WBB: New Jersey Athletic Conference

[phil]

Apparently Keans' Crackerjack administration has other issue's at hand besides basketball players getting credits for essentially playing basketball. From AP.com's Bob Ingle:

"...Kean University and Essex County College have received warnings from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Both were cited for failing to adequately measure student progress and for not having adequate systems to gauge institutional effectiveness. They have until March 1 to show they've corrected the problems. If they don't improve, their accreditation can be yanked."

Methinks some higher-ups at Kean will be very busy padding their resumes this summer – if they're not busy hiring legal counsel.

[ronk]

Rumor has it that the current Kean administration will be interviewing former Upsala College administrators about their recent job opening.

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/08/sports/ncaa-puts-upsala-basketball-on-probation-for-5-years.html

And whatever happened to Upsala; they were a league opponent of Scranton back when ?

[Warren Thompson]

Rumor has it that the current Kean administration will be interviewing former Upsala College administrators about their recent job opening.

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/08/sports/ncaa-puts-upsala-basketball-on-probation-for-5-years.html

And whatever happened to Upsala; they were a league opponent of Scranton back when ?

Upsala closed its doors a number of years ago. Phil, a former New Jersey resident, can provide more details.

[phil]

Upsala closed its doors in 1995 after trying unsuccessfully for several years to boost enrollment and secure more loans and donations to keep it afloat. They had land donated to them in Sussex County – but they stayed in urban East Orange rather than move their campus. Don't know about now, but through the 60's, 70s, 80's and 90's – you didn't want to wander into East Orange for fears you wouldn't get back out. Not the safest of places. Coming from West Orange I seem to remember a favorite chant of the East Orange sports fans:
"E.O, E.O....we don't win...you don't GO"

Yeah, fun place. As much a college town as 42nd street was a family destination circa 1981.

[ronk]

 thanks for the update; I played against them in E Orange(62-63 season) and all i remember about the game/campus is having local alumni showing up to cheer us on.

[phil]

Apparently grade fixing is a time honored tradition at Kean. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/04/05/kean

The 19 page lawsuit is an eye opener. Grades changed. Courses made up in September and the woman's b-ball team enrolled.  A student's "F" changed to an "Incomplete" in time for a game, despite the teacher's objection. If I were the head coach at the center of this mess, I would be preparing for a change of venue. Good summer reading...

media.nj.com/njv_impact/other/19-page%20lawsuit.pdf

Now, being that Kean is a NJ State college of "higher" learning – do NJ taxpayers pay for the lawyers defending the Kean administration from these allegations?

The more I read about the current Kean administration, the more it begins to stink like yesterday's fish. Using the taxpayer's money to hire Ex-N.J. Gov. Jim McGreevey to teach Ethics is a fine move for a school with a 16% four-year graduation rate. And as we see above, that's just the tip of the iceberg...

[BigMac]

I hope that if Kean is found guilty of the alligations that the punishment sends a message to all that this can not be tolerated in college sports. The coach needs to go, the dean needs to go and anyone involved needs to go. How can you fire the one person who is trying to do what is right?? Hope the AD gets everything he wants and then some. All Kean Bball players involved should be baned from playing

What a shame to act like this just to win a few basketball games???

[dahlby]

BigMac,

Agree 100%..set the example for the other schools!
Plus K to you!

[kate]

Very sorry i don't have a link for this, but was getting dinner tonight when i heard on Philadelphia Channel 6 News at 4 pm that Villanova Law School was being censured - why?   They were caught inflating grades!!!   It seems as tho it's not limited to New Jersey schools.   I agree that ALL the adults involved in the Kean case need to be shown the door, but still feel badly for the students, all between the ages of 18 &  22 presumably.   The PA law school students could have known that something wasn't right.   Is competition that intense now with this economy, or has it always been like this.  I sincerely hope that something can be worked out with the Kean athletes involved.

[phil]

One of the Kean students in question allegedly went to her professor and requested her grade be changed so she could keep her basketball elligibility. My sympathy for some of the players in question only goes so far. One would hope that between the ages of 18 and 21 a degree of common sense has been aquired. That said, any administrators caught up in this should be fired and then forced to attend an ethics lecture by former NJ Governor McGreevey who is currently been paid by the university to teach his brand of pretzel logic at the taxpayers expense.

[kate]

Hello Phil, doesn't Kean University have mentors and tutors in place for students who may be considered at risk?  It still seems to me that a professor might feel badly about the situation, but they're still the adult.  Sure, i'd panic too if i was a really good b'ball player & was getting poor grades.   It seems like more & more opportunities are opening up for these athletic program grads, even if it means leaving the country.   There has to be a better solution that's legal, and it should start with the school's administration & the staff. 

[phil]

In this situation, a college administrator changed the student's grade to ensure her eligibility ... over the professor's objections. This was not an isolated case.

[reddragon00]

I think the more you look into this...the more you will find it is going on with other sports....just the way it works.  If found to be rampant, the message and punishment will, and should be, harsh!!!!!  No room for this in college sports.

[Pat Coleman]

Other sports at Kean or other sports at other schools?

[Brookland]

I, too, have read the lawsuit and find it appalling. If even half of the allegations are true (and it's hard to believe they can be completely false given the extensively-quoted string of emails it contains), then I agree that every adult involved should be shown the door and the AD compensated richly for what he was put through.
However, I do NOT believe (or maybe do not WANT to believe) that this behavior is widespread in DIII. This whole discussion reminds me of an experience of mine when I was much younger and a new assistant DIII coach (different school, different sport). I overheard a casual remark by the head coach that sounded like he was contemplating something that I thought might be an NCAA violation. I shared my concerns with the other assistants (one of whom was in law school - how DIII!) and we quickly decided to talk to the coach about it. After a brief conversation in which we openly shared our concerns and were assured that he meant nothing of the sort, the issue was closed. Completely. Without recriminations. Without resort to the AD. Without regard to winning or losing. That kind of approach could have been taken anywhere along the line at Kean, but the only one who appeared to care about integrity was the one who was fired.
Do I think I was part of an exceptionally high-integrity coaching staff back then? NO. I believe most of the DIII coaches and administrators I have known would have done the same thing. And by the way, that head coach we confronted went on to be inducted into the school's Athletic Hall of Fame, and the AD went on to a successful career in DI.
Integrity is always a choice, in sports, in business, in life. It is one of the primary lessons that coaches should teach, even though some fail to understand the lesson themselves well enough to teach it. If the young women who were the beneficiaries of those behaviors saw no consequences for the adults involved, what lesson would they learn? Winning trumps education? It's only wrong if you're caught? You get a degree for playing basketball, not for learning?
That's why I love DIII sports. Played by students who love to play and coached by coaches who love to coach. Neither doing it only for the money, as it should be. Let's keep it that way! GO DIII!!