The University of Oregon received a Notice of Allegations this week from the NCAA for infractions in multiple programs, the university announced on Thursday. The programs are track and field, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and football.
“After careful review of the notice, the UO acknowledges that infractions occurred and takes responsibility for the actions of the involved staff members,” the UO said in a statement. “The university has taken steps to address the issues and has confidence that such errors will not take place in the future.”
Allegation No. 1 is that a professor within the University of Oregon anthropology department knowingly moved former Oregon track athlete Jasmine Todd’s  grade from an “F” to a “B-” so she could remain eligible for competition in March of 2016. The NCAA states she competed in four contests while ineligible. Oregon later discovered the grade change and rescinded the grade and her degree.
The violation is considered “Level II,” which is considered a significant breach of conduct.
The NCAA’s notice of allegations says that a male professor “knowingly arranged for fraudulent academic credit or false transcripts,” in Todd’s “Anthropology 278: Scientific Racism” class.  The professor’s name is redacted from the report, but 2016 course schedules indicate that adjunct professor Larry Ulibarri taught that class. Ulibarri was still teaching classes as of fall term 2017.
“It is the role of the University Senate, the administration and other campus stakeholders to define and assess academic standards at the University of Oregon. Our faculty take very seriously our responsibility to ensure that no student is unfairly advantaged or disadvantaged as it relates to academic opportunity,” said Chris Sinclair, president of the University Senate and professor of mathematics, in a statement released by UO. “While we acknowledge this was a violation of grading policy, this incident does not rise to our community standards for academic fraud or misconduct.”
There are three infractions committed by the men’s basketball team.
The first is that from 2013 to 2017, a noncoaching staff member participated in “on-court activities,” thus exceeding the numerical limit of four basketball coaches.
The second infractions is in December 2016 to May 2017, an an assistant strength and conditioning coach also participated in “on-court activities,” again exceeding the limit of four coaches.
The third violation is that head coach Dana Altman is responsible for the two infractions and, “Did not demonstrate that he promoted an atmosphere for compliance and monitored his staff within the program due to his personal knowledge of and/or involvement in the violations described in Allegation Nos. 2-a and 3-b.”
The women’s basketball program violated similar rules. An assistant strength and conditioning coach participated in “on-court activities” and exceeded the limit of four coaches.
Like Altman, head coach Kelly Graves did not promote an “atmosphere of compliance.”
All violations are considered Level II. While acknowledging the infractions, the UO disputes the severity of the levels and that the two coaches were individually charged.
The UO stated: “The university, however, disagrees with the level of infraction that NCAA enforcement staff has assigned to some of the charges as well as with the decision to level charges against two of our head coaches. In those instances, the facts do not support the enforcement staff’s position nor does NCAA case precedent, and we plan to defend the university, our faculty and our head coaches.”
Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens stated: “Coach Altman and coach Graves are committed to compliance with NCAA bylaws, they have the highest ethical standards on and off the court, and each acknowledges the infractions that took place within their programs. In both cases, our monitoring program identified the issues and they were reported to the NCAA. We have addressed the matters with the responsible employees and enhanced compliance training within the department. These cases do not merit the level of charges against the coaches sought by the NCAA.”
Oregon football was also included in the list of infractions.
Allegedly, from August through November 2016, the football program specifically, “Created an electronic presentation that included each prospective student-athlete’s name, physical attributes and high school highlight video and displayed it on a video board located in the football performance center.”
This was also listed as a Level II violation.
The full document of the allegations can be viewed here.
The UO’s full statement can be viewed here.
Follow Jack Butler on Twitter @Butler917