The Truth Will Sometimes Set You Freer Than You'd Like
Collegiate sports programs are money-making machines. So what if Johnny Football Player can't read, right?
Well, Jonathan Turley blogged that a North Carolina professor looked into the educational standards for athletes and found the athletes sorely lacking in their abilities. As in, 8 to 10 percent of the school's football and basketball players are reading below a third-grade level.
This means, if they get injured or don't make the pros, they can basically work as busboys in a diner after four years of college.
The university reacted predictably -- as did the public. No, not worrying that adults enrolled in it can barely make it through a story from the kiddie section of the library:
The university seemed to go immediately on the offensive, including questioning her data showing a basketball player who could not read or write. What is interesting is the statement that "University officials can't comment on the other statistical claims mentioned in the story because they have not seen that data. University officials have asked for that data, but those requests have not been met." However, Willingham says that the data came from the University and remains in the possession of the University.At the same time, Willingham has received dozens of death threats from fans of the university teams. She has been a source of the local media investigation into the program and is considered a whistleblower by many.
Turley writes:
As many of you know, I love football. However, there comes a time when sports threatens the very soul of an institution. The University of North Carolina (and particularly its faculty) needed to make a choice as to whether it is a leading academic institution or just a facilitator for sporting events.
Back to the story, at the News & Observer link above, it says Willingham found one basketball player illiterate. The university disputes that finding. Also from that piece, a story by Dan Kane, Jane Stancill, and Andrew Carter:
Willingham played a major role in The News & Observer's work exposing a major academic fraud scandal involving the Department of African and Afro-American Studies. In August 2011, the N&O reported that a football player's transcript showed he had taken an upper-level class in the department in the summer of 2007 and received a high grade despite needing remedial writing the following fall semester as an incoming freshman.Willingham told the N&O shortly after that the academic support program was using "paper" classes in which no class was held but a paper assigned to keep athletes eligible. The university confirmed the existence of the "paper" classes in a report released in May 2012.
UNC officials say two people were responsible for the bogus classes - former department chairman Julius Nyang'oro and his longtime assistant Deborah Crowder, who retired in 2009.
Willingham went public with her concerns about athletes' ability to do college-level work, and how the support staff were using the paper classes to keep athletes eligible, in an N&O article on Nov. 17, 2012. Other evidence obtained by The N&O backed her claims, but they have drawn little activity from the NCAA.
Again, as FIRE has found again and again, campuses today -- many of them, if not most -- only pretend to be centers of free inquiry and free speech.
Sure, you can speak and inquire freely -- providing you speak and inquire about the accepted things.
I get that we humans are tribal in nature, and I'm not pushing for some sort of New Soviet Man, unmuddied by all sorts of "flaws" like jealousy, self-interest, etc.
That said, I'm always a bit befuddled when people choose to affiliate with what are - to my mind - really SILLY tribes.
Sure, affiliate with a tribe that believes in a strong ethical code against murder, or affiliate with a tribe that thinks that it is saving the world, or preserving the biosphere, or whatever.
...but affiliate so strongly with a tribe that has the mission statement "throw the inflated ball down the field better than the other team of pseudo-college students" that you send someone DEATH THREATS?
WTF, people?
TJIC at January 13, 2014 6:30 AM
To me it just shows what a degree is worth. Why is it required in so many places?
Is it just because if you don't you are more likely to be called racist and be sued.
Joe j at January 13, 2014 7:00 AM
My degree program in college was notorious for its difficulty, with many professors in the department famous for "never giving an A in the history of the class." I did get a A in one of those classes and was celebrated for it.
When we graduated, a list was published of all graduates by major, with a subgrouping of "high honors." One of the people listed for high honors in my major was a basketball player. I had never seen him in any class in four years.
My department was extremely small and incestuous. We would have known if he was one of us. I have to assume he was just "assigned" a GPA.
Also, I worked in the university library. For fun we would look up the "famous" athletes and see who had EVER checked out a book. None of them. Yet they got degrees in pre-law, engineering, biology, business...
Insufficient Poison at January 13, 2014 7:43 AM
Wealthy international students get treated the same way.
Ppen at January 13, 2014 8:10 AM
Our son went to play ball at a division 1 school. It was interesting. They had mandatory study hall where students were required to check in and out. The other athletes checked in, but didn't study. They criticized our son for studying and getting good grades. It was actually more like harassment. They stole his computer and ostracized him. An older player broke husband pounding it against a brick wall after our son, the freshman struck out four starting players in a row. He told the coaches that it was him or our son.
I guess it didn't turn out too badly. He transferred to another school and graduated in three years.
Jen at January 13, 2014 9:41 AM
Ha- not husband - his hand
Jen at January 13, 2014 9:56 AM
For some reason this story reminds me of Oakland Raiders/Cleveland Browns player Desmond Bryant, who entered the Mugshot Hall of Fame last year:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/desmond-bryant-mugshot-arrested-photo_n_2766929.html
He graduated from Harvard with a degree in psychology.
Martin at January 13, 2014 10:37 AM
I never understood why people get so wrapped up in a game they aren't playing involving a team they don't personally know. What, the fact that they adopted the name of your hometown or school makes you partners?
Lori at January 13, 2014 11:41 AM
Tweet from last week. (By the way, they lost the Rose Bowl, which is a popular football game.)
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at January 13, 2014 1:04 PM
Don't you know that most psychologists are even more screwed up than most of their patients. ;-)
Jim P. at January 13, 2014 1:48 PM
Well, I knew that college athletes got plenty of extra help by way of tutoring, easy classes, etc, but I guess I was naive in that I thought they'd at least be able to read. Did they have to take an SAT or ACT? How did they graduate from highschool?
I dated a couple of guys who played football at colleges you've never heard of. (What? I like a big man...) They weren't the brightest, but they could read and do basic math. I do recall that one DID flunk out because he didn't go to any of his classes. I guess you only get away with that kind of stuff if you're a Manziel-type superstar at a athletics-powerhouse-type of school.
Sports are boring unless you know someone who's playing. Or, if you're really drunk. But then you just miss half the game because you've got to pee so often...
ahw at January 13, 2014 2:12 PM
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