Cutting to the Chase with the NYT....

[DKW 86 7,426]

Guys, I teach at a JUCO in North Alabama. This is nothing but a slam article. Using Web CT, Thompson Course Technologies, SAMS 2003, and numerous other teaching aids the IS courses are not that bad. I have kids that i do not see all semester, they still do the work and get the grade.

Take a good whiff, there is an odor of three Turds and a Tool around all of this.

1) “many Auburn ATHLETES” = only about 25% of the students in the IS classes is an ATHLETE.

Sounds like a Bensel-Meyers trashing job going on even at this point.

2) Eighteen football team members, took 97 hours =5.4 hrs per student?

One class may be two? Hell I bet they took more hours in HPR (PE classes) than that. Hell, I know Jimmy Buffett and I did. 

3) Thomas Petee, the sociology department’s highest-ranking member. the interim department chair, Professor Petee, and the dean of the college. The dean at the time, Joseph Ansell, died in late June after a battle with cancer.

Sounds to me like a guy working his ass off to work out of a bind myself.

4)Professor Petee’s directed-reading classes, which nonATHLETES took as well, (bet that admission ground his teeth down pretty well) helped ATHLETES in several sports improve their grade-point averages and preserve their athletic eligibility.

Excuse me Mr NYT writer, but What did it do for the non-athletes? Was there some extra benefit going to the ATHLETES.

5) A number of ATHLETES took more than one class with Professor Petee over their careers: one ATHLETE took seven such courses, three ATHLETES took six, five took five and eight took four, according to records compiled by Professor Gundlach.

Warning Mr NYT Writer, ATHLETES do not equal Football players. We are a UNIVERSITY, we have many different sports here. Why do you ONLY MENTION FOOTBALLERS? What other sports were taking these courses? What other majors?

6) He also found that more than a quarter of the students in Professor Petee’s directed-reading courses were athletes.

A whole 25% were GASP, ATHLETES!!!! 

7) The number of directed readings that Professor Petee offered had jumped to 152 in the spring of 2005, from 120 in the fall of 2004. To get in a class that late in the semester requires the signature of the interim department chair, Professor Petee, and the dean of the college. The dean at the time, Joseph Ansell, died in late June after a battle with cancer.

Sounds to me like the Interim HEAD of the Department was short handed and working his ass off to make it permanent and was taking care of the kids, ATHLETE and NON-ATHLETE. In other words nothing there.

7) 18 footballers out of 272 students assigned (my estimate), or SIX Freakin percent were footballers…

Well I can see why you would only talk about 6% of the kids taking the classes and ignore the other 94% No, No agenda here, no way...

8) Professor Petee defended his record on directed readings, saying he provided so many because of an influx of students, a shortage of faculty and the convenience of using the Web to communicate with and teach students.

Professor Petee said that the classes were structured, even though he did not meet with the students regularly, if at all. The department office assistant at the time, Rebecca Gregory, said Professor Petee managed the work with students primarily through e-mail. “I would give you a readings course that amounts to substantively reading the stuff,” Professor Petee said. “You’re going to be going through the process of doing the work in the course. You’re going to have to take exams. You’re going to have to write a paper.”

I teach college. Using Web CT, SAMS 2003, Thompson Course Technologies, etc. this is common. I have students that can actually do the work at home or in the office, do very well, take the tests, and I never have to see them but once or twice.

9) Professor Petee’s mentor, a former sociology department director, Greg Kowalski, said he considered Professor Petee like “a brother.” Still, he said, he could not find any comparable situation at Auburn in which one teacher taught so many directed-reading courses. “I don’t think it was anything malicious or that he had anything to gain,” Mr. Kowalski said. “He’s always been a very accommodating faculty member.”

Got a Prof working his ass off. Pulling in all kinds of work and keeping an under staffed Dept. Running and the NYT can only smear the guy because maybe 6% of his students were footballers....Pathetic!

10) Cal Clark, the director of Auburn’s public administration major, said one of his directed readings consists of reading five or six books and a written report on each. He said he usually would teach between three and five directed readings a semester “Maybe I’m egotistical,” Mr. Clark said. “But I thought that I did a lot.”

After the confrontation, Professor Petee’s directed readings dipped to 25 last fall from 152. They have remained about the same low level since. His full-time-equivalent number dropped to 1.0 from 3.67.

Petee still does 25 versus 5 from the other Prof? Sounds like the other Prof needs to get off his ass and get to work.[/b]

[Draven 0]

Oops should have seen this before posting on the other made some of the same points, oh well. I bet this is going down [on a few sites] as “the whole team was just given A’s for 4 years” “this just proves they are cheating, why would a NYT writer have an agenda” and other various lovely versions that 13 year old caffeine induced children can manage to think of.

[aubrandon 5]

WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH THE TIMES ANYWAY. I MEAN LAST YEAR THEY TRIED TO TIE CHET WILLIAMS AS THE MIDDLE MAN FOR PAYING FOOTBALL PLAYERS. I DO BELIEVE THEY FIRST PUBLISHED THE ARTICLE ON OUR EXTRA BENEFITS TO THE BASKETBALL TEAM IN 2004.

I DO NOT KNOW WHY IN THE WORLD THE NYT IS SO AGAINST AUBURN.

ALL I KNOW IS THEY CAN KISS MY

[oldautiger 1]

Isn't this the rag which has been accused of making up the news for years.

I'm with aubrandon on this

Hey NYT - KISS MY OLD FAT

[TigerOne 1,146]

we should be happy to know that the players ARE/DID taking

and doing work in the classes.

It would have been a real story if they weren't attending and got the grades.

Nowhere does it say that right.? So Auburn is getting slammed because the players

went to class and did the requested work

[WarTim 3,456]

They should really focus on SEC "players" that do not attend class. Hmmm....Maybe someone will.

[Jenny AU-92 0]

I KNOW I KNOW!

Remember back in 2003, the NYT picked us as #1? And we had a crappy year? We embarassed them, and this is payback.

Freaking pinkos.

[jared52 4,354]

I read the AJC version of the story and can only see a sad little professor with an agenda. The one who made the accusation said the offending professor (obiviously don't know names) was "like a little girl groupie". Sad. There are several easy A courses at Auburn and other schools (Mate Selection was one I took, along with basketball, racketball, typing (with 3-4 other football players such as Victor Riley, Rusty Williams and one of the rail thin WRs we had), and line dancing (yeah, I said it out loud). If there was reading to be done (and it wasn't one of those Golden Books we loved as a kid), reports to be written and exams to take, what makes the class fake? It's not like Tuberville is teaching football class and making the exam questions like, "How many footballs are used in one play?"

I'll give it a week...

[AUDave 0]

I read the AJC version of the stor and can only see a sad little professor with and agenda.  The one who made the accusation said the offending professor (obiviously don't know names) was "like a little girl groupie".  Sad.  There are several easy A courses at Auburn and other schools (Mate Selection was one I took, along with basketball, racketball, typing (with 3-4 other football players such as Victor Riley, Rusty Williams and one of the rail thin WRs we had), and line dancing (yeah, I said it out loud).  If there was reading to be done (and it wasn't one of those Golden Books we loved as a kid), reports to be written and exams to take, what makes the class fake?  It's not like Tuberville is teaching football class and making the exam questions like, "How many footballs are used in one play?"

I'll give it a week...

247809[/snapback]

I am glad we are the only school who has easy classes to assist not only athletes, but regular students who want a GPA boost. This is definately "breaking news" in the world of College Athletics and I am glad to see NYT is so hard up for news that they resort to this. Independent studies or reading classses are not the only easy classes, and in most cases aren't that easy. I'm taking a Directed Reading class in the fall and it will be one of my hardest classes. If I were a football player I would be sure to take Dr. Brown's Organic Gardening and Vegetable Production classes before I ever took an Independent Study class.

I am just glad to see we are focusing on the real issues (sarcasm intended). I mean, now the NCAA has the right to tell our teachers how easy or hard they can be and what a player can and can not take. I find that very amusing. I am tired of seeing Auburn getting sold out by professors who have major chips on their shoulder. I think their should be punishments for anyone who joins in such actions for various reasons: 1) Should have handled this in-house, 2) Academic Records are not public information, 3) Degrading Auburn Students should not be tolerated for personal gain.

After reading the article, all I can do is laugh. The allegations set forth are laughable. I see McCarthy-esque headlines in every major paper in the Southeast, and just like the Red Scare, everything will be fabricated to make the fantasy of come true.

To end on a good note: Only 50 more days until kickoff. "And because Auburn men and women believe in these things, I believe in and love it."

War Eagle!