Okay. What's the problem with that? The problem is that dozens of FSU athletes cheated. The president of the university analyzes that failure to choose right over wrong -- something we ask our six-year-olds to do, or to bear the shame for failing to do -- as a failure on the part of everyone EXCEPT the students who cheated."The violations focused on a poorly structured online course, lack of attention to detail by a faculty member, and insufficient oversight by the athletic department of one rogue tutor -- all coming together to result in a 'contaminated' class," Wetherell said in the statement....
Wetherell, who has been vacationing in Montana since the suspensions were announced Tuesday, said no coaches were involved and that many of the athletes simply used poor judgment.
"The student-athletes, who come from a number of sports, did not enroll in the course with the intent to do anything wrong," he said. "However, a university-employed tutor provided inappropriate help on exams. In the final analysis, these students made the decision to use the answers provided for an online exam, and they are suffering the consequences."
The students "made the decision to use the answers provided." Well, okay, this sounds like a simple matter, as if the hotel maid left two mints on your pillow and you figured it would be okay if you ate both.
Sir, first: you are a university president. You stand for academics in your little town. And you stand for its highest ideals, two of which are learning and integrity. So stand for them.
Second: if you as university president have to choose which one to throw under the bus, A) 25 of your student-athletes or B) the academic environment they work in, including curriculum, instructors, and tutors, you choose A -- particularly if there's evidence, as there is, that those 25 student-athletes cheated, as they did.
If you instead choose B), as you have, then you have set yourself a problem: containment. And are we really going to believe in this notion of a "contaminated class"?
What the hell is a "contaminated class"? It sure sounds like something where no one is at fault -- maybe radiation just crept in, or the books were past their shelf date, or there were just some serious bad vibes in the room.
Because if I were a father with a daughter who was a serious student -- and in 15 years I will be -- and that daughter were considering Florida State University, I would see this sort of weakness on the part of the university president as exactly the sort of thing that would made me forbid my daughter to attend.
Class contamination. Faculty members who lack attention. And rogue tutors. (The very word "rogue" is such an obvious ploy. Yeah, I guess that's the same tutor who mentored Deion Sanders -- all those years ago.)
And students whose decision to cheat is whitewashed by the university president?
This is a sad sight. At any university that aspired to educate its student-athletes, any university with ambition and integrity, it would occasion talk of the president's dismissal.
But probably not at Florida State University.
