A former football coach at a Manhattan college has accused school brass of duping dozens of his recruits with empty promises of housing, meal stipends, free MetroCards and books.
Coach Mike Jioia – a retired NYPD sergeant – charged the Globe Institute of Technology players have been housed in barely furnished, rundown roach motels on Staten Island and gotten few of the promised perks.
Athletes who live in one of the team houses received a note threatening eviction because the college’s alumni department – which signed the lease – failed to cough up the rent, he said.
Jioia said he was recently canned from his post as football coach after going to the media to report what he says were the school’s dishonest dealings.
“It’s definite retaliation,” he said.
He was hired in February to start the team and recruited some 85 players – mostly from the tri-state area, but some from as far away as Florida.
Globe administrators told him to offer some recruits scholarships, housing and MetroCards to get them from Staten Island to the practice field in Brooklyn, as well as a $100-per-week stipend, he said.
He said none of the students received their fare cards and that they only sporadically receive their stipends.
A team house in Tompkinsville is filled with hundreds of dead roaches and mouse droppings, he said. There are no smoke alarms and lights. Another spot, at Townsend Avenue near Bay Street, had no toilet seats, and none of the players’ rooms had refrigerators.
“I have to turn around and explain this to these kids, and that’s hard,” said Jioia.
The small four-year college located in TriBeCa offers low tuition and specializes in business degrees, such as accounting, finance and business management.
Keith Gladden, a wide receiver from New Jersey who got a full scholarship to play ball at Globe, feels cheated.
He said he went three weeks without getting the $100-a-week stipend he was promised,
“I can’t afford to eat,” he said.
It’s not just the players who are complaining about the school.
The U.S. Department of Education declared that the school’s students are no longer eligible for financial aid because the college allegedly violated financial-aid certification rules.
And an official at the New York State Department of Education said they are closely monitoring Globe’s financial situation.
They told the school that they could not accept tuition from the incoming freshman class who started in September.
Meanwhile, President Oleg Rabinovich denied many of the accusations against the school.
“This [the football team] is a brand new program,” he said. “Mind you, there is always going to be issues in the first few years.”