In the first move of what may develop into a broader effort to gain some faculty control over University of Tennessee sports, campus administrators have stripped the athletic department of the ability to hold on-site English classes available only to athletes.

The decision on those classes -- one-credit writing labs that pair freshman athletes with tutors -- was made in response to concerns about improper tutoring of athletes, said Lorayne Lester, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

At several points over the past eight years, English Department representatives assigned to work with the athletes or oversee their writing program have registered concerns about possible plagiarism and the co-writing of papers by athletic department tutors.

Tennessee's secret

The University of Tennessee had information related to possible NCAA violations involving four current players in mid-September, but waited until after the key Florida game to rule those players ineligible, ESPN.com has learned. Ron Leadbetter, who as associate general counsel for the school is conducting Tennessee's internal review, confirmed that on Sept. 14 he received memos relating to incidents of possible plagiarism. Tennessee waited until Sept. 25 -- after learning that ESPN was about to air its report, and after the Sept. 18 Florida game -- to notify the Southeastern Conference of its probe and rule ineligible four current players cited in the memos written by Robin Wright, former coordinator for academic programs in the athletic department. The four redshirt freshmen, including kick returner Leonard Scott, were held out of the Sept. 25 Memphis game but reinstated the next week against Auburn. The NCAA encourages schools to declare ineligible for competition players involved in possible rules violations when a school first learns of the information -- at least until a preliminary ruling by the school can be determined on whether rules appear to have been violated. Leadbetter said it wasn't his job to inform the SEC of the probe in mid-September. He declined to say if or when he informed athletic department officials, who made the decision on the eligibility of the players. Athletic director Doug Dickey, NCAA rules compliance officer Malcolm McInnis and NCAA faculty athletic representative Carl Asp said they were unaware of the memos until the day of the Memphis game. "Whatever I do I do in an ethical manner," Leadbetter said. "I don't work for any department except for the general counsel. The word cover-up has no significance to me whatsoever." An SEC spokesman had no comment on the matter. -- Tom Farrey

"We want to make sure that we're able to hire, fire and train the tutors," Lester said.

University of Tennessee president J. Wade Gilley said Thursday he has "no problem" with the decision, which came in the wake of comments made by him about his comfort with athletic department practices. Gilley has consistently downplayed the legitimacy of the English Department's concerns, terming them "rumors and allegations" in a statement when they first came to light publicly in a Sept. 26 ESPN.com report.

Gilley, who started in his job Aug. 1, has ordered an internal review that is ongoing. But less than a week after the report, before several key figures in the matter were formally interviewed, Gilley announced that there was no wrongdoing by current football players and that there would be "no NCAA investigation" into the program.

The public statement soothed fans of the defending national champions -- coach Philip Fulmer was also concerned about the probe's impact on recruiting -- but rankled faculty members who want a thorough review of the athletic department's academic services unit.

"Those comments have given the appearance that everything's OK now, when it definitely is not OK," said Lester, who oversees the college in which most athletes pursue degrees. "That got (faculty members') backs up."

Lester and some faculty members are pushing for more campus control over the men's athletic department, an issue that has festered for more than a decade. The biggest question is whether they can do anything about it, since control of men's athletics rests at a level beyond the faculty's reach.

In an arrangement that is rare among colleges but not unique, the men's athletic department reports to no official on the University of Tennessee campus. Athletic director Doug Dickey reports directly to the president of the statewide university system, Gilley, whose purview also includes other Tennessee public colleges. The arrangement has helped insulate men's athletics from campus scrutiny.

"(Men's athletics) has no control and no connection with academics, so they shouldn't oversee what's happening academically over there" in the athletic department, said Linda Bensel-Meyers, a member of the executive committee of the faculty senate. "It really should come from the Knoxville campus academic side."

"A different system has to develop," said David Lee, former chair of the faculty senate's athletics committee and a professor in foreign languages.

Dickey prefers the current arrangement. "The athletic director ought to report to the person who reports to the Southeastern Conference," he said. "At this point, that's the president of UT."

As director of freshman composition in the English Department, Bensel-Meyers threatened to bring up charges of institutional plagiarism against the athletic department in 1995 after several suspected cases of overzealous tutoring of athletes. Instead, she and Carmen Tegano, head of the academic services unit for men's athletes, agreed to the hiring of English instructor Robin Wright to oversee the athletes-only writing class held in the athletic department.

In memos and electronic messages last year that were obtained by ESPN.com, Wright alerted Tegano and another athletic department staff member to incidents in which she says she either witnessed or suspected five football players, one baseball player and an unnamed "Lady Vol" of receiving improper help from four tutors. Tennessee officials in charge of NCAA rules compliance say those memos were never passed on to them at the time to investigate, in violation of institutional procedures.

Gilley, however, praised athletic department administrators a week ago for their role in the matter.

"I am confident that this is a first-class program, and it has great oversight," Gilley told the university's board of trustees, as reported in the Knoxville News-Sentinel. "If we find that students here or there are a problem, (which) we are going to find from time to time, it won't be because the administrators, the people who provide the oversight, are not diligent.

"I am confident that they did a great job, (and) I am confident that our system of integrity is in place."

The Tennessee faculty is similarly convinced that Bensel-Meyers' integrity is in place. On Oct. 4, the executive committee of the faculty senate passed a formal resolution announcing its "strong support" for the longtime faculty member, who supervises 110 instructors, teaching 4,000 students, each year.

Lou Gross, a University of Tennessee professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, said Gilley's office should not be conducting the review.

"It seems to me that it's wrong to have the president of the university system responding to issues on campus," Gross said. "To assign the general counsel's office to deal with it seems out of line. There's a formal procedure in place on campus (to handle issues of student plagiarism), and that formal procedure wasn't followed."

The NCAA is not commenting on whether or not it has decided to investigate the Volunteers, who could face sanctions if instances of plagiarism are proven, or the school is deemed to have shown a lack of institutional control. The latter charge is often considered a major violation.

Tennessee's College of Arts and Sciences has informed Tegano that the athletes-only English lab will be disbanded on Nov. 1, Lester said. After that date, athletes must get their tutoring on English papers from the regular Writing Center on campus, where regular students get their help from tutors hired by the university.

Tegano was unhappy with the mid-semester switch when informed of the news on Tuesday, but the decision rested solely with the English Department, Lester said. The special, evening class held in the athletic department was first offered in 1991 in part to accomodate athletes' practice schedules, which keep them busy during the afternoon hours.

Dickey had no comment on the loss of the athletes-only class.

ESPN.com Senior Writer Tom Farrey can be reached at espnet2@espn.com