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Thursday, October 30, 1997

UTEP officials to meet with NCAA in hopes of reducing penalties

EL PASO, Texas (AP) -- University of Texas-El Paso president Diana Natalicio and other university officials will meet Thursday with NCAA officials with hopes of reducing stiff penalties handed down for "rampant" violations.

"I think it's no secret that we believe that the penalties imposed by the NCAA in our particular case are excessive when compared with those imposed at other institutions for similar infractions," Natalicio told the El Paso Times Tuesday. "We're going to try to make the case that there ought to be some compromise here, a relaxation of the penalties."

The Times reported in a copyright story Wednesday that much of UTEP's defense of the allegations involves blaming the problems in the athletic department on employees who no longer work there.

Gary Bogue, the department's former director of student and academic services, is given most of the blame, according to the newspaper.

Bogue and other former employees told the newspaper that the university's response is riddled with falsehoods and is an attempt to deflect responsibility from Athletic Director John Thompson and other current UTEP officials.

"Their attitude was, 'Let's shove everything under the rug and proceed as usual, and if something happens we'll just pick someone to take the blame,' " former athletic department eligibility coordinator Priscilla Phillips said of Thompson and other top university officials.

Natalicio said the comments of former employees are not necessarily reliable.

"You're talking to people who have left the university, not always under pleasant circumstances," she said. "There could be different opinions and lapses of memory."

Thompson said he publicly accepted responsibility for NCAA infractions that occurred over three years.

He said that because he is not named or blamed in the university's response is not an attempt to manipulate the record.

Bogue, Phillips and several other people lost their jobs in the summer of 1996 when UTEP reorganized the athletic department. They received letters from Thompson stating that the elimination of their positions was no reflection on their performance.

The university told the NCAA this summer that firing or reassigning nine people proved its efforts to improve the athletic department.

Bogue, who now works as an academic adviser in the athletic department of San Diego State University, received the biggest share of criticism in UTEP's response to the NCAA.

UTEP officials cited five separate instances in which they claimed he failed to advise Thompson and others of possible NCAA violations before the fact or after.

In one instance, Bogue was accused of not notifying UTEP officials that two basketball players were ineligible to play in a December 1995 game.

Bogue told the newspaper he was never told that UTEP planned to use the two players in the game, and only learned of it by accident after the game was under way.

Another allegation involved the erasing of academic records from Bogue's computer, but another employee said Bogue wasn't even responsible for those records and never kept them on his computer.

In May the NCAA issued a public reprimand and censure of UTEP and placed the university of a five-year probation for recruiting, academic eligibility and travel violations dating back to 1993.

It was the second time in six years that the NCAA put UTEP athletics on probation.

UTEP accepted the penalties handed down in 1991 without protest, but Natalicio, Thompson and others say the latest penalties left them "fighting mad."