Stanford Academics... The Irony, It Burns
Oh God, seriously... this just aches...
A drama class in Beginning Improvising and another in Social Dances of North America III were among dozens of classes on a closely guarded quarterly list distributed only to Stanford athletes to help them choose classes.
The list, which has existed since at least 2001, was widely regarded by athletes as an easy class list. More than a quarter of the courses on the list did not fulfill university general education requirements.
The classes on the list were "always chock-full of athletes and very easy A's," said Kira Maker, a soccer player who used the list her freshman year.
Stanford officials say the list was designed to accommodate athletes' demanding schedules and have disputed that it was made up of easy courses. But officials discontinued it last week after reporters began asking about it.
God, Harbaugh is becoming the new Kiffen... He HAD to know about this system and still made his comments about UM. You think football players weren't aware of this?
But student athletes said they had picked up a copy of the list and left. In some cases, no advising took place.
"Literally, when you walk into the (resource center) right next to the door, it's right there," said Ryan Sudeck, a junior on the crew team.
"I never used it before this year," he said. "But this quarter it was like, 'Oh, I need an easy class to boost my GPA.' "
Your thoughts?
This could be pretty big too. If the NCAA could prove a university was intentionally providing for an easier education and better grades for athletes than normal students had access to, that would be major.
Is it just me, or is our "stretchgate" going to leave us smelling like a rose by the time this is over?
Essentially exists everywhere and it's nearly impossible to prove that it's a list for "easy classes" or just a list of electives. Everyone knows its easy classes, but proving it is another thing. This looks bad for JH and his comments, but the actual list doesn't surprise me in the least, as it is common at almost all schools.
You don't think every school would be guilty of this? Ever notice how many athletes take a course like Extreme Weather at Michigan (which I was a TA for) vs a very math heavy intro astronomy course (which I was also a TA for) which both satisfy the same degree requirements?
Where are you from.
I wasn't an athlete and most definitely took those 1-2 credit mini courses to avoid 3-4 credit monsters.
We don't have TA's...
The university employs student assistants that can be called GSI's, UTA's, TA's, chaperones, graders, etc. It depends on the student assistant and the relationship of the assistant to the professor.
Many departments call their GSIs TAs.
Wish I'd known about that Extreme Weather course. Intro to Astronomy kicked my ass.
Sometime between the late '90s and early '00s, the description changed. Historically, it was TAs (and that seems to be what most other universities use).
http://www.vpcomm.umich.edu/gsi-sa/contract.html
My guess it was changed because teaching "assistants" sounds too much like someone helping someone else who is teaching, as opposed to what GSIs really are - the ones who teach a huge chunk of the 100 and 200 level classes for undergrads.
We are getting a bonus offseason 'This Week in Schadenfreude'....Social Dances of North America III, is that the one focusing on Lil' Jon?
Did not expect that. Honestly. I would have thought Stanford would have a little more standards. But hey, at least they actually make their kids take a class...
...thunk it? Stanford? That bastion of academic quality? Hard to imagine that this could be true! My belief system is shaken to the core. I don't know how I'll get along now that I'm aware of this tomfoolery.
that can lay it on thicker than myself.
Nicely done.
lets not get carried away now
I imagine there's a list like this at almost every D1 school. What I'm a little surprised about is the fact it's printed and sitting in the resource center. I always thought these lists would be just sent around via email.
When reached for comment, Andy Katzenmoyer said "Those actually sound pretty tough"
Jim Harbaugh deserves to be kicked very hard in the testicles.
That's all.
George C. Scott doing that is funnier.
The academy agrees with you.
Also, Fuck the 49ers and Fuck Harbaugh.
thought it was chlamydia.
yeah, I had saw this roll by earlier but I couldn't start a thread cause I'm a noob
but yeah, I'm wondering what JH is thinking now that this got out...probably nothing, since he's long gone
I told everyone that Harbaugh was a d-bag! Now do you believe me?
My reasoning! I already knew Jimbo had (correction) has an asshat side to him. But if he was our coach I'd love that asshat anyway. =]
Yes...yes master...I will accept your judgements without question or appeal from this day forward.
I don't have a problem with athletes having access to information about classes like this. Savvy students of all stripes will balance their schedule every term, whether they've got a brutal orgo class that takes up all kinds of mental space, or a job obligation, or whatever. Sometimes an "easier" course is a smart move. That's got to be a huge priority for athletes who have a super-demanding schedule with practice and training, or a GPA suffering because of a tough prior term. So why not have a list of courses that have proven to be a good fit for busy overcommitted students?
So the list doesn't bother me. That it is handed out to athletes doesn't bother me.
The minute Stanford implies it's above all this? THAT bothers me.
I agree with you that this coming from Stanford, who holds themselves above all others, really grinds me. Throwing rocks when you live in glass houses is a bitch.
The list was ONLY handed out to athletes. Further, they appear to not satisfy major requirements. As such, the classes would, if easy A is correct, be a mechanism to raise GPAs above the minimum requirement in a manner unavailable to other students and, quite possibly, other universities.
Yes, but I am sure any student could register and take those classes. Lets use a different example other then sports. What if the easiest way to hear about an easy class to take is by join a fraternity/sorority and glad advice from your brothers/sisters about what classes are the easiest. Then you would still considered it wrong to use that advice and take those classes?
I know this example is a little bit different, but the same logic still does apply. The list was not the only way for students to hear about easy classes, just for althetes it was the most convenient. Hell if you really wanted to find out about easy classes just go to ratemyprofessor.com and list the teachers by easiness and find out which classes they teach.
What would everyone here be saying if Harbaugh was the coach here at Michigan?
Depends on whether my name rhymes with "Spike Fosenberg" or not.
If not, I stick by my answer above.
Would he still be hypocritically shitting on Michigan for doing this sort of thing? But seriously, probably nothing. And that would be homerism and wrong. But, what the hell, it's sports fandom it's not rational.
We would be saying, "Why did you accuse us of funneling athletes towards easy classes while you were doing the same thing? Was there a reason you chose to hypocritically take a shit on your alma mater?"
maybe that's why he's not coach here? he knew this was coming out and knew he would be crucified? easier to take a job a few blocks from home for money and not have to deal with it.
For what its worth, I have a friend who wrestled at Stanford for 4 years who never saw such a list. And he wouldn't lie to me about it. Obviously this doesn't prove the list didn't exist, but maybe at least wasn't given to EVERYONE.
EDIT: He called me back and said he does remember it now, but the reason he didn't remember it the first time was that it wasn't just a list of easy classes. There were easy classes on there, sure, but that there were also hard classes. He knew about easy classes just by word of mouth, like normal students do. That's what he says anyways, that it wasn't a list of easy classes.
Are we supposed to be shocked that athletes take easy classes?
<br>Here's another secret about Stanford: it's easy to get good grades there.
<br>The last thing they want is for mumsy to stop sending huge tuition checks.
While I don't quite like the practice, I assume this happens everywhere. You can't tell me that at Michigan all of those football/hockey players are interested in taking Objibwe to fulfill their language requirement out of a deep love for native american history.
Looking more and more like we might have been selling our soul for wins with him too. But at least it makes what he said about Michigan look ridiculous, since it makes him a flaming hypocrite.
This is not even a little bit surprising.
Harbaugh reports that Bo actually gave that list to Stanford, and ordered that the school tear up a list of upper-level history courses that Harbaugh wanted to distribute to the football players.
I'm shocked—Shocked, I tell you!—that Jim Harbaugh is a gigantic hypocrite.
Who could have guessed.
At this point I'm wondering if we dodged a bullet with Harbaugh. The man is clearly an excellent X and Os coach but he's also clearly a giant hypocrite and douche.
The 10+ win seasons under him would be nice but I don't know if I could cope with an entire offseason of our head coach being a dick.