NCAA investigating alleged academic fraud at Mizzou

[jbcarol]

COLUMBIA

A former University of Missouri tutor has blown the whistle on alleged academic fraud within the school's athletic department.

Three months after closing an investigation into improprieties within the men's basketball program, Mizzou announced Tuesday evening that it is under investigation again for potential NCAA rules violations.

"The University of Missouri has received allegations of potential academic rules violations by a former tutor in the Athletics Academic Services area. Consistent with our commitment to rules compliance and to operating our athletics program with integrity, we are conducting a review of the allegations. We also have informed the NCAA who is working with us on this matter. To protect the integrity of the review process, we will not comment further at this time."

Former tutor Yolanda Kumar detailed some of the potential academic fraud in a post on her private Facebook account Tuesday afternoon.

When reached by The Star, Kumar confirmed the authenticity of the post, in which she alleges that she took or assisted with entrance exams and completed classes for student-athletes. She also apologized to her friends for her role in the alleged academic fraud.

Here is the full text of Kumar's social-media post:

"I have knowingly participated in academic dishonesty in my position as a tutor at the University of Missouri-Columbia Intercollegiate Athletic department, which is not limited to assistance with assignments. I have taken and assisted with entrance assessment, completed entire courses, and I been present to provide assistance with online assessments. It was encouraged, promoted, and supported by at least two Academic Coordinators for athletes in revenue generating sports, however, the wide spread desperation to succeed by other student-athletes at the bottom of an inverted pyramid of the organization's construct cross (sic) multiple sports. I self-reported on November 2 and naively wanted to close the door on the manner after seeking counsel. I immediately resigned from my position on November 7 prior to meeting with a member for compliance, general counsel, and an individual that reports to the chancellor.

"You are able to see this post because I respect and honor your thoughts of me. I wanted you to hear it from me first. I apologize for disappointing you.

"I just can't carry this burden anymore."

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/Michael_Carvell/status/801482773672427521

"I'm confident in our compliance department," he said. "We'll be working with them, with the NCAA, whatever it is. We're looking to move forward."

Nothing to see here.

[jbcarol]

Dave Matter Verified account
‏@Dave_Matter

The latest - Former Mizzou athletics tutor said her superiors groomed her for 'academic dishonesty' http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/former-mizzou-athletics-tutor-said-her-superiors-groomed-her-for/article_c72e9a21-9776-5835-9120-d659f27fe469.html ... via @stltoday

After coming forward on social media, a former University of Missouri-Columbia athletics tutor now says she was groomed by her superiors to participate in what she describes as "academic dishonesty."

The tutor, Yolanda Kumar, self reported that she "completed entire courses," helped with online tests and took entrance exams for student athletes. The effort was encouraged by those to whom she reported, she said.

"I was groomed to do this, yes," she said when asked if she had been coerced into helping athletes. "It doesn't happen in a day or in a week, but it does happen over time and one day it just hit me."

Kumar told the Post-Dispatch Wednesday morning that she decided to come forward after a series of events, particularly after an interaction with a male athlete she tutors. She declined to specify what sport he played.

"I realized how much damage my participation in this has caused him for his future," Kumar said. "It was in that moment that it all broke down for me. I saw that he was depressed, I mentioned that to his coordinator and I realized that I was party to it."

Kumar worked with athletes from all sports who needed help in math and statistics, she said.

I'm buying

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/todpalmer/status/802201687477911552

COLUMBIA

Yolanda Kumar, the whistleblower who triggered an NCAA investigation into academic fraud in the University of Missouri athletic department, told The Star in an exclusive interview on Tuesday night how and why she allegedly helped MU athletes cheat.

Kumar worked as a tutor for Mizzou's Total Person Program off and on during the last six years. She said she was "groomed" to help keep athletes academically eligible, particularly football and men's basketball players, and completed their classes, took tests and answered assessment questions.

She said she participated in at least a dozen serious cases of academic fraud involving both men's and women's athletes during a 16-month period.

"I think about what I've done and I cry, not because I'm sad or I'm weak," Kumar said, "but because I'm so angry that I didn't use my voice to say no."

Kumar said she reported her "academic dishonesty" during an 18-minute phone call Nov. 2 with Mary Ann Austin, Mizzou's executive associate athletic director for compliance.

"I was at my wit's end," Kumar said. "I had pretty much had enough, and I felt good that I had told her. Then, I realized I had opened all the evil and now the evil was out of the box and you can't put it back in."

"Academic dishonesty" is the term Kumar used Tuesday in a private Facebook post, which was obtained by The Star and other news outlets. She posted it early Tuesday afternoon after an attorney she'd consulted — but whose retainer she said she couldn't afford — called to say he'd been contacted by the NCAA.

"I wanted to address my friends right away," Kumar said, "because now the wolves are coming for me and I'm this fatty piece of meat and they're like, 'Let's get her.'"

Mizzou athletic director Jim Sterk announced 5  1/2 hours later that it had "received allegations of potential academic rules violations" and opened an investigation.

When The Star asked MU football coach Barry Odom about the investigation Wednesday during the weekly SEC Football Coaches Teleconference, he said, "I'm very confident in our compliance department, working through this situation. ... I'm excited about getting through this process. I look forward to working with all the parties involved to get all the information, all the background on everybody that's involved in this and moving forward."

Odom was asked if he was worried any of his players were involved and he said he was privy to little information.

"They're gathering all the information that they can and, obviously, when it's time for me to know something, Jim will do a great job on communicating that with me," he said. "Our kids work extremely hard academically."

During a news conference Wednesday at Mizzou Arena, The Star asked MU men's basketball coach Kim Anderson if any of his players were involved in the alleged academic fraud.

"I don't have much knowledge of it at all," Anderson said. "I'm the basketball coach. I'm not the investigator. I think I've left that up to our people here. That's kind of the way I've approached it."

Anderson said he was aware that Kumar has worked with many athletes.

"I do take a little bit of offense when people say, 'Well, it's a basketball thing,'" Anderson said. "It's not a basketball thing. It's an athletic department thing. So, I don't know who she's worked with on my team. I'm not saying she hasn't. I just don't know."

The Mizzou athletic department issued a statement Tuesday about the allegations that read, in part: "Consistent with our commitment to rules compliance and to operating our athletics program with integrity, we are conducting a review of the allegations. We also have informed the NCAA who is working with us on this matter. To protect the integrity of the review process, we will not comment further at this time."

According to the school, the Total Person Program "provides MU student-athletes with a team of trained professionals to assist with the rigors of collegiate academics and athletics."

Since Kumar started work for the program in 2010, she said she tutored hundreds of Mizzou athletes. But 15 cases, she said, involved serious academic fraud.

"Either I completed (an online class), I took a placement test, I assisted with the placement test," she said, "or I was present during your online assessment and you asked me questions while you were taking the online assessment."

Kumar said she reported her actions after reaching a breaking point.

A men's athlete had been placed with Kumar last summer for help in a core class that she was told he needed to graduate.

"I did everything I could and he passed," she said, "but he really was struggling with very basic things that my eighth-grader could do."

When the athlete needed additional help to stay eligible this fall, he was again placed with Kumar for help with an online statistics class.

"It's taken almost four weeks for him to even understand it. ... I looked at him," Kumar said as she burst into tears, "and he was so depressed that he couldn't do it."

Her voice now cracking, she repeated, "He couldn't do it.

"No matter how many times I told him, how many examples I gave him, he couldn't do it. It was just (expletive) adding. That was all he had to do was (expletive) add it up, and he couldn't do it. It was me. I was looking at what I had done, because I helped this. I didn't start it with him. I wasn't the person who pushed him through high school. I didn't get him this far in college, but I did this. I helped with this. This kid was going to fail and it was my fault, too."

Kumar said the athlete was despondent because he couldn't keep up with his coursework. She brought it up with his academic coordinator, who said he was advised to meet with a school psychologist, but nobody could force him to go.

"He's so lost, and I helped. I helped ruin him," Kumar said. "I probably can't take it all, because it's not all me. It's not all me at all, but he was the one who forced me. That was enough. I couldn't do it anymore."

Kumar, who received a bachelor's degree in math and chemistry from Lincoln University in 2004 and a master's degree in mathematics education from MU in 2010, first tutored for the Total Person Program in fall 2010 while working as an adjunct math teacher.

After becoming a full-time adjunct statistics instructor and part-time math instructor during the 2011-12 academic year, Kumar stopped working as a tutor. She briefly left Columbia after the spring semester, but returned in fall 2012 and resumed tutoring.

That's when the grooming started, as she puts it.

"You're just groomed," Kumar said. "It's just something that's understood and the next thing you know, the same person keeps sending you students with the same situation. ... I was put in a situation where I felt harassed to do certain things."

Kumar declined to name specific athletes or staff members because she expects to be asked to testify in the NCAA investigation. However, she said she can document each case of alleged academic fraud.

"At some point, I realized this might come back to bite me," Kumar said. "There's classes, semesters, students."

Kumar said her "first inkling" that she was doing more than tutoring came when she had a student who stopped going to a math class.

"I taught him the entire course, because he missed it," she said. "He wasn't a low-functioning student; he was a high-functioning student, but he just wasn't motivated to sit through that lecture."

Kumar taught math at Moberly High School in 2013-14, but returned to Mizzou in fall 2014, becoming "one of the most frequently requested and highly recommended in the department," she said. While most tutors have fewer than 20 students per semester, Kumar said she often handled up to 35. Kumar, a single mother who worked two jobs, said she logged so many hours that she was asked to report some during holiday breaks.

While not naming them, Kumar said said she regularly saw the academic coordinators for football and men's basketball players — listed on MU's athletics directory as James Pulido for football and Krista Gray for men's basketball.

Her involvement with those athletes differed from others. Kumar said she was asked to monitor some ALEKS assessment tests, which determine a student's math aptitude and impact course placement.

"I shouldn't even be in the room for that," Kumar said.

But athletes soon started showing up for the sole purpose of taking the ALEKS assessment in her presence, she said.

Kumar points to another case in 2015, when she was called to a special meeting to discuss how to help a football player stay on track with summer courses while he was ill with the mumps.

"He needed to pass a finance class to be eligible, so I helped him," she said. "He wrote down his username and password. His coordinator knew about it, saying help him with whatever."

Roughly a month later, with that athlete playing football again, Kumar received a call from the basketball academic coordinator to help what she called "two high-profile athletes" with an online class.

"Next thing you know, I have passwords to these two students' accounts and I'm helping them," she said. "I took their first test, because it was non-proctored."

In another case, Kumar said, an athlete's coordinator told him to work with Kumar on a class he previously failed and stressed to her that all his exams were online.

"I don't know how it got so bad, but most of my students were coming from those two people in the revenue-generating sports," she said. "Then, there's someone telling you, 'He needs this class to pass. Do you understand? He has to have this class to pass, Yolanda.'"

At some point, Kumar said she completed an online course for two basketball players, taking the tests online and doing the written work in the class' online discussion boards.

"It was something where the coordinator said he has to pass this class — 'If he doesn't pass, he can't play. Yolanda, he needs to do this,'" Kumar said. "And I'm thinking, 'OK, but he can't (pass),' only to hear, 'Yolanda, we need to do whatever it takes.' I took that definitely to mean that you need to finish this for him, because he has work that is due."

Star asked the Mizzou athletic department for comment about Kumar's allegation of feeling pressure from academic coordinators, but the athletic department has yet to issue a response [nor will they].

Kumar said basketball coaches occasionally made rounds during tutoring sessions, but she did not allege that any coaches ever witnessed academic fraud. However, Kumar is incredulous that academic coordinators couldn't have known.

She also said the tutoring department may have tried to take advantage of her and her financial vulnerability.

According to Missouri court records, Kumar pleaded guilty to three separate misdemeanor charges of passing bad checks for less than $500 in 2009 and 2010. She paid a fine in one case and completed probation and paid restitution in the other two, in which she received suspended sentences. Kumar said she wrote the checks to cover expenses after her husband, who she said was physically abusive, left her.

Kumar said she's "never tried to hide" her legal past and said she also filed for bankruptcy twice.

"In resigning, there's nothing, there's no gain there for me ...," Kumar said. "I'm completely ruined. My name is out there forever."

She later continued, "I had friends check up on me and say, 'They're going to throw you under the bus.' I said, 'I'm already under the bus. I feel like I have the wheel on my esophagus. I can't even breathe.' There was only one way up from here for me. I got it out, and no matter what happens, it's done. It's no longer my burden to carry."

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/btoppmeyer/status/804408906957160448

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/Michael_Carvell/status/805583138852311040

...she addressed everything from her disinterest in media attention to an exclusive interview she is providing to a major network to the posting and subsequent removal of a Go Fund Me campaign aimed at helping her pay for potential legal fees:

https://twitter.com/Dave_Matter/status/805575309017890816

[jbcarol]

Blake Toppmeyer ‏@btoppmeyer 6h6 hours ago

#Mizzou hires expert lawyer to lead academic fraud investigation and 'discover the truth' http://www.columbiatribune.com/sports/mu_basketball/mu-hires-expert-lawyer-to-lead-academic-fraud-investigation-and/article_d72550ed-8912-560b-862a-d6bfdab23e71.html ...

Missouri hired a collegiate sports attorney with expertise representing universities in NCAA matters to lead its investigation into allegations of academic fraud brought in November by former athletic academic tutor Yolanda Kumar.

Attorney Mike Glazier and his law firm Bond, Schoeneck & King will spearhead MU's investigation and work in conjunction with the NCAA. Glazier, who worked seven years on the NCAA's enforcement staff, has represented universities in NCAA cases since the 1980s.

"Michael Glazier is one of the most respected lawyers who appears in front of the NCAA Committee on Infractions," said Rodney Uphoff, a professor emeritus in Missouri's School of Law who served on the NCAA's Committee on Infractions for six years, beginning in 2009. "He has a very, very good reputation. I think he's a very good lawyer, and he does an excellent job representing his clients. He has a lot of credibility with the NCAA, because he's well-known as a very strict-talking, good lawyer."

The Tribune's attempts to reach Glazier were unsuccessful.

For Missouri, Glazier is a familiar face. He guided the university through its most recent investigation into violations committed by the men's basketball program, which resulted in MU self-imposing penalties last year.

[King Kong]

Did they just put Lawyers and true in the same sentence?

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/Michael_Carvell/status/837812604974301185

Last fall a former tutor at the University of Missouri, Yolanda Kumar, went public with allegations of academic fraud within the university's athletic department. Kumar alleged that she had intentionally helped Mizzou athletes participate in academic dishonesty, including the completion of entire courses on athletes' behalf.

After removing herself from the public radar in previous months, Kumar was back in the spotlight on Friday as she offered proof of the academic fraud she participated in in exchange for a payment of $3089.99:

https://twitter.com/Muslimgirl1973/status/837730920954281987

That specific sum is apparently the amount Kumar owes on her university account, and unless she pays that amount off, she apparently cannot receive her transcripts from the university.

Mizzou is currently still investigating Kumar's claims, and complying with the NCAA on the matter.

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/stltoday/status/837805431300841472

Kumar is "vengeful" yet "miserable"

Kumar is trying to apply to graduate school but can't obtain her transcripts without paying off tuition bills that she can't afford.

Kumar posted a series of tweets Friday saying she needs $3,089.99 that she will pay directly to MU in exchange for the evidence in the NCAA case, which she has collected in documents, emails, text messages and screen shots and has since shared with NCAA investigators. Kumar's evidence implicates 42 Mizzou student-athletes in varying degrees of academic fraud, she said.

In a phone interview with the Post-Dispatch, Kumar described herself as "vengeful" and "miserable."

"I think everyone else should be uncomfortable," she said. "If the thought of the list (of athletes) being released will make everyone feel uncomfortable ... let misery have her company. Because that's exactly what I feel. Maybe I'm vengeful now. At one time this sweet, kindhearted woman, who's still there, is now in survival mode."

Kumar, a 43-year-old single mother, said she's currently working part-time and has been turned down for other full-time positions in Columbia.

[supersaint]

Needs to hook up with Harold.

[Jackrabbit Hog]

Needs to hook up with Harold.

She can always flip burgers at White Castle if she needs money.

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/JoeWalljasper/status/837839033363480577

Yolanda Kumar, the former Missouri tutor who says she cheated for athletes under pressure from superiors, wrote in a series of Twitter messages Friday that she was willing to sell information pertaining to the alleged academic fraud. But she later said in a phone interview with the Tribune that she was only kidding.

The reality, Kumar said, is that she needs money to pay the balance of her university account so she can receive her transcript from a master's degree she completed at MU in 2009. She needs the transcript to apply for a graduate program at another school, Kumar said, and until she gets her transcript, her application is in limbo.

She said the university won't release her transcript until payment is received and that she took to Twitter in frustration.

"I'm just venting," Kumar said. "I want people to be uncomfortable. The only thing I want is my transcript to be released."

Kumar owes $3,089.99 on her account balance, and she wrote on Twitter that she was willing to sell copies of emails, assignments and text messages — among other pieces of information — pertaining to the alleged fraud. She wrote that she would sell the whole package of data or offer it a la carte.

"For only $3,089.99, you can know who didn't do their own work," Kumar wrote.

However, Kumar reiterated to the Tribune that she wasn't being serious.

"I would never truly do that," Kumar said. "I would never sell the information, no. ... That's not who I am."

Kumar said the university has told her it would release her transcript for roughly half the amount she owes, but she can't afford to pay that.

Kumar said she doesn't hold any ill will toward MU and simply wants to move on.

Meanwhile, the investigation into her fraud allegations rolls on.

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/GabeDeArmond/status/837862508064972802

https://twitter.com/GabeDeArmond/status/837864697785270272

[Jackrabbit Hog]

You sure her first name isn't Sybil?

[jbcarol]

Tod Palmer‏Verified account @todpalmer

Mizzou senior DT A.J. Logan suspended six games amid NCAA investigation:

COLUMBIA

Missouri senior nose tackle A.J. Logan has been suspended for six games by the NCAA as part of its ongoing review of academic fraud allegations that surfaced last November.

Yolanda Kumar, a former tutor in the Tigers' Total Person Program, claimed to have performed schoolwork for more than a dozen student-athletes, including taking some online tests.

It's unclear the specifics of the allegations against Logan, but he owned up to his role in getting suspended in a statement released by Mizzou athletics.

"Please understand that I accept this penalty as a consequence of my actions and that I have fully cooperated with both the University and the NCAA throughout the review process," Logan said. "While I am saddened that I will miss the first six games of my senior year, I know in my heart that I have told the truth, cooperated with the University and NCAA, and I am now focused on working hard in the classroom and on the field in the weeks ahead."

Apparently Kumar tutored Logan in Compostion or Public Relations

[jbcarol]

Original thread

[jbcarol]

Dave Matter
‏Verified account@Dave_Matter

Former Missouri athletics tutor Yolanda Kumar is tweeting names of athletes she alleged to help cheat and names of people who worked in MU's academic dept.

Yolanda Kumar  ☪@Muslimgirl1973

Today has been quite interesting. I got hit with a 10 year show-cause penalty from the @NCAA , I'm no longer able to substitute teach in Columbia Public District, and I have a lot [CENSORED] I need to get off my chest and I don't want you [CENSORED] interrupting me.

Dave Matter
‏Verified account@Dave_Matter

Reading back through the NCAA report ... has a whistleblower ever received a 10-year show-cause? That's incredible. "Thank you for your honesty. But we hope no one hires you for a decade. But, still, thank you."

[jbcarol]

Yolanda Kumar
@Muslimgirl1973

Bradley McNulty, the summer of measles. He blew the Personal Finance course off because he didn't know he needed it to play. The late Heather Morris setup a meeting for him to take the test with the instructor, NOT Dr. Ivey the other one.

Summer of Measles
‏Verified account@GabeDeArmond
1h1 hour ago

I feel like Summer of Measles would be an excellent name for a band. Or a fantasy football team. Or SOMETHING. Look, we've got to rename SOMETHING Summer of Measles now

[jbcarol]

Yolanda Kumar  ☪
‏@Muslimgirl1973

Matthew Mauk, College Algebra online Adam State. I took a couple of exams and completed homework. Tami told me to stop working on any work for Maty the day after he was suspended.

[jbcarol]

B Houser
‏@B_Houser_Swag20

Replying to @GabeDeArmond
So basically you're implying that it is acceptable to cheat your way through College and not get penalized?!?!?!?! That's whats wrong with our generation these days! Bunch of lazy good for nothing moochers. I busted my butt in College as an athlete.