Dance coach and State alumna Jamila Kikora Wright was charged June 3 with embezzling $21,001.31 from her team. Wright coached the team from fall 2007 to April 2010 and was herself a member of the dance team for four years until she graduated in 2004.
“The dance team is not considered a varsity sport and functions as a club sport with Campus Recreation and Wright coached on a volunteer basis,” said Laura Karps, assistant director of marketing for campus recreation.
“All club coaches are volunteers so she was never employed by the University,” Karps said. “Club sports receive very little funding from the University, requiring the team to be almost entirely self-sufficient, raising all funds on their own.”
“The sad part is that these students are out there running all this on their own because they get limited funding from the University and now someone’s come in and taken the money they spent their hard time and energy raising,” Karps said.
“The filched funds were discovered after the team treasurer noticed inconsistencies in the team’s bank account,” Karps said. “Club teams are student run and managed, and currently are not required to give a copy of bank statements to the club sport’s director.”
“We are looking into new policies so we can deter this from happening in the future… right now clubs are student run, student lead. We [Campus Recreation] just offer assistance, and answer questions,” Karps said.
Keith Nichols, director of news services, said he is not sure how the money was used but the investigation is ongoing.
“Exactly what was done with the money and how she purloined it are not known as the case is still under investigation,” said Nichols. “I assume there won’t be a lot of details until the investigation is complete.”
Kimberly Susen, junior in middle grades education, has a friend on the dance team and knows how dedicated and hard working the dancers are.
“A friend of mine is on the dance team and I know she puts a lot of effort and money into the team, they have to pay for a lot of things. It’s really terrible that someone they are supposed to trust would take from them like that,” Susen said.
According to the team’s website, they have been active 17 years and perform at all home football games, men’s and women’s basketball games, gymnastic meets and select baseball games. They also perform at pep rallies, parades, alumni events and many community and charity events.
“That they appear at so many school functions and pay for it all almost entirely themselves is admirable, they must be really dedicated. I’m sure that missing money made things much harder than they should have been,” said Mary Brooks, junior in First Year College. “They’re there to support the school and that the coach is an alumna makes her treachery even worse.”
Cambridge Cunningham, junior in communications, said the school should provide more regulation so this doesn’t happen again.
“Given the recent incident state should have a system in place to check and balance all the money coming in and spent for the club teams. It’s terrible they put their trust in that person to be a role model and coach and she set such a poor example,” Cunningham said.
