NIU President John Peters has commissioned a committee to investigate the alleged football recruitment party held at Amnesia night club on Dec. 5 despite initial reports there was no investigation.

According to a statement released by Peters, he asked NCAA Compliance Director Bobbie Cesarek to look into the incident when he first heard about it.

The preliminary inquiry did not reveal violations of any NCAA or university policy, Peters said.

George Shur, chair of the committee and former NIU general counsel, said the committee will look at NIU’s recruiting rules.

“NIU has never been accused of a recruiting violation,” he said. “We will take a broad look at recruiting and see that it’s consistent with the policies.”

The committee also will look into the party Amnesia held the night before, in which 15 underagers entered the establishment.

The city of DeKalb is charging Amnesia, 1000 W. Lincoln Highway, after manager James Sanfilippo allegedly told the party organizer to have people over 21 to pass their IDs to those who are underage. The bar also is charged with charging a flat fee for an unlimited amount of draft beer.

The committee’s first meeting will be today and probably will look at making contacts, Shur said.

Athletic Director Cary Groth said she won’t be participating in the committee but is glad it is taking place.

“I’m very confident in our recruiting practices and what we do,” she said. “We do this with a lot of integrity. It’s rare to have a situation like this, but it’s good to re-evaluate what we’re doing.”

NCAA President Myles Brand announced Thursday he wanted to form a task force to review the NCAA recruiting rules and recommend possible new standards by April, in time for the Division I Management Council.

Jeff Howard, managing director of public and media relations for NCAA, said it has not yet been decided what to look at or what to change.

The task force will consist of members of the NCAA national office, as well as athletic administrators who are part of the organization.

Shur said he was aware of the initiative and will be keeping an eye on the national level.

The University of Colorado is another school where recruiting problems have come up. Football players there allegedly hired strippers for recruiting parties.

The reason for the possible changes doesn’t have anything to do with any specific university or incident, Howard said.

Shur said it was a coincidence that recruiting problems for different universities all have come up this year.

“We take pride that our standards are higher than the NCAA,” Shur said. “Our academics are higher.”

If any of these types of incidents had happened to any other student, it wouldn’t have been such a big deal, he said.

“Athletes are held to higher standards,” Shur said. “They have to be more vigilant.”