SPORTS INVESTIGATIONS

Tipsheet developed out of IRE 2015 conference by Eric Larsen, Katherine Lymn, John McCarthy,
Amanda McElfresh and Elizabeth Murray

Investigating the money

All papers cover the gamers of high school and college sports, but theres always juicier stories
behind the scores and player profiles especially at public schools. Cover sports departments
at public schools as if they were a public agency being taxpayer-funded, record are public
and leaders must be accountable. And compare what you find with what mission statements
and the general public say are the purposes of these institutions: to educate.
One IRE tipsheet, Investigating the home team, recommends looking at the athleticsacademic balance in college athletics departments. Most Division I college athletics spend more
than they earn, leading them to rely on subsidies from tax dollars, higher tuition and higher
student fees. How does this affect academics, and how does that balance compare to a schools
mission statement?
Look at how the average student benefits or doesnt how much do game tickets cost
students, who often already fund the teams through tuition and fees?
Look closer at sponsorships that seem fluffy but could have secrets behind closed doors e.g.
in Appleton, an orthopedic and sports medicine institute hosts and annual April Fools Day
walk/run to raise money for Appletons three high school athletic departments. But how does
the school divide up the money? And who decides how that money is spent? Is it earmarked for
anything? Is there any overlap with who patronizes this particular sports medicine institute?
Think about public records:

Travel manifests: who gets to travel with the team?

Emails
Salaries and perks. Buyout clauses. How do coaches salaries compare to those of
teachers and professors?
Budgets: how much of a high schools athletic department is made of taxpayer dollars
vs. donations vs. user fees. Could be good explainer piece if nothing else, or a good
online database to refer to. And, within budgets, how much is spent on questionably
extravagant things, like jets for recruiting?
For facilities, check building permits and other contracts did the company that reroofed the basketball arena also re-roof the coachs home?

College Sports Facilities: Whats the cost and whos paying?

Despite recession related budget cutbacks, colleges and universities are investing
heavily athletic facilities. According to a 2014 survey by AECOM and Ohio University
found that 84 percent of athletic directors around the nation said they would make
significant investments in facilities over the next five years. One in five said they would
spend more than $50 million.
The spending isnt limited to flagship public universities (even though they spend the
most money). Even smaller private colleges are upping their facilities.
Why the upgrades? As more and more games are being broadcast on HD digital
platforms, arenas have to upgrade the fan experience to get people to come to the
games. At some schools, though, (think Ohio State), every home football game is a
sellout and AD are looking to cram in more seats.
Its not just football stadiums and basketball arenas. Schools are investing large sums of
money in practice facilities and special athlete-only dorms and dining facilities. Often
students help pay for these through the activities fees, though they will never set foot in
them.

Where to start

If your organization covers a local college or a major state university, its worth looking
into what it is spending on sports facilities. A good place to start would with the beat
reporter who covers the school. He or she can tell you whats been built and whats on
the planning board. Then ask how the school is paying. Often it is through student
activity fees.
The Knight Commission spending database allows you see how much an FBS universitys
debt service on facilities increased or decreased from 2008-2013. The FBS median is up
42 percent during that time. It also allows you to look the overall trend for individual
conferences.
USA Today collects and analyzes the NCAA financial documents every year.
http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/
Bonding. How are stadiums and other sports amenities being paid for? Sometimes its
with bonds. Pay attention to credit rating reports (Fitch, Moodys, Standard & Poor's) for
your university. Stadium financials may be mentioned in connection to the bond rating.
For private universities, information on bonds can also be found in 990s and financial
audits. At public universities, financial audits are an option, but you can probably get
more information via an open records request.

To learn more:

The Kitchen Sink Coverage of College Athletics. IRE Tip Sheet 4489
Campus Coverage: College Sports: IRE Tip Sheet 4168. A good primer on how to follow
the money in college sports.
NCAA financials. To get a complete picture of a school without poring through a budget,
request the financial document sent to the NCAA every January. Avoid Equity in
Athletics Disclosure Act data from the U.S. Department of Education its often wrong.
AECOM and Ohio University Study:
http://www.aecom.com/deployedfiles/Internet/News/Global%20Sports/ADSurvey/AD%
20SURVEY%20DECK%20FINAL.PDF

Investigating student-athlete misconduct

Youve seen the one-sentence announcements: a player has been suspended or removed from
one of the local universitys athletics teams for conduct detrimental to the team. Or reasons
wholly unspecified. Nobody in the athletic department is talking on the record. Where do you
go now? Here are a couple quick avenues to check out:
ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT SOURCES

Save yourself a lot of scrambling by identifying and building sources within the programs
you cover. One well-placed call for background or off-the-record confirmation that
youre looking in the right spot can save a lot of searching.
Understand motivations. Dont burn your sources by running with something without
confirmation, but dont put yourself in a place to get burned by a bad tip, either.

LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT

Check the nightly police report and the booking log for the local jail. Both might be
online, or you might have to show up in person. Your cops and courts reporter probably
has the answer.
See any familiar names? Maybe something close? Understand that an athletes name on
the roster might be different than the name on his or her birth certificate. (J.R. Smiths
first name is Earl; Ray Allens first name is Walter.) Need a birth name? Request
scholarship documents.

THE COURTS

Your local district court will be the source for some misdemeanor and most felony
charges brought forward by the district attorney. Be sure to check for arraignments, or
first appearances, and make a plan to follow the case through sentencing.
The courts move slow and schedules change (often delayed). Set calendar reminders so
you dont miss the next appearance or hearing, and revisit schedules after each.
For minor offenses (traffic offenses, civil infractions, some misdemeanors such as
possession of drug paraphernalia), municipal court is an oft-overlooked resource. What
might be a fairly minor civic or misdemeanor offense may be compounded in an athletic
departments eyes by any past criminal or disciplinary record.
People know theres money to be had in collegiate athletics. Periodically check names of
the university, athletic department staff, coaches and players as parties in civil cases in
your local courts.

THE UNIVERSITY

Understand your universitys student judicial process and campus disciplinary actions.
Identify forms that are required to be filled out by the university, to guide your requests.

Clery reports: Annual report about crime on campus must be filed by public universities.
Not likely to focus you in on one act, but can point to trends, etc.
Title IX complaints and investigations (federal lawsuits). Title IX isnt just about equal
opportunity to play its about preserving equal opportunities to educational
attainment, free of staff or student harassment.
Reporters may get minimal details about sexual or violent crime committed on campus
under FERPA exception (see included tipsheet)

THE VICTIMS

Victims of an alleged crime may have access to records you do not. Understand their
motivations for talking to you and providing, or denying to provide, records that may be
sealed by the courts or withheld by other sources.

Finding and cultivating sources

As in all journalistic beats, finding the right sources for an investigative story is key.
Sometimes it's a matter of reading through clips or speaking to reporters who last held your
beat to familiarize yourself with the important players. Other times, being present at
meetings or games and talking to people is a great way to find the source you're looking for.
Once you find that source, it's important to develop a rapport and, in some cases, a positive
longer term relationship. Here are some tips for doing just that.

Where to look for sources (and stories):

Old stories
Reporters who previously had your beat
Sports games and practices
School board meetings, agendas or minutes
Social media - follow coaches, teams, players, schools and school representatives
Court documents

How to keep those sources:

Be visible in your community. Don't just rely on the telephone to speak to sources actually go out to games or engage with others on social media. For example, the
Burlington Free Press sports team does a live chat during games to engage with
audience members. This will help build your credibility and help others trust you as the
"expert" on your beat.
Get to know people as people and fellow community members and not just sources. Find
some common ground with them to show that you're not a soulless reporter constantly
fishing for a story. Treat these people with respect always. And, if they gave you a good
tip or helped you with a story, say thank you.
Be clear about your intentions. Several panel presenters at the IRE conference
emphasized this point. If the story is sensitive, such as a sexual assault case story, and
the source is a victim, help them understand what you are looking for, your goal in
writing the story, and their options in helping you. Explain what "on the record" and "off
the record" mean. Give them the opportunity to ask you questions. Make sure there will
be as no surprises so they do not end up being victimized all over again.
Avoid burning your sources. Give everyone an equal opportunity to comment, and make
the topic of your story clear. This can also help avoid inaccuracies or add another
dimension to your story. For example, with the Rolling Stone story about campus rape,
the reporter did not give several members of the school's administration a fair chance to
address the charges for fear these people would try to spin the story. There is always
that risk, but it is more important to have each source's opinion accurately represented
to prevent appearing one-sided or producing an inaccurate story.
Respect culture and nuance. Do a little research before you go into a situation or
interview a source. This can help you understand and better respect who they are, what

they may have been through, and potential cultural differences. If you address some of
these things with the source for your story, it can also help enhance the story.

Ideas for high school sports investigations

Increasingly, sports are a huge part of the high school landscape. Coaches are even identifying
student-athletes in elementary and middle schools who have shown strong potential at a young
age. A successful sports team is often more identifiable with a certain school than its
academics. Here are some ideas of what to look for if you want to delve deeper into high school
sports:
Recruiting
Coaches want the best athletes possible on their teams. Students want to play at prestigious
schools that can give them a higher profile and a better chance at a college scholarship offer.
What lengths are they going to in order to make that happen?
Are coaches providing benefits to certain athletes and/or their families to ensure they attend a
certain school? Are school districts letting students attend school out of their home zones to let
them play a certain sport somewhere? Are students fudging their home addresses maybe
listing an address of a relative who is zoned for a certain school, staying there occasionally and
using that to play somewhere specific?
Facilities
Do certain schools get more money from the school system for athletic facilities? If so, where
are the disparities? Does it depend on geographic location, the schools demographics or its
athletic reputation? How does the district decide which schools get that money?
What role do families, sponsors and booster clubs play? Can schools with active support pay for
better facilities and equipment for its athletes? Does that create an uneven playing field with
schools who dont have as much support?
Discipline
What happens if a student-athlete is accused of a crime? Is the punishment, either from the
school or law enforcement, different than it is for non-athletes? Do schools discipline studentathletes differently for the same infractions committed by other students? Are student-athletes
more prone to commit alleged crimes or discipline infractions than other students?
Coach salaries
Look at the salaries for high school coaches. Many coaches are allowed to teach only one or
two classes, often P.E. Do coaches make more than teachers at the same school? Do male
coaches make more than female coaches? Which schools pay the most money to coaches?
Handling injuries
What is the district policy for dealing with injuries, especially concussions or head injuries? Can
a student-athlete return to a game if he or she suffers a suspected head injury? What is the

protocol for dealing with those issues? How many concussions are recorded in a given season
among a team? Is there any evidence that coaches allow student-athletes to return to a game
even if they suspect a concussion?

CITED RESOURCES

The Kitchen Sink Coverage of College Athletics

Investigative Reporters and Editors
Philadelphia, June 2015
Dan Bauman (Pioneer Press), Steve Berkowitz (USA Today)
Paula Lavigne (ESPN), Jill Riepenhoff (The Columbus Dispatch)

ON CAMPUS:
Complimentary cars. Every major college athletic department has special relationships with car
dealers. Give a car to a coach, get a bundle of tickets to the games. At Ohio State, the football coachs wife
gets a shiny new Lexis every six months. The marching band director drives a donated a 1997 Buick
LeSabre with 94,000 miles.
Flight manifests. Travel to the biggest games typically attracts a couple plane loads of people. One will
carry the team, athletic department staff and important boosters. Another will carry the president,
dignitaries, politicians and other muckety mucks.
Occasional meal forms. NCAA allows boosters to take a team to dinner as long as they get approval
from the athletics department.
Will-call tickets. Most athletes and coaches are allowed to invite people to games. Former Ohio State
running back Maurice Clarett had a bookie on one of his lists. Current football players had car dealers and
drug-dealing tattoo artists.
Car registration forms. Most major universities require athletes to fill out forms detailing what kind of
car they are driving, how much they paid for it, who co-signed for the loan, etc. They often are works of
fiction.
Summer job forms. The NCAA requires every athlete to fill out a form telling the athletics department
what theyre doing for the summer. The most prestigious athletes get jobs arranged by coaches. Five
months after winning the national championship, Ohio State football players got jobs for $18 an hour for
what records describe as "public relations," visiting nursing-home residents. This arrangement led to an
NCAA violation.
Presidents box. Who has been invited to the best seats in the house and what do they do up there
during the game? They eat a lot of expensive food.
Ticket database. Then learn of landmines like this: the largest single ticket holder at Ohio Stadium is
the publisher of The Dispatch.
NCAA violations. Schools are required to report when rules both big (boosters gave quarterback
money) and small (coach accidentally sent a text message to a recruit). There are tons of stories there.
NCAA publishes the major infractions database on its website (ncaa.org) by school with full report of what
went wrong. Be warned, all names have been removed. Most schools also keep a summary sheet of all
violations quick way to see whats going on. Very limited information, though.
NCAA financials. To get a complete picture of a school without pouring through a budget, request the
financial document sent to the NCAA every January. Avoid Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act data from

the U.S. Department of Education its often wrong. USA Today collects and analyzes the NCAA financial
documents every year.
Athletically related outside-income forms. An NCAA rule requires all athletics department
personnel to annually disclose sources and amounts of income from things like sports camps;
endorsement deals and TV and radio appearances (if not already covered under a contract); instructional
books and videos. This document is not filed with the NCAAs central office, but it is supposed to be
submitted to, and approved, by the schools CEO or their designee. Sometimes a coach or staffer has no
such income. Sometimes, these amounts can be in the hundreds of thousands.
Records pertaining to the use of university-owned aircraft by athletics department
personnel for recruiting and other business. Not all schools have these planes, but in March 2015,
the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World published the results of an investigation that found that over a fiveyear span, the University of Kansas spent $3.5 million flying coaches, administrators and others on some
641 trips, mostly on university-owned aircraft but occasionally on state-owned or charter planes. About
two-thirds of the money paid for flights by KU coaches and athletic administrators.
Contracts pertaining to corporate sponsorship deals, shoe and apparel deals, namingrights deals, marketing and multi-media rights arrangements and non-conference games.
The terms for all of these transactions are committed to writing. Corporate sponsorship deals can be
difficult to get in some states, but in April 2015, after months of fencing with university officials and the
state attorney general, the San Antonio Express-News published a look at the University of Texas 19
corporate sponsorship deals. The Portland (Ore.) Business Journal pretty comprehensively tracks shoe
and apparel deals. Games that match theoretically lesser teams player against big-time teams so-called
guarantee games have become big-money deals, as have neutral-site games between big-time teams.
Compliance-department audits. Each D-I school is required by the NCAA to have an audit every four
years. Some schools, such as OSU, do them annually. Most recent audit at Ohio State showed problems
with athletes car registrations they were driving cars that didnt belong to them and missing
equipment and apparel. Federal agents recovered lots of OSU equipment during a drug raid.
Emails and phone records. Who is talking to who. Coach Jim Tressel made lots of phone calls
including two to an FBI agent when he learned of NCAA violations. He called lots of interesting people
just not the ones he should have called.
Academic Progress Rate and graduation rates. This is how the NCAA now measures the academic
success of college athletics. Teams that dont make the grade risk punishment. For Division I, there are
two sets of graduation rates one compiled by the NCAA and one compiled by the U.S. Department of
Education. Both have their pros and cons. The NCAA rate measures everyone, regardless of where they
graduate. For example, if an athlete transferred from Ohio State to Ohio University and then graduated,
Ohio State is not penalized for a drop out. The federal rate penalizes schools for drop outs even if they
graduate elsewhere.
Coaches contracts. Find gems like this: At 175 pounds, Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel already is
worth more than his weight in gold. The new $2.6 million contract trumped a 2003 agreement that had
guaranteed Tressel $1.6 million this season, roughly the value of his weight in gold. Now, he's platinum.
These days, many assistants at top-tier programs also have contracts.
University police blotters. Find unruly fan behavior inside stadiums and at tailgates during sporting
events.
Media guides. Examine, for example, the majors of football and basketball players to search for clusters
of majors. Most guides are online.
Personnel files. They are public records in many states. Its a good way to find out if a coach has been
admonished for breaking NCAA rules.

Public-record requests: FOIA the FOIAs to see who is asking for what because there may be other
types of documents reporters want that you arent familiar with.
eBay. Who is selling what?
Plagiarism Checker. At most universities, staffers get the nice perk of subsidized or free college. Some
coaches and staff will take advantage of this, going on to get their masters or doctorate. Check their
papers for plagiarism. It can happen, again to a senator (See: http://goo.gl/TKnt0U). I like
http://www.plagtracker.com/, but there are plenty of sites out there that check work for you. Search your
coachs name at Google Scholar.
Resume Checker. Did your coach/director graduate with the degree they claim? Call the registrar at the
university listed on the resume to verify. In Missouri, a candidate for governor said he earned a degree in
economics from Mizzou. One quick call to the registrar office and a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter
learned that the candidate had actually graduated with a home economics degree (goo.gl/HLKPbL)

AT PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES (THOSE, PUBLICS, TOO):

Social Media. Lets face it: At private universities, there arent a lot of open-information channels. What
we do have, though, is vanity. Peruse the Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, (etc., etc.) posts of coaches and
players, and see what they are up to. Are coaches taking lavish trips to far off locales? Are they spending
more time off campus than on it? Perhaps they are endorsing products on the platform without disclosure
or compensation to the university? Dont forget -- It was vanity that ultimately brought down former
Senator Aaron Schock. (See: http://goo.gl/0N6C1M)
Dept. of Education - Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act. For participating sports, coaching staff
and salaries, revenues and expenses, and supplemental info. It can be fraught with errors. But for private
universities, its the best option. http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/index.aspx
Intellectual Property (Trademark and Copyright). What trademarks or copyrights does the
university or athletic department/foundation own? (The Chronicle of Higher Education has a run-down of
88 bizarre ones. See: http://goo.gl/brn2tQ) Who has the license agreements to produce those materials?
http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=tess&state=4810:n9ma86.1.1
http://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First
Liquor Licenses and Liquor Revocations for Stadiums. No explanation necessary!
FCC Complaints for College Sports Networks, TV and Radio Broadcasts Associated with
College Games, Etc. Worst-case scenario, you have a blogpost and a laugh.
Negotiation documents and personnel files for new hires. This only applies to public
universities. Also, try to find out where else your person of interest interviewed. If they interviewed at a
public university, those documents can shed light on the deal they reached at your private institution.
Bonding. How are stadiums and other sports amenities being paid for? Sometimes its with bonds. Pay
attention to credit rating reports (Fitch, Moodys, Standard & Poor's) for your university. Stadium
financials may be mentioned in connection to the bond rating. For private universities, information on
bonds can also be found in 990s and financial audits. At public universities, financial audits are an option,
but you can probably get more information via an open records request.
UCC Liens. Consider a non-profit that wants lease a product rather than by it -- for our purposes, a car
or copier. In my experience, leasing these items requires paperwork to be filed with the secretary of state.
Check these UCC liens out. The documents may show you what items are being leased for your
universitys athletic department. Personal Property Taxes In St. Louis, Webster University was paying
personal property tax on a number of vehicles used by athletic department. May be worth a look at other
universities.

OFF CAMPUS:
Court records. College athletes get a lot of traffic tickets. Track their routes home and check records in
every county along the way. Whose car were they driving? Athletes also get into other kinds of trouble
i.e. 17 Ohio University football players were arrested in recent years but faced little, if any, discipline from
the team.
Health-code violations. ESPNs Paula Lavigne examined food violations at several major professional
stadiums, Whats Lurking in your Stadium Food, July 2010. Makes you wanna think twice about that
half-time dog.
IRS form 990. Check out how the Big 10, Pac 10 and others spend and divvy up gazillions of dollars.
Check out how much the conference commissioner is paid each year. Also check out booster clubs
finances. Also, at private schools, look at the highest paid employees its often the football coach. Even
the football coach at perennial Division III football powerhouse Mount Union in Ohio is among the
highest paid at that school. Check with your local campus library to see if they have an account.
www.Guidestar.org. For a detailed primer, see below.
Extra! Extra! IREs story database always has a wealth of ideas. Look under the sports category, see
whats been done and tailor it to your own school. Imitation is the best form of flattery. www.ire.org
NCAA.org. Wealth of information/data on injuries, doping, academics. Some information is broken
down by school; some is aggregated. But it provides a benchmark.
Sex Offender Registries. It can happen with players and staff. (See: http://goo.gl/pqmSbd and
https://goo.gl/RAHKbf)
Tax Liens. Much like a bankruptcy filing, a tax lien can give you a lot of insight into the financial
responsibility of a coach or player. If your athletic director cant pay his taxes or electric bill, should he be
put in charge of the departments large checkbook?
Registered Businesses. Does your coach run a lucrative side business? You should check via your
Secretary of States Office.
Civil lawsuits against the athletic department. NCAA wrongdoing can be found in seemingly
unrelated civil lawsuits. It happened at Ohio State with long-ago fired basketball coach Jim OBrien and at
the University of Miami, in which a booster used a Ponzi scheme to pay for access to the Hurricanes
football team.
Federal lawsuits against athletics/coaches involving civil rights issues. This can involved
sexual and racial discrimination.
Complaints filed with the state attorney general or secretary state. These can be everything
from ticket fraud to workers comp issues.
Building inspection reports. Can include fire safety violations, Americans with Disabilities Act
complaints, poor plumbing, etc. Good to know/have when part of a stadium collapses.
Federal grants and contracts to the athletic department or sports programs from
USASpending.gov.

OBSTACLES:
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). But more and more courts are finding that
not every piece of paper on campus is an education record. Word of warning dont ever request a
document by an athletes name. Cast a wide net. For example, ask for all violations involving the football

team in the past three years not the one related to Terrelle Pryors ill-gotten tattoos. Student Press Law
Center is a great resource and can help navigate through the murky ways of FERPA www.splc.org.

A PRIMER ON FORM 990. The greatest document ever. Guidestar is one place to find Form
990s. For 10 years of documents, check out Foundation Center or the Urban Institute.
1. Lets start with your institutions own Form 990.
a. Make a note of the filing date on the first page. Next year, go to your universitys business dept. and
request the 990 for the next year.

b. In the top portion of the Form 990 (the portion without a schedule) Go to Part VIII, AKA the
Statement of Revenue. At the bottom of the page, there is a portion called Miscellaneous Revenue. This
portion may include revenue related to athletics. In the case of Webster, this is true.

c. The next section, a statement of Functional Expenses (Part IX), may also list athletic-related expenses.
d. Schedule J - Compensation for Executives and Key Employees -- See if your coach was awarded
bonuses and other special perks. Definitely read the special notes that accompany the figures. Theres a lot
of good stuff in there.
d. Schedule K - Information on bonds possibly used by university to build/renovate sports facilities.
e. Schedule L, Part II Does your university give loans to coaches? Check out this schedule to find out. At
Northwestern, Football Coach Patrick Fitzgerald has a $2.5 million loan from the university.

f. Schedule G Part I includes fundraising activities like phonathon events and direct marketing
campaigns. Part II includes chronicles fundraising events, such charity golf tournaments. You can find out
if these events are returning a profit or not.

g. Schedule I Perhaps your university is donating funds to an athletic foundation. Or perhaps money is
being sent to a coachs personal charity. Schedule I can show you these things.

h. Schedule R Chronicles the companies affiliated with your university, such as non-profit foundations
or for-profit athletic companies. Part V will tell you how money is being distributed back and forth
between the affiliated entities and your university.
2. This one goes out to my friends at private and public universities.
There are a number of athletic foundations affiliated with public and private universities. For instance:
- UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION INC
- WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOC INC
- GRAMBLING UNIVERSITY ATHLETIC FOUNDATION
- TIGER ATHLETIC FOUNDATION
- And on and on
The documents for these foundations are rich with information. For instance, the University of Alabama
athletic foundation owns the house Nick Saban lives in (see: http://goo.gl/Zmf5Ek). Take a look. Heres

my own primer on what to look out for (See: http://goo.gl/ofB7cF and http://goo.gl/70espd). And, of
course, consult the tip sheets at the IRE website.
3. Some college coaches may have their own charities. Check these charities out. How are they run? Are
they doing legitimate charities or just press release fodder? Use the BBBs charity accountability standards
as your guide (See: http://www.bbb.org/new-york-city/charities-donors/standards-for-charityaccountability/)
4. Citizen Audit What other boards does your coach sit on? Has your coach made donations to other
non-profits? Has your coach been paid in some capacity to work for other charities outside your
university? Luke Rosiak, the man behind Citizen Audit, has scanned 10 years of 990s and allowed for
quick searching of hundreds of thousands of documents. Its a terrific resource for following the money.
https://www.citizenaudit.org/

Campus coverage:
Sexual assault and other crimes on campus
Walt Bogdanich, David Donald, Jill Riepenhoff, Samantha Sunne
IRE 2014

Sex assault and other sex crimes are, unfortunately, a topic that will provide a story on any
campus. Even though campus authorities tend to be closed-mouthed when it comes to sexual
assault, there are a ton of avenues open to reporters willing to fight for data and records.

People:
!
!
!
!
!
!

Campus police
Local police, meaning the city police or sheriff
The student disciplinary office
Campus sexual violence prevention or counseling centers
Residence hall authorities and associations
Authorities outside of your school - prosecutors, womens shelters, victims advocates,
the court system

Records:
!

Clery reports
Every public school has an annual report about crime on campus. They can call
this report whatever they want, but reporters usually refer to them as Clery Reports
because theyre mandated by a federal law called the Clery Act. The Student Press
Law Center has a guide to what is in this report, who reports it, and why:
http://www.splc.org/cleryact
Police reports
Every law enforcement agency keeps records of its reported crimes, investigations
and arrests. Get these records from your campus and local police. Before you
make the request, consult with the agency to make sure youre using the correct
term (sexual assault, sexual misconduct, etc.)
Title IX complaints and investigations
A school can be sued under Title IX for failing to protect students or staff from
sexual harassment, which can include sex crimes. Because Title IX is a federal law,
the lawsuit will be in federal court, and youll be able to find it on
http://www.pacer.gov. You need to register for an account, but it will be free
because PACER only charges you if you download more than 15 pages.
Outcomes of student disciplinary cases
Theres a federal law called FERPA that works against reporters: it makes most
student records private. But a narrow exception to FERPA gives reporters an

opening for finding out what punishments universities deal out for sexual or violent
crimes. Skip to the end of this tipsheet for more details on this FERPA exception.

Data:
!

FBI UCR statistics

The FBI collects crime data from just about every law enforcement agency in the
country: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/ucr Its a good idea to compare
Clery and UCR numbers because it could signal under-reporting from a law
enforcement agency. Keep in mind, though, the FBIs requirements are different
from the Clery ones, so make sure you understand the differences, such as each
laws definition of sexual assault.
Department of Education Clery data
Each university has an annual Clery report, but all these numbers are fed into a
national database maintained by the DOE, which you can explore here:
http://ope.ed.gov/security
Department of Justice VAWA data
The Office on Violence Against Women inside the DOJ has data on the kinds of
punishments handed out for sex crimes. This data is limited to about 130 schools
who signed up to receive federal funds to combat sexual violence, but is the only
national database on sanctions for sexual offenses. You will need to FOIA this data
set.
The courts
Your local court system and prosecutors office will have data on cases, charges
and convictions
National organizations like RAINN and the NSVRC publish statistics that provide context

Help!
The members of this panel, just like any other IRE member, would be happy to help other
journalists working on similar stories. Besides IRE, the following are great sources of assistance
to keep in mind:
!

The Student Press Law Center (http://www.splc.org/) are the biggest experts in the
country on stuff like FERPA, Clery and higher education reporting. Their mission is to
help journalists with their reporting, so dont hesitate to get in touch or use their guides
online.
The Center for Public Integrity, in conjunction with NPR, did what is probably the biggest
investigation on sex offenses on campus. CPI published a guide to covering it on your
own campus, which includes many of the tips and resources found in this tipsheet as
well as many others: http://www.publicintegrity.org/2009/12/01/9048/reporterstoolkit-investigating-sexual-assault-your-campus
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has a thorough guide to requesting
public records in every state, including a handy fill-in form that writes a letter for you:
http://www.rcfp.org/open-government-guide

About that FERPA exception"

If you ask a school what punishments it gave out to students accused of sex assault, youll
probably get an immediate, No, thats protected by FERPA. Thats mostly true, but not totally.
If a case meets the following criteria:
! Reached an final disposition
! Student found responsible (guilty)
! Violent or sexual crime
Then you can get the following information:
! Students name
! The violation committed
! The sanction (punishment)
Make sure to cite the law in your request, since many people are unfamiliar with this exception.
This excerpt comes from the the Government Printing Office,
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2010-title20/pdf/USCODE-2010-title20-chap31subchapIII-part4-sec1232g.pdf. The federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, 20
U.S.C. 1232g, also known as FERPA, states,
(B) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit an institution of postsecondary
education from disclosing the final results of any disciplinary proceeding conducted by
such institution against a student who is an alleged perpetrator of any crime of violence
(as that term is defined in section 16 of title 18), or a nonforcible sex offense, if the
institution determines as a result of that disciplinary proceeding that the student
committed a violation of the institutions rules or policies with respect to such crime or
offense.
(C) For the purpose of this paragraph, the final results of any disciplinary proceeding
(i) shall include only the name of the student, the violation committed, and any
sanction imposed by the institution on that student;
Keep in mind you still need to make a request under your state public records law, and the
university needs to be public for the records to be open to review by the public. This exception
merely stops the university from using FERPA as a reason not to give you the records.