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UNC Student Athlete writes daft 10-sentence final paper, gets an A- (Paper Inside)
- Thread starter Twio
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High enough to keep average GPA of student athletes up (as required by the NCAA), but not so high as to arouse suspicions of grade inflation, though obviously the latter failed in this case.
I'm very torn by the whole way that the NCAA works. Nobody can doubt that athletic scholarships offer lots of opportunities for students to get into school who otherwise couldn't, but the entire athletic program at most large schools is fully (or at least heavily) subsidized by the football program. These schools wouldn't even have volleyball, or fencing, or gymnastics programs if they didn't have that giant pile of football money to draw from, and lots of students who actually do apply themselves academically once they're in school (but who couldn't afford it were it not for their athletic skills) would be unable to go to college at all.
You can't really change the way things work, either. Many alumni donations are contingent on the performance of their alma maters' football team. Non-football sporting events draw tens or hundreds of spectators - mostly students getting in free, while football games attract tens of thousands of people, many of which are paying customers buying tickets and merchandise. You could chop academic programs from these schools all day long, but the mere threat of changing the way that football works would damn near lead to armed conflict in some parts of the country.
Personally, I think that academic requirements should be raised for all student athletes. Not necessarily to the level of 'standard' admissions, but functional literacy should be absolutely required, and any student admitted should be at least capable of managing normal college level coursework. I understand the need to offer alternative schedule courses during sports season, but those should still have some degree of rigor beyond 'write a 10 sentence paper on whatever.' Most football players won't be going to the NFL after school, so they should at least be getting something useful for their time.
Finally, if the NFL wants talented players regardless of academic potential, they should just form a junior development league, pull straight from high school, and let the players play there before joining the big leagues. As a bonus, they could then unionize under the NFLPA.
DocTarHeel
Member
This paper is at least 8 years old. Well before the NCAA investigation. Nothing from the NCAA will come from this, especially considering Willingham's (the whistleblower) outright attacks on the NCAA.
This was probably the only assignment. If you read the earlier articles on athletes being steered into African American Studies classes, you'll see that often they consisted of just one "final paper"...
But then your username is DocTarHeel so of course you have to defend this shit.
Lonewolf_92
Member
He's good at throwing a ball, silly!
Reminds me of a dude I had Algebra with once in college. Always showed up late if he showed up at all, never had a book or paper or any supplies at all, and I never once saw him turn in a paper, but he was still on the basketball team last I checked, so he must have passed, right?
DocTarHeel
Member
Talk about making some faulty assumptions.
First, you're wrong about this being the only assignment for the course. This was just one of many assignments for the course, the whistleblower said it herself, well after this went viral, though.
Also, I'm not defending anything. If you read my earlier posts in this thread you'll see where I said that I feel like this student-athlete scandal has somewhat devalued my degree. I just think releasing an at least 8 year old "paper" and misrepresenting it at that completely undermines the whistleblower's stated mission.
Sparkedglory
Member
Dumb
CornBurrito
Member
It doesn't bother you that we have adults that can't read or write above a second grade level?
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
They were probably supposed to give them an A+, but their conscience couldn't do it.
adamsappel
Member
What grade would you give that paper?
As someone who marks undergraduate history essays in the UK, the paper should have failed miserably.
I'd probably give it a zero.
DocTarHeel
Member
An F. I don't see how that's relevant though because we don't know what how this paper was graded or if it was even graded at all.
Maybe we should just do away with college sports. Any college sports fan knows that most well known programs are farces academically for basketball and football. (This is coming from a fan of the Syracuse basketball team). You have coaches and administrators making millions where these athletes get paid with "scholarships". Get a minor league system. We know a lot these kids aren't getting anywhere in life via their academic skills since they were already left behind in public schools. Might as well give them a chance to earn money using their body while they can.
The schools wouldn't go for that and the same athletes would just have the same attitude towards school until they can attempt to go pro regardless of what the league does. The current system at least allows the ones who do care about their educations get a free ride if they can't afford it so in that regard I think the system should be around in some form.
See You Next Wednesday
Banned
He wrote "Her" when he should have wrote "She".
Other wise a fine paper.
Other wise a fine paper.
Well, that essay show better redaction and far more creativity than the one in the op, though. Plus it only tells the truth. A+.
It says it's the final paper. Should probably count a significant amount.
CornBurrito
Member
I really don't believe so. I think I was writing better than that in second grade. Though it is possible I am overestimating my young self. I kind of wish I had digitized all my old writing assignments from K-12 just to see how much I (and my writing) have changed over the years.
ExtremePopcorn
Member
They receive the same education as everyone else at whichever school they attend. You can't sign a professional contract with a club until you're 17 so it doesn't interfere with your education.
timetokill
Banned
This is a problem that starts well before college. Not saying there aren't problems with college athletics but the education system failed this kid a LONG time ago. Unfortunately our teachers and schools refuse to be held accountable for education and wouldn't dare hold anybody back. This kid shouldn't have graduated high school.
It's not a palatable solution, though. That solution would be leaving billions on the table. Nobody watches minor league baseball, and nobody would watch "minor league football." A lot of fans are interested because they're alumni from the universities in question, and the universities are brands that are easy and fun to rally around. Such a scenario wouldn't make enough money to keep itself running, unless the NFL took over itself, which still doesn't solve the issue of billions left on the table from the absence of college football (and less so, college basketball).
Not to mention those sports help fund a lot of other sports at the university level, not to mention all of women's sports. Are we okay with just canceling most sports in general at the university level? There are a lot of Olympians at these schools that are putting in real academic work as well.
It's not a palatable solution, though. That solution would be leaving billions on the table. Nobody watches minor league baseball, and nobody would watch "minor league football." A lot of fans are interested because they're alumni from the universities in question, and the universities are brands that are easy and fun to rally around. Such a scenario wouldn't make enough money to keep itself running, unless the NFL took over itself, which still doesn't solve the issue of billions left on the table from the absence of college football (and less so, college basketball).
Not to mention those sports help fund a lot of other sports at the university level, not to mention all of women's sports. Are we okay with just canceling most sports in general at the university level? There are a lot of Olympians at these schools that are putting in real academic work as well.
I'd fail my 6th graders for writing something like that.
Some overstatements there. You have no idea how much accountability is playing in to education at the moment. Way too much, to be honest.
Some overstatements there. You have no idea how much accountability is playing in to education at the moment. Way too much, to be honest.
I don't think anyone's disputing that there's money to be made in exploiting student athletes. That alone doesn't make the system right in the way it's currently structured.
Dreams-Visions
Member
...for a 5th grader.
R10Neymarfan
Member
I would imagine they make them finish high school for the most part and in part it's Europe so it's such better than our shitty system here in the U.S.
If they don't finish high school, then I guess it doesn't matter since they will be millionaires anyway if they're that good
CornBurrito
Member
Seems a little insulting to our 5th graders. Aren't you at least doing multi-paragraph essays by 5th grade? I seem to recall learning the 5 paragraph format in 5th grade. Maybe it was 6th?
Even before 5th grade, you learn multi-paragraph essays.
BearFlexington
Member
On the evening of December . . . .
theignoramus
Member
It's bad enough that someone can get into an institute of higher learning writing at that level, it's even worse if they leave it with no meaningful improvement. college athletics is a racket.
Not surprising at all. My ex-gf was a student athlete and literally had no business being in college intelligence wise. She would send me her papers to edit and it was middle school level at best. Some assignments would ask for 8-10 pages and she would turn in 3-4 and still get a B on it
this retarded lady, was she hot?
Very hot. I would post pics but Im not on good terms with her and don't want it to come back to haunt me. That's also why I left out which school and sport she played lol
lol
Epsilon-delta
Banned
Smart man. Also, you can't deny how good Detective-GAF is when it comes to finding people on the Internet or through social media, as a few GAFfers have learned over the years here in OT.
shira
Member
It was Allison Stokke wasn't it?
I have full faith that Detective GAF could find out who it was within the hour if they wanted to lol
i_am_ben
running_here_and_there
It is, they would have no problem tracking me down. My username even has my last name in it, so I've already done half the workIf that's you in your display picture then its already too late
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