Auburn Clears Self in Grade Scam Scandal
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James Joyner | Thursday, August 10, 2006 |
Auburn has investigated itself and found that it did nothing wrong.
Auburn athletics officials were cleared of wrongdoing by a university probe of claims that athletes improperly boosted their grades with an easy independent study course.
Interim university president Ed Richardson said at a news conference Thursday that an internal investigation determined athletes were not steered to the courses of sociology professor Thomas Petee, who was accused by a colleague of helping football players stay eligible by offering classes that required little work or no work. Petee and another professor, who also gave “directed-reading” courses, have resigned their administrative posts. Both are professors have tenure at Auburn and will continue to be members of the faculty, Richardson said.
Richardson said the probe, launched after sociology professor James Gundlach made the allegations reported in The New York Times last month about Petee’s courses, found it was purely an academic matter. He said 82 percent taking the courses were non-athletes, 18 percent played a sport of some kind and 7.5 percent were football players.
I have respect for Richardson, who was a superb Secretary of Education for the state for many years, but find these findings hard to swallow. The NYT story on this was quite damning and the fact that non-athletes also took the courses hardly matters. Rather clearly, Auburn football players found out about Petee’s “independent study” courses and began flocking to them.
Background: Auburn Football Players Got Top Grades for Bogus Classes
- Auburn Football Players Got Top Grades for Bogus Classes
- Why Hasn’t Free Throw Shooting Improved?
- Par for the course
- Auburn’s Tuberville Calls for Playoff
- Baseball to Launch Steroids Investigation
- Former Univ. of Toledo athlete admits point shaving role
- Tim Hardaway to do ESPN special
- Alabama Vacates 21 Wins over Books Scandal
- Auburn Fires Tuberville
- University of Memphis football player shot dead
- Arizona State Baseball Coach Pat Murphy resigns
- Clipping their wings- Florida Panthers beat Detroit 2-1
- LA Clipper announcers suspended for one game
- Backup power- Miami Dolphins beat Carolina Panthers 24-17
- Steve Elling of CBS Sports is jealous
- Detroit Lions put two defensive backs on Injured Reserve
- The Dirty Dozen- Milwaukee Bucks beat New Jersey 99-85
- Outdueled- Florida Panthers beat Buffalo 6-2
- Collision Course: LPGA and Champions Tour in Oregon on Same Week
- Cleveland Brown QB Brady Quinn fined by NFL
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