January 14, 2009,
6:12 pm Academics Questioned at Michigan
By
Pete Thamel In the convoluted world of college athletics and education, sometimes it takes a while for academics to acknowledge what appears to be obvious. That’s what happened at the University of Michigan, where The
Ann Arbor News ran a series of articles last March with evidence that 251 athletes took independent study classes between 2004 and 2007 with the same professor and their grades were radically higher than in their regular classes. The series made it obvious that many of these athletes were steered to the professor, John Hagen, to help keep their eligibility. (Michigan, of course, denied this, kicking and screaming.)
The articles offered a rare peek behind the eligibility shell game played at so many colleges, as football stars like Gabe Watson played four years yet somehow fell 35 credits short of graduation. It also detailed how the kinesiology major is used as an avenue to admit student-athletes, who then transfer out before the difficult classes required of the degree. Many jumped to general studies, a major nearly half-filled with athletes, who make up 3 percent of the university student body.
