Kansas Chancellor Robert Hemenway Comments
April 21, 2006
Kansas Chancellor Robert Hemenway Comments:
Last summer, as many of you will recall, the University of Kansas delivered to the NCAA the results of a self-investigation, listing in detail what we believe were violations of NCAA rules committed during a period that ended in 2003.
At that time, the NCAA informed us that its staff would review our self-report and conduct follow-up interviews. The NCAA has completed that process, and has delivered to us its response.
As I told you at last summer’s news conference, our intent is to be as open to the public as we can throughout this process. To that end we called you here today to share the NCAA’s response to our self-report.
Let me emphasize that this has been a cooperative effort throughout by both KU and the NCAA. We have been fully forthcoming and open with the NCAA staff, as they have with us.
I trust the NCAA staff and I trust this process. Because we have aggressively identified our weaknesses, and because we have instituted corrective measures since 2003, we are hopeful that the infractions committee will respond positively.
We initiated our investigation immediately after I hired Lew Perkins as Athletics Director in June 2003. At that time, former interim athletics director Drue Jennings informed Lew of possible NCAA rules violations.
As you know, we hired an outside agency to investigate the possible violations because we wanted to avoid even the appearance of any kind of self-serving bias. Rick Evrard, a former NCAA enforcement official and currently a partner in the law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King in Overland Park, Ks., conducted the investigation. The university reported all findings to the NCAA last July.
Our self-report to the NCAA listed violations we believe occurred, and penalties I imposed upon the athletics department following discussions with Lew. More importantly, it listed corrective measures the athletics department instituted since Lew’s arrival to help ensure compliance with NCAA rules.
I said last summer and it bears repeating today: We set very high standards for ourselves at the University of Kansas. We recognize that at times we fell short of those high standards. I am not happy about that, but we have worked with great resolve to strengthen the athletics department in the areas of compliance AND rules education.
I have every confidence that what Lew has put in place will foster an atmosphere of rigorous compliance with NCAA rules. We are unequivocally committed to every aspect of compliance, particularly with respect to academic integrity. We look forward to completing this process, the next step of which comes in August, when we discuss our report and the NCAA’s response with the NCAA Committee on Infractions.
