S. Postal Service officials Tuesday morning to negotiate a time line for turning over the University’s files on the academic fraud and on the course work and transcripts of former player Bobby Jackson.
University officials need more time to determine which documents should be turned over to the federal investigators, which were due Tuesday at 8:30 a.m.
“We’re working with them to figure out exactly what meets their needs,” Rotenberg said.
Rotenberg cited the volume of evidence and the difficulty in gathering it as the reasons for postponing the turnover. The documents will not be submitted on a single date but instead over a matter of time through a process worked out between the federal investigators and the University, Rotenberg said.
The University’s final investigative report, issued in November, included interviews with more than 150 people and involved more than 55,000 documents. And while at the report’s release, University President Mark Yudof said the report was comprehensive and thorough, Rotenberg said Friday the investigative power of a federal grand jury was far more far-reaching than anything the University could have mustered.
The University’s investigation into the academic fraud in the men’s basketball program started after former tutor Jan Gangelhoff admitted in March 1999 to writing more than 400 papers for student-athletes.
The final report concluded “there was systematic, widespread academic misconduct” involving former coach Clem Haskins, former academic counselor Alonzo Newby, Gangelhoff, 18 student-athletes and five professors. It also concluded that the University played with ineligible players between 1994 and 1999.
V. Paul Virtucio welcomes comments at [email protected].