The recent revelations regarding the discovery of fraudulent recruitment practices within City College’s athletic department’s football program underscore the importance of our job as student journalists to hold our community accountable. As editors of The Channels, we felt compelled to explain the choices we made when investigating and writing our story on this issue.
We were shocked that the college failed to announce this situation to the public when it happened in September. This raised concerns from our editorial board about transparency and accountability within City College. This was part of the reason that we chose to pursue this story no matter what roadblocks we encountered.
These difficulties included sources not wanting to talk to us, such as Head Coach Craig Moropolous and multiple players from the football team. We also could not get an interview with Athletic Director LaDeane Hansten, Assistant Superintendent and Vice President of Academic Affairs Maŕia Villagómez and Assistant Superintendent and Vice President of Student Affairs Paloma Arnold for multiple weeks, due to several last-minute cancellations and rescheduling requests on their part. This caused us to publish later than we had initially hoped.
We acknowledge that this story reflects negatively on our school and athletic program. However, as student journalists, it is our job to hold City College accountable.
We felt that by incorporating the perspectives of Hansten, Villagómez and Arnold, we could strike a balance between their narratives and the accounts of multiple players on the football team.
This initial investigation began based on a tip one of our staffers received in early September. Our Editor-in-Chief directly contacted Moropoulos on Sept. 19 via email, inquiring about the situation. After eleven days, she did not hear back from him so she sent a follow-up email on Sept. 30. These emails were left unanswered until Oct. 2 when Hansten responded on his behalf. She explained that 16 players were ineligible due to “misinformation on their applications to SBCC, given to them by an assistant coach (who has since resigned).”
In that same email, Hansten copied Executive Director of Public Affairs and Communications, Jordan Killebrew, which signaled to us that this was a more serious issue than we had originally thought. These were the first signs that led us to continue further investigation.
When conducting interviews for this article, multiple members of the football team were hesitant to speak with The Channels. We assumed this reluctance stemmed from the emotional weight of the situation and potential backlash these individual players could face for sharing their experiences.
The Channels takes the use of anonymous sources seriously, and it’s rare for our publication to rely on them. However, we felt that providing student-athletes the option to remain anonymous was not only crucial for obtaining their authentic views on this matter, but the only way to obtain their views at all.
It remains essential that the student-athletes’ experiences were documented, as they are at the heart of this story. The impact of this situation runs deeper than a potential negative effect on City College’s athletic department or the institution as a whole; this impacted students’ emotional well-being, as they were forced to make life-changing decisions within a minuscule time frame.
The actions allegedly taken by former assistant coach Robert Adan misled students and their families. This misconduct not only violated ethical recruitment standards but also placed an immense amount of pressure on young athletes who chose to play at City College based on our athletic program’s reputation.
As students we are disappointed, and we feel deceived based on the lack of immediate transparency from administrators. The college should have notified the public about this right away if only to preserve the integrity and reputation of City College.
