Umich.edu "STATEMENT ON ADMISSIONS AND STUDENT-ATHLETES"
I was cruising Umich.edu looking for any research positions that would enable me to stay here this summer and I came across this gem: "STATEMENT ON ADMISSIONS AND STUDENT-ATHLETES"
Apologies if it was already posted, don't think it was. Good to see somebody made a stink about the dubious work being done in the Admissions Office.
http://www.vpcomm.umich.edu/pa/key/StudentAthleteAdmissions.html
What exactly is it about that Statement that you take issue with? What work is "dubious"?
Don't think that's what he said.
It's not like it was even a long post. I'll shorten it for you:
I came across this gem...
...Good to see somebody made a stink about the dubious work being done in the Admissions Office.
There is nothing "dubious" about denying admission to an athlete who can't even rock a 13 on his ACT or complete an application. Folks need to stop harassing Admissions.
Since you "shortened" it for me I now see where I goofed up. Thanks dahblue, you're dahbest! Shit man, I was wrong... no need to be a dick.
I'll +1 for that. Didn't see your comment as a goof up (more of a wtf ), but no biggie. I like "dahbest".
Sounds entirely reasonable.
Once again, the problem wasn't that Dorsey didn't get in, it's that it took him SO long to find out.
It sounds like that may have been Dorsey's fault. Wasn't the application itself incomplete as of a couple weeks ago?
The only complaint I ever had was that it seems like Admissions and the Athletic Department should work together a little more. Like, if DD's application wasn't filled out completely or properly, somehow there would be a system in place to note that early enough that it doesn't turn into a last-minute rejection.
I, of course, don't know all the details, nor who is to blame, or even if anyone is to blame in the sense that they weren't doing their jobs correctly. I just find it hard to believe that this is the best system we have to deal with this kind of situation; that is, when a coach pushes to have a pretty academically sketchy player admitted. Hopefully this will spur them to put a better system in place.
I've been really tough on them and quite frankly really mean but in the end they were doing what they had to do. I think they might be in hiding from fans right about now though.
Why shouldn't they "be in hiding from fans right about now"? They're Admissions. Fans should have no business meddling in their affairs to begin with.
The anti-Admissions fervor here and elsewhere in the past week was, frankly, pre-emptive and unfair to the integrity of our University. They were doing their job. We had no reason to think we knew better how they should go about doing that, nor did we know what documentation or context they had to make the decisions they made regarding Demar Dorsey.
I think that statement is pretty darn reasonable.
What kind of research are you looking for? I may know of a few positions depening on your interests and whether or not you care if it is paid.
Put me in the "approved" column. I've never seen any proof to the contention that Michigan admits at a higher standard. This statement, which I highly doubt is in any way dishonest, provides some.
This statement would be all well-and-good if it were carried out in an even handed way. To me, the statement only further proves the fact that their criteria is "dubious" and completely arbitrary.
Man, give it up, admissions did nothing wrong, Dorsey didn't deserve to be accepted, RR has no right to be pissed and should be embarrased about this.
I hope all of you who harrassed university officials and the admissions office have apologized.
I posted this in a thread but it was kind of buried, so thanks for making it more prominent. It is linked from U-M's homepage, which raised my eyebrows.
At the end of the day, as a student that got into Michigan from the (then) largest HS graduating class ever, I'm all about strict academic criteria for admission. If someone doesn't remotely deserve to get in, then I'm glad if they don't.
However, as a student that is also a Michigan football fan and willing to abandon the naive assumption that the student athletes of a school's multi-million dollar signature sport are equally "students" and "athletes", I always have to raise my eyebrows at a decision to reject a highly recruited talent. The circumstances are murky, and whether or not it was due to a grand conspiracy theory or the admissions department deciding he simply couldn't hack it, I feel pretty justified in expressing concern. The concerns about DD (whether legitimate or not) were pretty clear all the way through, and I assumed that this would have been accounted for and settled by efficient communication between RR/AD/Admissions.
The fact that this statement is prominently featured on the homepage for the ENTIRE university, not just the AD or Admissions pages, tells me that I wasn't the only one that disagreed with the DD decision and many unnamed disgruntled individuals made some unkind statements to UM, or at least admissions.
Heck, I just feel bad for the kid. He put in some sort of effort to raise his grades to come here and it was blown out of the sky. I'm not knowledgeable enough to make any statements about how legit everything was so I will withhold all of those judgments. The degree to which he and his record were dragged through the mud, investigated, and aired publicly makes me wish he could come here, win a Heisman, save babies, and silence the skeptics.