Adviser:
Grading Breaks Revealed at OSU Could Happen at Notre Dame
The same kind of special treatment that allowed a star player
for Ohio State's football team to pass a course despite walking
out on the midterm, not showing up for the final and taking oral
exams instead could be afforded a Notre Dame player if his professor
chose to do so, a University official says.
"The faculty is the bottom line . . . it's the teacher's class.
You can't tell the teachers what or what not to do," says Mary
Ann Spence, assistant director and senior counselor in the office
of Academic Services for Athletes, which employs a battery of
counselors and student tutors to help Notre Dame athletes with
their academic progress.
However, she says the University works to create an atmosphere
where accommodations to athletes are not taken lightly.
Earlier this year a graduate teaching assistant at Ohio State
told The New York Times that the Buckeyes' freshman phenom
running back of a year ago, Maurice Clarett, received extra assistance
from a professor to pass a class. According to the paper, Clarett,
who later scored the winning touchdown in last season's national
title game, had walked out of his African-American and African
Studies 101 midterm without finishing it. He never took the written
final, either. Instead, he was allowed to take two oral exams.
Based on his performance on the exams the instructor decided he
had fulfilled the requirements to pass the course.
The department chair at Ohio State told the newspaper the professors
are allowed to make special arrangements of this type. Under NCAA
guidelines, professors may not offer any breaks, benefits or assistance
to athletes that they wouldn't offer to regular students. However,
faculty retain plenty of leeway to do what they think is necessary
to help students learn.
Other reports in the Times said Ohio State's athletic
department tutors wrote papers and did homework for football players
and that athletes cheated on tests and quizzes in class. The university
was said to be investigating the allegations.
Whether any rules were broken at Ohio State, the accusations
raise anew questions about how much study help or extra admissions
consideration athletes should receive, and how colleges should
balance their core educational missions against the benefits of
competitive, high-profile and sometimes lucrative athletic programs.
The NCAA sets minimum requirements for athletes to be eligible
for intercollegiate competition: Potential recruits must have
earned at least a 2.5 GPA in 13 core courses in high school (14
courses, starting in 2005) and achieve either a minimum 820 SAT
score or a 17 on the ACT. (Starting in 2005, a sliding scale takes
effect; the higher the GPA, the lower the test scores can be.)
Notre Dame requirements are stricter and include 16 college-prep
courses.
By setting higher admissions standards, the University hopes
to head off any problems with athletes not being able to handle
their course loads.
Another way Notre Dame looks to avoid problems is through tutoring,
which Spence's office offers to athletes at no charge, as mandated
by the NCAA. Some question the fairness of offering free tutoring
to student athletes when the same is not available to regular
students.
"The philosophy behind it," explains Spence, "is that something
like this must exist to help athletes balance. They're spending
so much time representing the university . . . it's like a job."
The NCAA limits athletes to four hours of practice per day while
classes are in session, but that number doesn't take into account
unofficial meetings, other team functions and travel to and from
competitions. There is no time limit at all on game days, which
can involve pregame practices, team meals and meetings, in addition
to the competition itself.
Facing such time demands, many athletes in big-time college
programs need help. The question is how much help is too much.
Notre Dame students who tutor athletes work under the close
observation of a network of monitors and advisers, and nearly
all tutoring is done at the Coleman-Morse Center, as opposed to
dorm rooms, apartments or other non-supervised locations, Spence
said.
"Tutors writing papers . . . that's your worst nightmare."
In an incident uncovered as part of an investigation nearly
four years ago, a football player was found to have paid a tutor
to write a paper for him.
To prevent that from happening again, potential tutors watch
a video, read a handbook and sign a contract that they will not
tutor athletes with whom they have a pre-existing relationship,
that they will remain professional, and that they will only help
with, not do work for athletes.
Furthermore, Notre Dame is one of the few schools that limits
the number of classes a student-athlete may miss because of athletic
competition or travel. Students are allowed to miss no more than
three class meetings in any given course during the regular season
(postseason play is exempt from the limit). The ruling aims to
minimize one of the greatest pitfalls of big-time college sports.
The more class time student athletes miss, the farther behind
they fall, and the greater the temptation becomes to use unethical
means to catch up.
Despite all the safeguards in place, Spence acknowledges that
problems like those alleged to have occurred at Ohio State could
happen here.
"You simply can't control all the people that play a part. But
you do the best you can to create an atmosphere that says, 'No,
that isn't acceptable.'"
* * *
(October 2003)
