A little more meat to the ongoing embarrassment about Michigan's athletes and academics from the Ann Arbor News (if you need a refresher read Hail to the Undeclared and What's Your Major.) The AA News is doing a four part series focusing on Michigan's "propensity" to steer athletes into easy majors and courses. Given Rich Rodriguez's less than stellar reputation as a recruiter and champion of academics, it should be interesting to watch how Michigan addresses theses issues and ones likely coming around the corner. The Editor of the Ann Arbor News summed up his feelings this way:
For me, the stories present a sad scene - few people on campus are asking whether U-M athletes, especially those who are academically challenged, are getting a quality education.A couple of points that were made in one of the articles below about the abuse of Independent Study Courses:
- Michigan athletes described being steered to Hagen's courses by their athletic department academic counselors and, in some cases, earning three or four credits for meeting with Hagen for as little as 15 minutes every two weeks.
- Three former athletic department employees said Hagen's independent study courses are sometimes used by academic support staff to boost the grade point averages of athletes in danger of becoming academically ineligible to compete in sports.
2 comments:
A buddy of mine that was on our (ND's) football team a couple years ago showed me a pamphlet he was given titled "What You Can Do With a Sociology Degree". He laughed about it. Not saying we're as bad as Michigan because obviously kids graduate and take whatever majors they want. But we're not completely innocent either.
CLASSIC quote from the AA News article:
"When asked what they learned in Hagen's courses, some athletes described being taught how to take notes, use a day planner, make a calendar and manage their time."
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