10.09
I was watching a college football game a weekend or two ago when one of the announcers made probably the most revealing statement I’ve ever heard. He said “[university] has a hard time getting good players because their academic standards are so high.” This can only be punctuated with two stories, told to me by the people who were there.
Story 1
At a University computer testing center, a proctor asked a student, who came in to take a computerized test, for their ID. It’s standard practice. The student pulled out the University magazine, pointed at the cover showing the star basketball center going in for a lay-up and said “that’s me.”
Story 2
An assistant professor was about to hand out the final test for the semester when he noticed someone he’d never seen in class before. “Excuse me, but who are you?” he asked. The student looked up and replied “I’m the nose tackle for the football team,” expecting that his response would be sufficient for anyone around campus. After a few minutes of back-and-forth conversation, the professor handed him a test. Needless to say, the professor was pressured to pass the student, even though he had never attended class and was given special permission to write a paper to “make up” for any missed class work – a paper the professor helped the student to write.
There stories sound made up but they were told to me by the proctor and the assistant professor, not by a second-hand witness. When I heard the 2nd story, I felt cheated. In my view, the value of the education I was sweating and tearing my hair out to pay (to the tune of over $10,000 a year) dropped considerably.