Academic Scandal Rocks Michigan

by Mike on Mar 16, 2008 1:13 PM EDT in Football

I'm sure most of you remember last summer when former Michigan quarterback and current Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh got into a war of words. Here's what Harbaugh said.

"Michigan is a good school and I got a good education there," he said, "but the athletic department has ways to get borderline guys in and, when they're in, they steer them to courses in sports communications. They're adulated when they're playing, but when they get out, the people who adulated them won't hire them."

Not surprisingly, Michigan fans and alumni flocked to the defense of their school. I can't say I blame them. I would do the same thing. But the comments by Harbaugh, someone who has been through the system, led some people to start asking some questions. And today those people are willing to start laying out what they found for all to see, and on the surface it does not look good.

Part One of the four part series in the Ann Arbor News focuses on John Hagen, a professor of psychology. According to the Ann Arbor News, Hagen has been offering independent study classes to student athletes.

John Hagen was, as he has been for decades, close to some of the most recognized athletes at Michigan. University records obtained by The News show that the veteran psychology professor has taught at least 294 independent studies from the fall of 2004 to the fall of 2007, and 85 percent of those courses, 251, were with athletes.

Ok. So some student athletes getting special attention. Nothing new there. Every school, including Penn State, offers their student athletes special access to advisors, classes and tutors. So what makes this so interesting? Questions surround the course content in these special one-on-one sessions with Mr. Hagen.

Quarterback Chad Henne, wideout Mario Manningham, hockey player Chad Kolarik and softball ace Jennie Ritter are just a few of the Wolverines who have taken independent studies with Hagen, as have Jake Long and Shawn Crable, two of the captains on last season's football team.

When asked what they learned in Hagen's courses, some athletes described being taught how to take notes, use a day planner, make a calendar and manage their time.

In many cases, athletes said the main content of these courses was study skills and time management, although Hagen called the material "learning styles."

Time management? Taking notes? Using a day planner? These are certainly important skills for everyone aspiring to earn a college education and advance in society to have, but it's hardly worthy of earning college credits for it. These are the types of things most people learn through tutors and seminars. But the article doesn't stop there. Here is a list of charges made by the Ann Arbor News.

Michigan athletes described being steered to Hagen's courses by their athletic department academic counselors and, in some cases, earning three or four credits for meeting with Hagen for as little as 15 minutes every two weeks.
Three former athletic department employees said Hagen's independent study courses are sometimes used by academic support staff to boost the grade point averages of athletes in danger of becoming academically ineligible to compete in sports.
Athletes have enrolled in independent studies with Hagen several weeks beyond the normal deadline to add classes, which is 21 days after a semester begins. For example, in the winter 2005 semester that began Jan. 5 and ended April 19, two football players enrolled in independent studies with Hagen on March 18.
The amount of time some athletes said they spent on independent study work fell short of guidelines listed on the psychology department's Web site.
The News analyzed transcripts from 29 athletes who are either currently enrolled at Michigan, or left the school within the past three years. Twenty one of the athletes took 32 graded courses from Hagen - 25 independent study courses and seven standard classes. They averaged a grade of 3.62 in the professor's courses, compared to an overall grade point average of 2.57 in the athletes' other classes. No athlete received a grade worse than a B-minus from Hagen.
At least 48 athletes have taken two or more independent study courses with Hagen; nine of those 48 have taken three or more.
Athletes from every varsity sport except women's water polo and cross country - including 22 members of last fall's football team and eight members of this year's hockey team - have taken independent studies with Hagen since fall of 2004.

Now, is there anything here worth getting excited about? Not really. If half of the Florida State football team can get caught cheating on online exams without the NCAA looking their direction I don't think Michigan has anything to worry about here. But it certainly casts a dark shadow over the squeaky clean academic record that Michigan fans and alumni like to cloak themselves in. It's a major black eye to the program, but certainly not a death sentence.

I'm sure some of the Michigan readers who frequent BSD will be tempted to chime in here with the whole stones and glass houses defense. Don't. Just don't. Though we've had our share of off the field incidents lately, it's nothing like this. Our problems have just been the ordinary college kid shenanigans variety of trouble. These accusations leveled against the Michigan program basically boil down to cheating. There is really no comparison here.

Parts two through four of this series should be coming out in the Ann Arbor News in the coming days. I, along with the rest of the country, will look forward to reading it.

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Other schools too

This isn't just happening at Mich. Yes I am a die hard PSU fan, but I wouldn't doubt it could be happening at PS as well. Maybe not to this extent, but it could be. The fact is if you look at many of these athletes grades and scores from high school they aren't the greatest. Factor in all the work required to do in college compared to high school and the conditioning, practice, travel, and film study/playbook material compared to high school. I see this being a problem for many athletes that do not manage their time, not just football players. This kind of shady behavior is happening everywhere, fans are just not wanting to believe it.

by fan4life on Mar 16, 2008 2:20 PM EDT 0 recs

My opinion

is that almost no program in the country could withstand hard scrutiny of their academic tutoring programs. Peer to peer programs that exist at every single school, including Penn State, are an open invitation for cheating, regardless of what the peer tutors are told.

Notwithstanding those programs, there are loopholes all over the academic system for regular students to take advantage of. I for one wouldn't have graduated if my academic advisor (whose name I still remember 10 years later, which is how highly I regard her help) hadn't helped me out, more than once. There is no way I get into law school without cushy TA gigs she helped me land, or the strings she pulled to get me into crap like "science fiction literature" (which was a great class BTW) and Com 180, and whatever crap class I went to half in the bag over the summer.

Using this help I was able to boost my GPA from the mid 2's to the mid 3's in three or four semesters. Keep in mind; I was just a regular student, and while I had to seek out the help, I found it quite easily.

At every school, including Penn State, there are dedicated advisors whose job it is to help athletes graduate and keep them eligible. These advisors give the athletes the same type of advice and help I got, except the athletes are required to see them. I think it's a real fine line between cheating, and what I did, and I while don't think I cheated; I certainly took advantage of some opportunities that were available to me.

For the Glory National Champions 1982, 1986, 1994,

by jesse. on Mar 16, 2008 2:32 PM EDT 0 recs

ENGL191?

Science fiction as a social critique? If you had Dr. Youngquist, you took one of the finest classes in the English department!

May no act of ours bring shame

by Sacked on Mar 16, 2008 3:01 PM EDT up 0 recs

Dude

I spent most of that semester on Phish tour; I don't remember the names of the books let alone the name of the professor. I did read some excellent stuff though. I have no reason to doubt your opinion, and that sounds like the class, I though it was cool too.

For the Glory National Champions 1982, 1986, 1994,

by jesse. on Mar 16, 2008 3:15 PM EDT up 0 recs

Also

Drafting Resumes & cover letters, job interviewing skills, time management, applying to graduate schools...

Sounds a lot like English 200(a) to me. Everybody has to take that before you graduate.

For the Glory National Champions 1982, 1986, 1994,

by jesse. on Mar 16, 2008 2:38 PM EDT 0 recs

A Michigan Perspective

I graduated with a BS in Psychology from UM in 2004. I can tell you from first hand experience that there are courses in the psych department, and many others, where you are almost guaranteed an A. And this is not something unique to Michigan. All of my friends from high school went to prestigious schools: Harvard, Yale, UPenn, Duke, Amherst, Columbia, to name a few. And all of these friends told me about their easy classes, classes they took solely for the "easy A". They were pointed to these classes by fellow students and their academic advisors. These advisors, whether for athletes or regular students, want every student to graduate with as high a GPA as possible. It's good for the school, but it's also good for the student's future. People in every major will take easy courses during a semester to balance out the more difficult ones. As a personal example, I tried to take Organic Chemistry, Physics 3, an honors English course, and Latin 4 my first semester at school; my advisor told me that wasn't a good idea and told me to drop the Latin class from my schedule... I probably wouldn't have done as well in my classes if my advisor didn't tell me that.

That is all that is going on here, except that it is with one professor who taught at least 251 student-athletes over four academic years. Yes, that's a lot of athletes, but they did not get special treatment from the professor. He taught non-athletes as well, and held everyone to the same standard. He did not give everyone A's. He did not give everyone A-'s. As Carty's article pointed out, he did infact give B-'s to athletes enrolled in his classes. Furthermore, the students were not graded simply on learning how to take notes, organize themselves, etc... they were graded on papers, on posters, on presentations. In the example Carty gives on Sean Crable, he states, "Crable, a senior linebacker last fall, wrote two papers for his Psychology 200 class - "six to eight pages, nothing serious" - adding that the writing process was greatly helped by Hagen." A professor taking time to help a student with a paper should not be something decried as "unethical". It should be lauded. He sat with Crable and taught him how to write. He didn't write the papers for him, but instead told him about things he should improve on, areas he should read more on, topics he should go into more depth on... that's just being a good teacher.

Jim Carty is a hack who just wants to make a name for himself at the expense of a school and an honored professor's reputation. There is no impropriety here, just a professor doing his job and actually teaching students, actively participating in their learning, and helping them become more proficient students for the remainder of their academic careers.

by Baxter on Mar 16, 2008 2:58 PM EDT 0 recs

It makes sense

That students who have the same advisor would generally get sent into the same classes. This would explain why a lot of athletes take this guy's classes.

History 3 at Penn State was much easier than my junior year high school history class; there were about 15 football players in it with me and about 75 other kids. Who am I to judge? We were all there for the same reason; it was an easy class that counted toward a liberal arts degree. The only difference was the football players actually went, while I only showed up for the tests.

Don't get me wrong, this class sounds like bullshit; but it also doesn't sound like it's totally without merit either.

For the Glory National Champions 1982, 1986, 1994,

by jesse. on Mar 16, 2008 3:12 PM EDT up 0 recs

UM's Response

If you're interested in reading the results of UM's internal investigation of these allegations, they are available here: http://blog.mlive.com/specialreports/2008/03/031608johnhagenreport.pdf

Not surprisingly, the report from the Michigan official is much more eloquent and thorough than Jim Carty's expose...

by Baxter on Mar 16, 2008 3:36 PM EDT up 0 recs

Carty

We've only seen part one so far.

Mike
Black Shoe Diaries

Hail to the Lion!

by Mike on Mar 16, 2008 3:37 PM EDT up 0 recs

Relevance in comparison

Every major supposedly has easy classes - sure, but they're not to the level of these independent study "courses" where they get 4 credits for learning how to use a day-planner. GMAFB.

The 'easy' classes I had access to at Penn State still required that something beyond day-planner-deployment be learned, class time be spent, etc.

And, yes, in this case, I'm still prepared to state that NO, EVERYBODY DOESN'T DO THIS. We don't. Notre Dame doesn't. Stanford doesn't. Northwestern doesn't.

Michigan used to claim they didn't either.

by M1EK on Mar 16, 2008 5:12 PM EDT 0 recs

Day Planner...

Jim Carty sited one instance of someone learning how to use a day planner in this article. He did not say how many credits that particular person received, nor did he say what that person's grade was in the course. We also cannot know if that's the only thing that the person learned in the class. Maybe that was the most important thing he got out of it, but that can be a pretty important thing to learn anyway. He may in fact have been graded on the basis of something completely different.

Did you, by any chance, actually read the 5 page report from the U, or did you just decide to base your claims on Carty's "evidence"? I trust the Psychology department at UM to ethically and properly review the claims that were made. They reviewed them and found no evidence of wrong-doing. This course and it's requirements were not solely available to athletes, and regardless of who was taking the class, it was deemed appropriate for the amount of credits received. If a psychology department nationally recognized as the top psych department in the country reviews the standards of a course offered by one of its professors and deems it worthy, then it most certainly is.

by Baxter on Mar 16, 2008 5:24 PM EDT up 0 recs

Don't be so sure

I proctered three exams for a Admin. of Justice class my senior year and I got three credits, factored in as an A (4.0) for GPA purposes, for being a "T.A.".

The other two times it was a little more involved, I had to sit through the class, take attendance and grade exams, but still I got 12 credits for doing at most showing up to class I already took.

It wasn't independent study, it was no study, and totally kosher. But if I was on the football team, it would have been a big story.

For the Glory National Champions 1982, 1986, 1994,

by jesse. on Mar 16, 2008 5:29 PM EDT up 0 recs

The problem I have

with your comment is that you are so "sure" that things of this nature do not happen at other institutions, including yours. Unless you've actually researched this, you can't speak to it. You also have no context when comparing what is apparently going on at Michigan to other schools (again, including your own). I is presented as being shady, at best. Maybe it is, or maybe it just stretches the boundaries of what is considered "legal" in NCAA terms. But who really knows how PSU, MSU, OSU, Wisconsin, or even Northwestern stack up.

As for easy classes actually requiring work, I would beg to differ. I took a history of music class which supposedly required 6-8 hours of work per week outside of the classroom. I went to class, if you consider sleeping in the front row attending. I did maybe 15 hours of work the entire semester. This includes writing a couple papers and studying for exams. By the letter of the requirements, that would have covered 2 WEEKS worth of work. Course requirements and reality can be very different. By the same token, I've had courses where I've had to put in far more time than what was stated.

Ps. Full disclosure - I graduated from Michigan.

by georgiablue on Mar 17, 2008 2:04 PM EDT up 0 recs

Parts Two through Four had better be astounding

Because Part One ... I mean, it looks like there's nothing to this.

You know what the most requested course in Northwestern University's history is? Here's its website: http://musictechnology.northwestern.edu/~gary/classes/Beatles/splash.htm ... so long, squeaky-clean image. There are ways to squeak by doing the minimum at every institution from Harvard down to Cal State-Chico.

Here at Wisconsin I'm in a department ranked in the top 5 for its field nationwide. And you know what? I get a 4.0 every semester for signing a sheet on a clipboard that's passed around to track attendance at a seminar. But as Jesse said above, I'm a scientist, not a football player. My department "steered" me toward an advisor too. I meet with him once a semester and that's good enough for three credits worth of "pass."

Can't say I blame the guy for writing this though; nothing much going on this time of year in Ann Arbor, and there's certainly an audience for this type of article. But this Carty character could write about my academic career and make me look like a complete goof too.

http://badgersportsfan.blogspot.com

by badgertracker on Mar 16, 2008 7:17 PM EDT 0 recs

I agree

So far this isn't really that big of a deal. I think Mike is being a little overdramatic when he calls this a "scandal" or that it's "rocking" Michigan.

Everything I read here is essentially done at Penn State for athletes to a certain degree. Being steered to an easier major or clases to stay eligible, "life skills" classes, etc. The only thing that really caught my eye were the points about students enrolling in courses with one month left in the semester or not meeting the hours guidelines. But, there could be easy explanations for either of those things.

We'll see what the rest of this report brings, but so far this isn't anything we can really get on Michigan about.

Get up State.

by speedomike02 on Mar 16, 2008 8:16 PM EDT up 0 recs

Carty

The way Michigan people talk about this Carty guy it sounds like he is Michigan's version of David Jones.

Mike
Black Shoe Diaries

Hail to the Lion!

by Mike on Mar 16, 2008 8:02 PM EDT 0 recs

As I've said before,

I subscribe to the Harrisburg Patriot News and read David Jones' columns frequently. Most people have a problem with him because he's not a homer that just prints fluff pieces of journalism. I have friends who live in State College and subscribe to the Centre Daily Times (CDT), and they say the Harrisburg paper is more insightful and informative than the CDT. I don't agree with everything Jones writes, but if you keep an open mind he is fairly accurate.

by Ab4PSU on Mar 17, 2008 2:19 PM EDT up 0 recs

PSU

Uh...I never had to take any English 200a class that taught about getting into grad school or resumes or whatever...

I know Chemical Engineering is a different kind of major but I had not one "cake" class as you guys have mentioned...even my art classes required studying...even my freakin' gym classes required essays and tests and stuff...some semesters there was no way to lighten the load, despite my trying. The classes I had with football players in them certainly required quite a bit of work, and even though some of them weren't the brightest, they always showed up and always put the work in. I'm told that they had to attend all their classes or they'd get in major trouble with the coaches, whereas I could skip tons of classes and as long as I studied I'd do ok.

by PSUWifey on Mar 16, 2008 9:28 PM EDT 0 recs

ENGL 200A/B/C/D

One of these is required of engineers--I forget. But, it's not resume writing. It's technical writing.

I'm not big on this UM story. Shoot, we've all heard enough ear-shot stories of PSF players doung this or that. It happens everywhere, but just not to the extent as at FSU.

by RoaringSprings on Mar 16, 2008 11:55 PM EDT up 0 recs

ENGL

I thought it was ENGL 202 and then a letter. I have to take D for Business Management

JoePa is my hero.

by psuphiman80 on Mar 17, 2008 12:28 AM EDT up 0 recs

You're...

...right. My mistake.

by RoaringSprings on Mar 17, 2008 12:47 AM EDT up 0 recs

No biggie

I just thought that might be the discrepancy

JoePa is my hero.

by psuphiman80 on Mar 17, 2008 12:53 AM EDT up 0 recs

202C for engineers

I had to take 202C for my engineering degree. From my memory, it wasn't extremely difficult, but it was not a cakewalk either. Also, many of my non Gen Ed classes took more work than some of the ones in my major.

2002 PSU Grad

by psu engineer on Mar 17, 2008 8:45 AM EDT 0 recs

oops

Sorry, "my Gen Ed classes", I was not sure how to edit my previous post

2002 PSU Grad

by psu engineer on Mar 17, 2008 8:49 AM EDT up 0 recs

Easy classes vs. independent study

Again, the issue for me is joke independent study - because even easy classes, as noted, require some real work (at least attendance, which for me was work!)

by M1EK on Mar 17, 2008 9:10 AM EDT 0 recs

exactly

the difference here is that, while football players can take easy classes, those are open to all students and reflect the education at the school as a whole. The issue is not football players taking easy classes, it's football players being set up for an 'independent study' where they don't have to do a damn thing.

Doing easy work and not doing anything are very different as far as credibility go.

The Big Eleventh Blog

by Big 11th on Mar 17, 2008 9:49 AM EDT up 0 recs

No evidence of no work for grades.

Again, before deciding a class has no merit, look up its requirements. The class specified in the article is Psych 218, a seminar class available to all students enrolled at UM. It requires the same amount of work as most classes in the 200 level of courses. Don't just read the "investigative" journalism, read the internal investigations. They go into a lot more detail than the few puff pieces of evidence Carty tries to use. The big news today: admission standards are lower for athletes than for regular students; and Brent Petway feels like he should have tried to transfer to the School of Music, when he was already failing in LS&A... real big surprises here.

by Baxter on Mar 17, 2008 10:00 AM EDT up 0 recs

Journalism > internal investigation

Michigan's incentive to play this down is far more obvious and far greater than is your local newspaper's incentive to play things up.

One area I differ from the PSU superhomers is that I'd trust David Jones over Graham Spanier. Likewise, all else being equal, I'll listen to the guy whose job doesn't depend on keeping Michigan's image shiny.

by M1EK on Mar 17, 2008 10:15 AM EDT up 0 recs