UK reported rules violation to NCAA about athletes filing inaccurate timecards at hospital
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The University of Kentucky self-reported a violation of an NCAA bylaw prohibiting athletes from being paid for work not performed, according to a letter to the NCAA obtained Saturday by the Lexington Herald-Leader through the state’s open records law.
The Herald-Leader reported earlier Saturday that the university had launched an investigation in February into allegations football players working in jobs at the university hospital had filed inaccurate timecards.
The NCAA report confirms the violations occurred at the Albert B. Chandler Hospital from spring 2021 to March 2022. Names of the involved players were redacted from the letter, but Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops had previously confirmed multiple players on his team were being held from game action due to an undisclosed off-field incident.
Outside linebacker Jordan Wright was suspended for Kentucky’s 2022 opener versus Miami (Ohio). He returned to play in week two at Florida. Running back Chris Rodriguez has been suspended for the first four games of the season. He will return to action on Oct. 1 at Ole Miss.
Other players were also involved, but Wright and Rodriguez are the only players Stoops has confirmed were absent due to an investigation.
Stoops and UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart have declined to comment on the cause of Rodriguez’s suspension, but Barnhart did confirm Thursday there was an eligibility review that determined when he would be cleared to play again. UK denied the Herald-Leader’s request for Rodriguez’s UK HealthCare employee file because “he occupied a position that was open only to students” and therefore his employee file qualified as an education record exempt from disclosure under federal student privacy law.
According to the letter to the NCAA, the compliance office in the athletics department became aware of the potential rules violation in February when an employee speaking with the university’s Office of Institutional Equity and Equal Opportunity on matters unrelated to athletics volunteered that there were athletes not showing up for jobs at the hospital but still getting paid. After the compliance department interviewed the supervisor for the athletes’ hospital jobs, an anonymous tip was submitted to the “Comply Cats” reporting system that athletes were clocking in at the hospital, leaving and later returning to clock out several hours later.
The program employing football players at the hospital was started in 2017 by former UK kicker J.J. Housley, then an administrator with UK HealthCare. As part of the program, the athletes worked as patient transporters at the hospital. The jobs were allowed per NCAA rules as long as players were compensated only for hours worked and paid the same rate as other students in the jobs.
Emails obtained by the Herald-Leader show then UK football recruiting director Dan Berezowitz would send a list of football players he wanted placed in the jobs to Meredith Rice, the UK HealthCare transfer center director. Berezowitz would frequently check on the status of employment paperwork for those players in an effort to expedite the process of getting them started in the jobs administered through STEPS, UK’s temporary staffing agency.
In April, Rice was suspended with pay, according to a letter sent to Rice by UK chief nursing officer Kimberly Blanton. Among the allegations made against her was that she “allowed STEPS employees who are student athletes to be paid for work they did not perform” and “assisted some of these STEPs employees by creating their statements for investigation.”
Rice denied the allegations, writing in an official response to the suspension letter she would have immediately reported the issue if she had been aware players were filing inaccurate timecards.
After learning of the potential rules violation, the athletics department and chief nursing officer at the hospital suspended the athletes from their hospital jobs and withheld any pending pay until a determination could be made that the hours claimed had actually been worked.
Surveillance video evidence showed athletes clocking in at the hospital, leaving and then returning several hours later.
The audit concluded that “some, but not all, hours” for a redacted number of athletes were recorded but not worked, according to the letter to the NCAA. The audit did not find evidence that other athletes working in the patient transport jobs had submitted inaccurate timecards.
“While the information for other time entries was insufficient for Internal Audit to conclude that the time reflected in those entries was not worked, athletics compliance reviewed the information further and determined that there was sufficient evidence to reasonably conclude for NCAA eligibility purposes that a student-athlete received compensation for additional hours not worked,” UK wrote in the letter to the NCAA.
The involved athletes told the compliance department they were present at the hospital for most of the hours they recorded but had been advised by hospital staff it was permissible to leave after clocking in.
The compliance office determined hours recorded as worked that conflicted with players’ class schedules, the 24 hours immediately before or after a game or time when surveillance video showed the players leaving the hospital had not been worked. UK cited federal student privacy law in redacting the section of the letter detailing specific punishments for the involved players.
UK reported extensive rules education had been provided to the athletes’ supervisor at the hospital and to the athletes themselves. The compliance office found no evidence the football coaching staff was aware of the violation.
According to the NCAA letter, the supervisor for the athletes’ jobs was fired on May 26, 2022, due to “inappropriate or unsuitable job performance and/or gross negligence of oversight.” That date is the same as the date of separation listed in Rice’s personnel file provided to the Herald-Leader.
UK athletes are no longer permitted to work for UK HealthCare unless there is a specific academic reason for employment that must be approved by the executive athletics director for compliance.
“This violation involves a limited number of student-athletes who, despite knowing the employment rules, took advantage of lax supervision by hospital personnel in a narrow time frame,” UK wrote in the letter to the NCAA. “Employment in the patient transport department is not limited to student-athletes, and the institution is satisfied that the patient transport job is legitimate.”
The letter provided to the Herald-Leader does not include the NCAA’s response to the rules violation.
“We put the success of our students first, as our goal — both in competition and in the classroom — is to prepare students for lives of meaning and purpose. In what are, fortunately, rare circumstances for this program, that commitment to compliance sometimes necessitates taking disciplinary action as part of ensuring the integrity of our programs and educating our student athletes regarding their responsibilities as members of this community,” UK wrote. “That is what has happened here.”
Herald-Leader subscribers can read the original story about the hospital jobs here.
This story was originally published September 17, 2022 at 12:08 PM.
