The Nicholls athletic program has introduced several structural policy changes it believes will be appropriate to correct problems that led to the National Collegiate Athletic Association investigation of the program.”Most of these policies and procedures have already been in existence in one form or another,” Stephen Hulbert, University president, said. “They have been adjusted in order to provide greater administrative control and oversight in compliance with the NCAA.”
Deanna Falcon, compliance coordinator at Nicholls, said the biggest changes include modifications to off-campus course approval policies and new international student-athlete policies.
NCAA bylaws require that student-athletes receive prior approval for any summer courses taken at another institution before the credits can be used for athletic eligibility. Falcon said Nicholls will now require prior approval for all off-campus courses, including summer school, correspondence and distance-learning courses.
“The NCAA basically just requires prior approval for summer courses taken at another school,” Falcon said. “Even though the NCAA doesn’t require approval for other off-campus courses, Nicholls will now require it.”
Nicholls’ policy states that only correspondence courses taken from Louisiana State University are applicable for athletics eligibility or in determining a student’s academic standing. Students must take all correspondence course exams through the Nicholls Testing Center for the credit to count toward their eligibility.
No other proctors outside of the campus testing center are allowed to administer an exam unless a waiver is approved in advance, Nicholls’ off-campus course policy states. A new addition to the policy requires proctors to complete a form after each test administered to a student-athlete confirming compliance with testing requirements.
“This will help us better monitor the athletic program and will definitely enhance the overall compliance program,” Falcon said.
New forms were created to monitor the recruiting of international student-athletes. In an amended allegation sent to Nicholls Nov. 22, the NCAA reported that an international student-athlete Nicholls recruited had previously played for a professional team. Hulbert said Nicholls has found no substance to that allegation, which Nicholls expects the NCAA to withdraw.
“When an investigation begins, the NCAA focuses not only on the issue (academic fraud and administrative oversight) that led to the investigation,” Hulbert said, “but the organization also investigates anything else that may appear on the surface in the athletic program in the institution or anything that may be ongoing in nature in the NCAA.”
He said the recruitment of international athletes was not an issue at Nicholls but an NCAA topic of concern.
New Nicholls policies require head coaches to document the procedures they’ve taken in recruiting each international student-athlete and meet with Falcon. It also calls for different research tactics to ensure that the student is an amateur and meets NCAA eligibility rules.
A new summer conditioning policy has also been implemented that requires documentation of prospects who wish to use Nicholls’ training facilities. According to NCAA bylaws, prospects must have signed a National Letter of Intent and enroll in the summer term prior to their initial, full-time enrollment to use the conditioning facilities
Falcon said most policies were simply updated or modified to call for more monitoring of the athletic program.
“Most of these policies and procedures have already been in existence in one form or another,” Hulbert said. “They have been adjusted in order to provide greater administrative control and oversight in compliance with the NCAA.”
Other Nicholls athletic policies include: academic advising, continuing eligibility monitoring process, financial aid monitoring process, initial eligibility monitoring process, recruiting process and rules violation investigating and reporting process policies.
Policies require communication with the Nicholls compliance office and/or documentation to be submitted to the athletic office. Student-athletes will be notified of policy changes through the athletics academic adviser, Falcon said. Hulbert said Nicole Smith was hired as the adviser after the resignation of former adviser Jennifer Thompson, who was implicated in the academic fraud incident.
Smith’s job is to supervise academic compliance of student-athletes, but student-athletes still must be advised by their respective faculty academic adviser. Policy revisions and new approval forms will be communicated to the students during their advising.
“You can put into place all the policies that you want, but if someone wants to be grossly dishonest, they will find a way to work the system,” Hulbert said. “However, what we are demonstrating by our actions is that this University stands for integrity and our commitment to the students.
