Colleagues praise Petee

[DKW 86 7,425]

http://www.al.com/auburnfootball/mobilereg...7820.xml&coll=3

Colleagues praise Petee

Professor at the center of Auburn academic scandal well-respected by his peers

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

By EVAN WOODBERY

Sports Reporter

AUBURN -- For the last five days, Thomas Petee's reputation has taken a pounding in the media.

Now his friends in the academic world want to offer another side.

Beginning with Friday's front-page story in the New York Times, Petee has been portrayed as a rogue professor who overstepped ethical boundaries to accommodate hordes of independent-study students, including 18 athletes.

But many of his colleagues across the country in the field of criminology say that's not a complete portrait.

They describe Petee as an honest, dedicated and well-respected scholar, who always volunteered for conferences and committees and rarely says no.

"The one thing in Tom's personality that might have contributed to this is that he always goes out of his way to help somebody," said Jay Corzine, chair of the sociology department at the University of Central Florida and one of Petee's friends. "To use the old expression, he has too many irons in the fire. He would be better off if he just said no. But his basic personality is that he tries to help people."

Auburn sociology professor James Gundblach, the whistle-blower in the case who provided the bulk of the allegations to the Times, has been interviewed almost daily since the story broke. Petee, whether by choice or university mandate, has not responded to interview requests or made any public statement.

Petee came to Auburn in 1989, shortly after earning a Ph.D. at Notre Dame. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Toledo. He gets high marks from students on the RateMyProfessors.com Web site and had support from enough of the faculty in his department to be elected department chair.

It's in that role that Gundlach claims Petee abused his authority by taking on far more directed-reading students than he could possibly handle.

"Petee was teaching more upper-division students in his directed-reading sections of sociology classes than the three real sociology faculty were all together," Gundlach told the Press-Register on Sunday. "If you look at where athletes and other students were going, they were going to Petee's classes. They weren't going to the regular sociology faculty."

But Corzine thinks there's more to the story than that. He believes Petee expanded his independent-study offerings in response to a surging enrollment of criminal justice majors. As a department chair, Petee felt pressure to help undergraduate students remain on pace to graduate, Corzine said.

"I'm not being critical of Auburn, but universities cannot react as rapidly as might be useful to significant increases in the number of majors in a program," Corzine said. "My guess is one of the major reasons there were so many directed-reading courses is that they didn't have the number of faculty to offer enough courses to get students through in time. They were making up the slack by doing a large number of directed-reading courses."

Corzine also said he's certain Petee gave no special treatment to athletes.

"The spin that the New York Times put on it, they really had to stretch things to say that this was related to some attempt to provide easy academic classes for athletes," Corzine said.

Kim Rossmo, a professor of criminology at Texas State who is nationally known as a pioneer of geographic profiling, said Petee would have no reason to give special perks to athletes.

"What does Tom gain from this?" Rossmo said. "How does taking extra students help Tom in any material way? If there was a problem, it was because he was trying to be too helpful or too nice, not that he was being greedy or selfish."

Rossmo recently worked with Petee at a national symposium on serial crime and said the Auburn professor stood out for his intellect.

"He's a very nice person, but also a very respected academic," Rossmo said. "He's a thinker, and I've never seen him back away from saying something if he disagreed with someone. In my involvement with him, I would consider him to be a very principled person."

Candice Batton, a University of Nebraska criminal justice professor, said she first worked with Petee 10 years ago, when she was a graduate student. She said Petee is known for assisting younger colleagues with research.

"He's helped a number of younger scholars establish themselves professionally," she said. "He's very generous with his time. He's not a selfish person, and does not have a big ego. He'll go out of his way to help somebody else."

Auburn is expected to release the results of its official investigation shortly. Petee has tenure, so it's extremely unlikely that his job is in jeopardy. But friends concerned about his reputation say the embattled professor deserves the benefit of the doubt.

"It's always wise to wait for all the facts to come in, for both sides of the argument to be looked at, and then in an unbiased fashion you can decide the best course of action," Rossmo said. "The university is doing that."

[AUesquire 1]

Nice article. I wish as many people as possible would take a look at it but there's only be more spin.

[AUloggerhead 2,237]

Nice article.  I wish as many people as possible would take a look at it but there's only be more spin.

249745[/snapback]

There's only be more spin? Clear as mud there, counselor. OK, the article notes a couple of character witnesses for Petee. Nice to read but that's all. It kind of validates what Carlos Rogers said about Petee always being interested in helping his students.

[GalensGhost 0]

Nice article.  I wish as many people as possible would take a look at it but there's only be more spin.

249745[/snapback]

There's only be more spin? Clear as mud there, counselor. OK, the article notes a couple of character witnesses for Petee. Nice to read but that's all. It kind of validates what Carlos Rogers said about Petee always being interested in helping his students.

249750[/snapback]

I wonder if 12 people applauded him when he walked through the building?

Gundlach is a tool. Everything he's said since the article came out reinforces that. If this had come closer to the season, there would be an airplane buzzing the staduim trailing a banner that reads 'Gundlach is a tool'

It's nice to see people coming to Petee's defense. As many have stated here and elsewhere, his situation is hardly unique. He didn't deserve to have his name and reputation dragged through the mud by this Gundlach freak.

[AUloggerhead 2,237]

Nice article.  I wish as many people as possible would take a look at it but there's only be more spin.

249745[/snapback]

There's only be more spin? Clear as mud there, counselor. OK, the article notes a couple of character witnesses for Petee. Nice to read but that's all. It kind of validates what Carlos Rogers said about Petee always being interested in helping his students.

249750[/snapback]

I wonder if 12 people applauded him when he walked through the building?

Gundlach is a tool. Everything he's said since the article came out reinforces that. If this had come closer to the season, there would be an airplane buzzing the staduim trailing a banner that reads 'Gundlach is a tool'

249753[/snapback]

How about Gundlach refusing to be a part of the administration's investigation? If that isn't proof he's no more interested in "the truth" coming out of this situation then his stated goal of "not wanting another James Brooks incident to occur," I don't know what is. What a total fool. He can claim he's standing on principal all he wants. His actions speak otherwise.

[AUesquire 1]

Okay, I know I'll take heat for this, but I've lurked and posted some on CT the last couple days to check out what others are saying. There's a few voices of reason, but for the most part, the attitude is that the NCAA is coming to town. If it's not the NCAA, it's SACS that will take us down. If it's not SACS, there's plenty of rumors going around, some of which have to be true, so either way, AllBarn is gonna' get their's soon enough.

I think this article seems to portray this situation the way I've been looking at it, but most rival fans would see it as a spin attempt to find folks who like Petee. This is SOOO NOT an athletic department issue and seems to not be much of an issue overall. But, once the press and internet get hold of it, it takes on a life of it's own and it has to be dealt with.

[Texan4Auburn 1,626]

I'm just gonna drive to Tuscaloosa, tell Parker Wilson he is my hero and buy him a happy meal and film it with me saying I wouldn't do this for a regular person.

Then stick a 5 dollar bill in it. Then send the tape to one journalist.

By the end of the week the internet will be riddled with stories of him recieving thousands of dollars, I'll be a Bama booster, by the end of the week they'll be going down for buying cars, hating old people, and kicking puppies.

Scary part is, that's probably how far it would go lol.

[tombigbeetiger 223]

looking at this from behind these very biased old eyes of mine, i really think that this is kinda' backfiring on the nutty professor.....i have listened to wjox all the time since friday,read all the articles, and have had email contact with several people that have written those articles and hosted the radio shows, and most of them are starting to wonder why this was even written, and more so, why was it written in a manner that made it look at the situation as an attempt to give unfair help to athletes....

i think you are going to see them start to ask some questions.....dr. jeckyl has, in my view, contradicted himself several times, and his refusal to cooperate with the committee is an attempt to hide something.....the drake group is behind this, and certain bammerfarts aided to the publishing of this, and i think the nutty professor has backed himself into a corner and is hunting a way out to avoid exposure of a planned agenda against AU athletics....look, AU is a conservative school, has a Christian influence, chette williams and is now hitting the bigtime.....it is a natural target of the leftists at the nyt's....boys, IT DIDN'T WORK!!!!! now, as more is brought to light, and as more truth is brought out as to the reasons behind this attempt, AU is going to do like the cream in a butter churn.....rise to the top....be patient, little grasshoppers, time is on our side.....by the way, i hope the AU band puts the rolling stones "under my thumb" in the repetoir(sic, hell i ain't french) because there is going to be one hell of an opportunity to play it in november....again, i commend wjox on the way they have handled this

[saniflush 0]

Has JOX done well in handleing it? More of what I hear about them over here in ATL is pretty bad.

[tombigbeetiger 223]

Has JOX done well in handleing it?  More of what I hear about them over here in ATL is pretty bad.

249786[/snapback]

i have listened to them almost non-stop since friday and i have been pleasantly surprised as to how they treated this as a "no big deal" story.....i had stopped listening to them,except for sonny and wimp, 3 years ago, but you can bet i will be a listener from now on.....i was shocked at how they covered this....i was expecting to get blistered,but it did not happen.....oh sure, there has been a few comments of negativity or some questions asked,but for the most part, i give them an "A".....I HOPE I DIDN'T VIOLATE SOME RULES FOR THAT

[saniflush 0]

No rules that I know of. Last time I checked we Auburn brothers and sisters are not sheep like some folks. That is good to hear that they have atleast been fair concerning it. I think that is the only thing I and most others try to look for.