The New York Times offers this front-page follow-up this morning on the academic abuses at Auburn from several years back.
The original stories showed how Auburn maintained a staggeringly high academic standng among football programs by allowing independent study programs that required little or no work.
AU's drop under the same academic measure has been among the three highest (Ole Miss and Florida State are the others) in the country. But critics of Auburn's approach say the change may be due to reforms put in place by the school that better reflect the actual standing of its student-athletes.
One area of continuing academic concern on The Plains. According to the survey, all of its white football players graduate; less than half of its black players do.
Read more here.
MG
Thursday, January 6, 2011
When a big academic drop may be a good thing
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I'm certainly glad things got cleaned up. I really wish kids who want to play football and have no interest in class would be allowed to go ineligible, but that's never going to happen, especially not at big SEC schools.
As for the graduation disparity, there's the culture factor that no one wants to talk about. There is an expectation in hip-hop culture to value thuggery and race-baiting and to oppose education and achievement. My wife (a black woman) was harrassed mercilessly throughout her childhood and college years. Education was her #1 priority and she speaks proper English. She was called "Shay Whitey" and "not really black" for it. There's also the more recent "no snitching" expectation that if a black person commits a crime, other blacks should not cooperate with any investigation. And let's not forget Bill Cosby, who was villified by most black "leaders" for saying, "We've got to stop blaming white people for everything bad that happense to us."
This culture, generally speaking, puts black students several steps behind before they even start college for those that uphold it. Certainly many overcome it and do great in college. But there really needs to be some culture change for more widespread academic achievement to occur.
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