Dickinson State University Was Apparently Paying Cash To Athletes Too
It looks like faking students to inflate enrollment numbers wasn’t the only scandal taking place at Dickinson State University. Apparently Dr. McCallum, who was just recently fired by the State Board of Higher Education was also (along with other university officials) approving cash payments to student athletes.
And that’s a big, big no no.
Through an open public records request, an internal Dickinson State University document shows that inflated enrollment numbers aren’t the only scandal that the school is confronted with.
Apparently, some student athletes were being paid cash by the school. The money was apparently taken out of school scholarship funds.
Multiple high-ranking school officials, including embattled DSU President Richard McCallum, allegedly approved the cash payments.
More from a second article:
The North Dakota University System recently announced that DSU`s athletic department is under investigation. NBC North Dakota News has come across some information which, if proven true, could be very damaging for the school. One internal DSU document was obtained Thursday with an Open Public Records Request, but lawyers for the North Dakota University System aren`t willing to release the others that were requested.
University System lawyers allowed DSU officials to release a memo dated December 15, 2010, to NBC North Dakota News. It was sent to DSU`s Vice President for Student Development from a school staffer who said a few student athletes visited an office on campus to find out why cash scholarship payments to cover housing had stopped after their volleyball coach, Ryan Platt, was fired.
The memo goes on to say that DSU staffers were surprised and confused because it was highly irregular and possibly illegal. The memo said that the student-athletes were then sent to see Tim Daniels, DSU`s athletic director. The staffer said this is the first time anyone knew of the cash payments to students and then said that Daniels said the fired coach had advised the student-athletes to transfer out, but so far one of them was enrolled in the Spring 2011 semester.
Other documents that were requested, sources said, show that high-ranking school officials approved additional scholarship dollars to go to the student athletes. They said school officials should have conducted an investigation into whether this really happened and notified the NAIA.
There is apparently more information available, but the university system is refusing to release the records.
There will be more coming out, but one thing to keep in mind is that North Dakota University System leadership – including Chancellor Bill Goetz and members of the state board, knew there was a problem at DSU last year and sought to keep it quite beyond the legislative session.
Which is significant because there was a reform bill before the legislature which would have ended the North Dakota University System’s independence and put it under the control of the governor. Clearly, given the scandals that are rolling out of our universities one after another, that reform should have happened. And might have happened (it came down to a vote in the Senate) had Goetz and other members of the university system not kept things quiet.
Tags: bill goetz, dickinson state university, higher education, North Dakota News, richard mccallum
