NYT scorches Auburn on academics

Dog's right about this. Believe me, when I first heard about this, my holy shit was a lot more deeply felt than his holy shit. I've read everything I could get my hands on about this tonight, as I'd heard a few days ago that an NYT guy had been talking to all the dept heads and they were looking to do an academic fraud story.

anyway, the more I read, the more I say, "eh...there's more smoke than there is fire to this story." this story's as much an indictment of offering independent study courses, particularly to athletes, as anything. I found out several weeks into my last quarter at auburn, while doing my internship, that I would be short on hours to graduate if I didn't do an independent study class to pick up a couple more. I took a class in the most remedial aspects of political science, had to fill out a workbook lesson once a week and take a final exam. easiest A I ever received (not that that's an especially long list). Did I have to do some work? yeah. should I have received college credit for that bulljive? no sir.

there was definitely something wrong going on with this professor offering all these independent study classes, but Auburn remedied that nearly a year ago when it cut the number he offered from 152 to 25. it looks bad, but it seems like they already fixed what needed fixing. If there's more to it than what they've already run with, well then I'll take it all back.

 

I think he already talked about it Thursday, but you can listen live from 2-7 on al.com if you're so inclined.

http://www.al.com/finebaum/

 

Precisely. When I read through the first few grafs, I was like, son of a bitch this is gonna be bad. But then, when you started taking a hard look at the numbers, it just doesn't add up. At least, it doesn't add up to what the Times is attempting to make it.

Like both djc and I said, something's definitely wrong with this guy teaching that many damned classes. But at the same time, the ratio of athletes to normal students wasn't abnormal. And the number of football players is especially low. I just can't figure out why they tried so hard to make this an indictment of the football program.

Every college in the world has those handful of classes that everyone on campus knows are an easy A, and every college has the professors that are easier than the others. It takes about a week on campus to figure out what and who those are. Maybe that's the biggest slap against the football players here -- that they weren't smart enough to figure out they SHOULD be taking these easy-ass classes.

 

This is a hell of a story. Good work.

Remarks from Cadillac Williams are unintentionally damning. He couldn't even be specific about what the work entailed, just that it was "different kinds of math" and "you report on theories and stuff like that." Yeah. Whatever. And anyone who's been around college football knows sociology is totally a dumping ground for athletes, as noted in the story.

The average full-time faculty member teaches two and a half courses a term, usually more in the humanities. Computer science and business professors usually carry the heavier loads. Even without the independent study courses, that's plenty of work. A lot of the instructors with heavier loads obviously are junior professors or fall victim to fiefdoms present in each and every department in every major college around. This guy was a seasoned professor and had no need to assume that load. There's more to this story than just this.

 

Two reasons this is a brilliant story that goes beyond the standard:
1) The acknowledgement that colleges offer lots of easy courses, and that others beyond athletes take them;

2) The refusal of the whistle-blowing professor to burn the students involved just to get "even."

The problem is the university, and it gets what it deserves.

Not surprised that Pete would present such an even-handed but thorough piece of work.

 

Other than the fact the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group has 3 papers in Alabama, what's the Times' obsession with what goes on in the Auburn athletic department?

A couple of years ago Selena Roberts did a less-than-flattering story on team chaplain Chette Williams. Now this. I'm sure the NYT also probably wrote something during the whole fire Tubby/hire Petrino fiasco.

I just find it strange The Times is so interested in what's going on in Lee County, Ala. No argument from me this is a story worth reporting - it certainly is, and Thamel did a great job with it. Just kind of seems like someone has the proverbial ax to grind with AU.

And no, I'm not David Housel.

 

Your question begs the question of why the Times would have an axe to grind with Auburn?

 

Bub,

I have no idea why, since The Times has already kicked native sons Howell Raines (Capstone grad) and Rick Bragg (attended JSU, allegiance to UA or AU unknown) out the door.

Correct usage is ax, sted axe, BTW.

 

You better ax somebody!

 

Um, major academic fraud on a football program that went undefeated two years ago and is in contention for the title in the country's best conference.... and it's not a big story? Eighteen players with inflated GPAs, including one Heisman candidate?
How anyone could say this is not a big story is totaly absurd. You think the NYT is out ot get Auburn? I'm sorry, but is this an Auburn message board? Next thing, I'll be reading about how Pete Thamel must have been a bammer...

 

Finally someone speaks the truth. Auburn's J-School is pretty good, so I would bet a few on this board shakes the pom-poms.

Bragg is about to be a professor at UA.

 

I gotta be honest, my first reaction when I saw this thread was that the NYT was looking for something for which it could pick on the South about. But I gotta give Thamel props. It says in the first several graphs that Gundlach sent the information to the NYT, which in all fairness could not simply ignore it. I'm wondering why he'd send it there instead of the Birmingham News, the Montgomery Advertiser or even the AJC. Maybe (and this is pure speculation on my part) he didn't think it would get fair considersideration at those papers. It's obvious why he didn't send it to Dothan. Just the number of athletes involved makes it a national story. The athletes are held to a higher standard on such things, and in my opinion they should be, given the accommadations they are legitimately afforded.