Ann Arbor series on academics

Incredible reporting. I would be interested to know more about the sourcing (i.e. what came from FOI requests, what came from whistle-blowers, etc.) and I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the series.

Some of the comments are disturbing. The apologists are sickening.

 

I hate to crap on it, because I applaud the effort, but that first story is hard to keep up with. Even the easy-to-explain bullets are clunky. The reporting may be great, but the writing isn't explanatory enough.

I think most of that is because I've been out of school for a long time. Some of the implications aren't clear.

Moddy, as an (former) editor, don't you think there were a few things they could have done to make the writing a bit clearer?

For instance, I wish they would have put these two graphs somewhere else and went straight to the part where they explain what an independent study is:

Michigan officials said Hagen taught additional independent studies in that period, however, they refused to disclose the number of athletes who were part of that group.

During most of that period since 2004, Hagen had a .25 teaching appointment, meaning one quarter of his time was supposed to be spent in the classroom.

Hopefully the rest of the package is clearer, but I lost interest ...

 

That's typical for any University of Michigan person. If it ain't positive, they think everyone's attacking them.

 

I'm really looking forward to the series - it's been in the works for a while, and well-known in the "blogosphere"/message board subculture, mainly because Jim Carty hadn't written very much lately. I believe the seed was planted in the fall when Jim Harbaugh continuously called out his old school on the matter, Carty and others tried to push Michigan officials to dispute it, and they played hardball. AA News, understandably, thought that a public school - particularly one with the kind of academic reputation of UMichigan (granted, a lot of that comes from its grad programs) - owes the public to be more forthcoming and probably decided that once the season ended and the coaching search was over, they would put resources into this.

I'm really glad a paper this small was this ambitious. The number of sports editors who would get on board with this kind of project is miniscule.

 

Been waiting a while for this to come out.

 

The whole independent study thing is strange. I wonder how the Kolarik, the hockey player only worked for an hour a week on a total of four classes, but football player Shawn Crable had to write two 6-8 page papers.

In Kolarik's case, it seems like the case is a joke. In Crable's case, the class sounds like an independent study class. There are many classes I took in college that I didn't write two 6-8 page papers.

It really looks like this Hagan guy is going to go down in flames.

Anyway, great reporting by the News. Nice pull on the photo of Hagan at the Iowa game. Great quotes from athletes, like the one from Mathews saying how Hagen is a big sports fan.

Should be interesting how the University and the Athletic Department deal with AA news reporters this season.

 

Nobody intelligent cares, or should care, about the academic performance or qualifications of college athletes -- any more than anybody should give a shit whether the nation's top students in biochemistry or theoretical particle physics can hit jump shots, kick field goals, or run the 40-yard dash.

 

I liked this comment... must have been from an EMU grad...

I also know one of the "key players" very well -- have for the better part of 20 years... interesting that this person was not allowed to speak.

 

I wish I had gone to a major collage.

 

Murray Sperber has written several terrific books that would strongly disagree with you.

 

I don't care. I'm right, he's wrong.

He's attempting to perpetrate a delusional, myth-driven linkage between athletic performance and academic ability which does not and cannot exist.