University Daily Kansan, February 3, 1984
Page 7
continued from p. 1
Grades
"I got upset when a man talks about the privacy of a student and his rights and has a meeting with a student and then goes public with it." Brown said during an interview yesterday.
Yesterday Katzman said he sent both his and Brown's letter to 'appropriate people and businesses'.
Katzman said that Brown's request was an insult to the academic integrity of the University.
In his second letter, Brown refuted that statement.
"I was there solely to assist the student in presenting his appeal for the grade imposed," the letter said. "Perhaps I should not have attended the meeting. I came because Cedric asked me to and I also came because of my performance and all the student athletes under my charge.
"PROFESSOR KATZMAN apparently feels that a head basketball coach has this great power over the academic outcome of our student athletes. I wish that were so, but I don't even pretend to have control over their performances on the court."
Brown also said that he had never encountered such a situation at the University of California at Los Angeles or at the University of North Carolina, the other schools where he has coached. He said KU had a problem with accepting student-athletes as students.
"You try to look around and tell people that you interested in these kids and then something like this happens," he said yesterday. "This school is so different from the others I've coached at. We have to bridge the gap between student-athletes and academics."
He said that some professors were not cooperative about completing academic pro-
grass reports, which the athletic department sends to professors of athletics to make sure they are in good shape.
"WHAT BOTHERS ME is that now I have a reputation based on one man that I'm not concerned about academics," he said. "That's something from what I have always believed in."
Katzman said there was something fundamentally wrong with a coach attending a meeting between a student-athlete and a professor
He said that he thought Brown's intentions were good, but Duncan didn't understand the system at KU.
Athletic Director Monte Johnson refused comment
Ambler said yesterday that he knew of no policy that would prohibit a student from taking someone to a meeting to discuss grades with an instructor.
However, Ambler said, grades should primarily be a subject addressed by the student and instructor.
IN HIS LETTER to Brown and the administrators, Katzman proposed that athletic department staff members and concerned faculty members "convene a forum to discuss the larger role of athletics and academics at the University of Kansas."
Brown said he would also welcome such a forum.
1 a like to sit down in front of every faculty member and tell them what happened in the
Some information for this story was also supplied by Sports Editor Jeff Cravens and by Kansan reporters Gretchen Day and Jenny Barker.
A record ratio of rushees pledge
The percentage of women who pledged with Panhellenic sororities during rush this year is the largest since pledge records have been kept, and the average vice president for membership said this week.
Seventy-four percent, or 447 of the 610 women who began rush Jan. 5, joined sorcerors, said Jackie McGaugh, the vice president. The women's spring is a 5 percent increase over last year.
This year, the Panhellenic Association's 13
sororites at the University of Kansas raised minimum GPA requirements from 2.0 to 2.3.
McGaugh said the increased grade requirement prevented more than 200 of the 818 girls who registered for rush in November from qualifying to participate in January.
Sheila Immel, adviser for Panhellenic, said that the GPA change was not surprising, because most sororites already had GPA 3.9 or higher and wouldn't pledge women with lower averages.
Mr. Larry Brown'
Head Basketball Coach
Department of Intercollegiate Athletics
Allen Field Mouse
January 19, 1984
Dear Mr. Brown
Instead of a "lesson," I found your letter of January 9th insulting, intemperate that you have taught me to be the university and that I have come to associate with the university and my community in the nearly fifteen years I have been a faculty member. I improve upon the academic standards of the University of Kansas.
I met with you and the student on a Sunday afternoon not because he is an athlete and you are a coach but because he was a concerned student. I met with you to talk to him, to help him to their needs. Perhaps you misinterpreted the Sunday meeting, feeling that it signaled special treatment for a member of your team. If you were a student, I would have been there.
You charge me with lacking "compassion for the individual" which leads you to use my basic character by questioning "whether you have any compassion for others." You charge me with compassion, but it is one of how that compassion is expressed. From this experience, I only understand that compassion has only one interpretation: award the student a passing grade. I am sorry that you did not acknowledge our academic standards at the University of Kansas. Your request to give a student a passing grade merely because he requires it is not fair.
What concern me as well is the possibility that you have been or will be successful in college. You may be unaware about the customs of university of Kansas in accommodation, probably there are faculty and graduate students who are similarly ignorant. We encourage you to ask your advisor if you know when you request that an athlete be given a grade other than the one earned.
A young untenured faculty member or a graduate teaching assistant could be appointed that the renewal might hinge on cooperating with what considered standard practice.
Finally, you accuse me of being "prejudiced against athletes." Do you always attack the integrity and good intentions of those who disagree with you? I will not argue the issue with you because apparently our standards are unfair to all. I will not argue that your performance would be equal in importance to athletics, not only because it is important to remain eligible, but because education itself has its own rewards. Indeed, we should not judge an athlete's performance not and athletic pursuits offer the greatest career opportunities.
I believe that we can all benefit from this unpleasant experience. Perhaps we might convene a discussion of athletic department staff and some interested faculty under the auspices of Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Seniors or Staff. I am confident that such discussions will be the same time we might convene a public forum to discuss the larger role of athletics and academics at the University of Kansas. Such open forums assist the university community in defining the issues and can lead to the kind of debate that is often needed.
In hopes of stimulating some constructive action, I am sending copies of our correspondence to appropriate offices and people.
Sincerely,
David M. Katharine
David M. Katzman, Associate Dean Director, College Honors Program
DMK :||
David Katzman, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and KU basketball coach Larry Brown exchanged these letters after they met Jan. 8 to discuss a failing grade Katzman gave basketball player Cedric Hunter.
The Kansan obtained a copy of Brown's letter from a University employee who requested anonymity. Brown yesterday gave a copy
January 26,1984
Dear Colleagues:
.ice Chancellor Denell Amacher
Vice Chancellor David Amler
TAMS Professor Jeffrey NEXE
Professor Grant Goodman, AUPU
Professor Dan Schriefer, Department Dean Robert Lennick, College Liberal Arts
I did appreciate Professor Katanne's time in talking with us and still do. I will not, however, appreciate what I felt during our meeting.
I am writing each of you with regard to the copies of a letter which you apparently received concerning a recent meeting with Professor Katzman. I will send you a copy of the meeting and my follow-up note to Professor Katzman to be sent to you. Since Katzman has done so, I find the need to make it public. Since Katzman has done so, I find the need to make it public.
I did not go to see Professor Katzman to put pressure on him into changing a grade. Were I here to permit the student to change a grade? No, I was here to permit the student solely to assist the student in presenting his appeal for the grade impeded. The appeal was based upon educational reasons that the course had not been designed to concern what it would take to pass the course and the enrollment procedures of the university this fall. As you all must know by now,
Perhaps I should not have attended the meeting. I came because Cedric asked me to and I also cared because of my responsibility toward all.
I will be there.
Professor Katzenan apparently feels that a head basketball coach has this great power over the academic outcome of our student athletes. I wish that were so but I don't even pretend to control over their performances on the court.
I want very badly to participate in a forum regarding the role of athletes in an academic institution. I think that it is necessary for everyone to participate.
I coached at two institutions, U.C.L.A. and the University of North Carolina I and never encountered an experience quite like this. I am sure you know that there are some things the teacher should realize that they are not in their education and regardless of what Professor Katzan thinks, that is our primary goal.
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas
Hewlett-Boehner School
of Hockey
Sipçerely,
LB:cg
cc: David M. Katzman
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