Something really good, something really bad.

[Van]

A little bit of good news...



Getting everybody jacked and pumped, Pete springs a recovering Stafon Johnson on the Thursday team meeting before the ND game.

In somewhat shittier news...

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/b ... aaf,196189

Florida State Players Read at Second Grade Level

FSU releases NCAA transcripts: Some 'Noles reading on 2nd-grade level?

After months of appeals, wrangling over public records laws and the usual backbiting between the university and the NCAA, an appellate court finally gave Florida State the go-ahead Wednesday to release a 695-page transcript of its Oct. 18, 2008 hearing before the NCAA's Committee on Infractions, testimony from which was used to smack multiple sports at FSU in March with probation, minor scholarship restrictions and -- most notably in light of Bobby Bowden's quixotic pursuit of the career wins record -- vacated wins for playing ineligible players later accused of cheating in an online course ("Musical Cultures of the World") in 2006 and 2007. The transcript didn't tell us a whole lot we didn't already know. (Although it is, like, 700 pages long, so a few people are still reading.)

The news is probably more notable for public records scholars -- the NCAA infractions process is a notoriously secretive ordeal, and it fought tooth-and-nail to keep it that way -- than football fans, but the released documents did shed some light on a few specific details of the Florida State's violations, and of the school's subsequent investigation and defense, most of it painting "an unflattering portrait of Florida State’s professors and administrators," according to the New York Times. But certainly not nearly as unflattering as the portrait it painted of some of FSU's players, academically speaking, or the stops pulled out on their behalf by (to use FSU president T.K. Wetherell's term) a "rogue tutor":

Brenda Monk, a learning specialist hired to work with athletes who had learning and physical disabilities, was accused of improperly helping students type, edit and write their papers. Monk, who testified that some of those athletes had a second-grade reading level, was accused of committing academic fraud. In one case, she was said to have let students use a study guide that had answers to exam questions for an online music course.

Monk has left the university and filed a defamation suit against Florida State.

In their defense, second-graders are very advanced these days, what with the Baby Einstein and secret genetic engineering programs Congress slipped into an appropriations bill; some of the contemporary seven-year-old's favorite television shows also captivate the Miami Hurricanes. (And vicious, highly educated commenters, please, consider how the unusually high clusters of "criminal justice" and "recreational administration" majors on your own squad might fare by the same standard before you hit that spittle-flecked 'return' key.)

We can still assume that every Seminole at least knows how to count to 14, which remains the relevant number: As it stands, FSU still has to wipe 14 victories from Bowden's career total, a fate that may actually be looking more and more attractive to him -- if you remove those wins from the 2006-07 seasons, the unfolding disaster in 2009 suddenly looks like an improvement.

[King Crimson]

sounds like Monk is trying to shift the blame to the institution by asserting indirectly that "she was doing what was right" with student-athletes that didn't belong in college (even as D-1 football players)...thereby placing big picture blame on FSU admissions and the academic-integrity-busting-spectacle of BTPCF.

having a study guide with "answers that are on the exam" is a sad, but not uncommon practice. today's college student whines like a bitch if they don't get a study guide for everything to the point they think it's "unfair" not to "get one" for an exam (since they don't do any of the work). having the guide during the exam is a different story, if that's the case.

[M Club]

what's with that gay chicken thing petey pulls off after he gets dissed on his first go at a hug?

[SoCalTrjn]

Fight On Stafon


Beat the Irish

[TheChief]

Can this football season please end? When is tip off?

[indyfrisco]

Fight On Stafon

You can tell he was caught in the moment...all choked up and all.

[SoCalTrjn]

Fight On Stafon

You can tell he was caught in the moment...all choked up and all.

[Killian]

[SoCalTrjn]

the woodpile killed 11 more and its noit like you showed the cliffs in Pedro

[Go Coogs']

This falls on the admin for the double standards set for college athletes. Specifically with footballl athletes. However, it's Monk's job to tudor these students; not to just pass them by giving them the answers. But I'm sure her job was on the line if she tudored the students and they couldn't pass because they did not belong in college in the first place.

To touch on what KC said about college students being whiny and needy these days. That is no lie. My mother has been a university professor for close to 10 years now and she says it gets worse and worse every year.

Something about the Y generation that makes them think they have a sense of entitlement. They spend most of the time arguing policy and asking for favors rather than doing the work. When I was in college, the syllabus was usually 1-2 pages that sort of gave broad strokes of the course objectives and guidelines. My mother says the syllabus has now turned into a 4-5 page contract between her and the students. She gives them two copies. They must sign one of them and agree to the terms and turn back in before they leave the first class. They spend the entire first class reading the syllabus. It's become quite rediculous.

All of this because the deans and department heads don't want to deal with the constant bickering by the student body, so they just put more onus on the staff. My mother even said that she has parents come to the school and argue with her. She just tells them, "Excuse me, but your child is no longer a child. She/He is an adult. You can't help them now." This country is doomed when these shitheads takeover.