KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- While adopting a series of recommendations made to prevent plagiarism by tutors in the athletic department, the University of Tennessee Faculty Senate also told a panel of faculty members to begin a new investigation of academic abuse allegations involving football players.

The faculty panel presented to the senate Monday its findings from a six-month probe into allegations that tutors may have done schoolwork for football players, including members of the 1998 national championship team, dating back to 1995.

That panel, at the direction of Provost John Peters, did not look at specific instances of wrongdoing and instead focused on how to improve the academic systems in the athletic department.

	Timeline: Tennessee
	Click here for a timeline of events and allegations related to concerns about academic fraud in the University of Tennessee football program, with links to some of the key memos acquired by ESPN.com.

But the faculty senate on Monday ordered the panel to investigate allegations of academic abuse made recently by English Professor Linda Bensel-Meyers, who had reviewed the records of 37 football players and two other athletes and placed the information in an anonymous form for public review.

The report said, among other things, that football players often were steered toward easier majors, benefited from many grade changes, and that some were permitted to continue at the university despite spending most of their career on academic probation.

The faculty panel found that men's and women's athletes get twice as many grade changes as other students, but concurred with Peters that the disparity was not of concern. The panel did not analyze the grade-change patterns of specific teams.

History professor Dr. Palmira Brummett, who has been at the university for 12 years, said she has witnessed some abuses.

"I think the public and the institution want winning sports teams," she said. "You can't be, with few exceptions ... a varsity athlete in a place like this and have the time to do the work required to get a reasonable education."

Based on its six-month review, the faculty panel recommended more faculty oversight of the tutoring program, better training for tutors, a prohibition on tutors typing papers for players, and a more clear statement to tutors that they not write any portion of any assignment for athletes.

Earlier, the university concluded after an internal investigation that no wrongdoing occurred. The NCAA reviewed Tennessee's findings in a preliminary audit and found no violations of its rules, which focus on situations in which an athlete received credit for plagiarized papers.

In some cases, Tennessee athletes who allegedly got too much help from tutors did not receive credit for those papers because they were rejected by professors or flagged before they were turned in.