Notre Dame president says academic investigation involves student employed in athletic department

Notre Dame president Fr. John Jenkins said Tuesday that the university's academic investigation into some football players involves a student who was employed by the athletic department.

Jenkins spoke to Notre Dame faculty on Tuesday and said the athletic department became aware of “a potentially problematic situation involving a current student athlete as well as a student who served for a brief time as a paid student employee of the athletic department, although that position had no role in academic tutoring or advising of student athletes.”

Jenkins said he didn’t think there had been any improprieties by members of Notre Dame’s fulltime staff, but that because this student was earning money for his work, the NCAA could consider his or her involvement an “extra benefit,” which would be an NCAA violation.

Jenkins didn’t have much more news to report regarding the academic investigation, though he did defend the school’s decision to release the names of the football players involved stating that he wanted the school to release them since they were already circulating on social media.

“In order to deter unfounded speculation about individuals not involved, we made an exception to our policy of not releasing the names of students involved in such a process and confirmed the identities of implicated students who had already been named in the public forum,” he said.

For more Notre Dame news, visit IrishIllustrated.com.

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