In Response to Outside the Lines

Over the past few days, accusations have been flying about Florida State’s academic standards for student athletes. Much of the flak is coming from an ESPN Outside the Lines report claiming that Florida State lowers the academic bar for student athletes. Based on the claims of a former academic assistant (who subsequently is suing Florida State), OTL reports that many student athletes are given passes in class, allotted tutors who type papers, and are accepted with substandard IQs. One “fact” OTL threw out was that one student athlete had an IQ as low as 60.

Also cited was the testimony of former player Fred Rouse. Rouse was enrolled at FSU for one semester before being released from the team, during which time he was suspended for several games for violating team rules. According to records, Rouse only caught six passes during his college career at FSU before being released after allegations of drug use, breaking and entering, and behavior detrimental to the team.

Rouse took an especially harmful stance when he called out former teammates for their academic shortcoming, one of whom is current San Diego Charger Antonio Cromartie. “Cromartie’s reading level was so low that he could only read a word or two every minute,” stated Rouse (http://bit.ly/6JlZVy). Both Rouse and Cromartie attended high school at Tallahassee’s Lincoln High School and then continued on to Florida State. When asked for a comment on Rouse’s facts, Cromartie declined to comment.

Cromartie does admit to having some language difficulties, but the reports of him barely being able to read are apparently false. I contacted Jason Staples, former FSU football player who knew Cromartie, to comment on what he saw during his time playing at Florida State, “My interaction with him [Cromartie] was more on a player level, but he was a smart guy and gave no indication of having any of the kind of problems Rouse suggested. He was able to come into FSU and get meaningful playing time as a freshman, meaning he had to learn and digest a college level defense quite rapidly, displaying quite a bit of intelligence.”

Staples also went on to describe Rouse, Cromartie’s accuser and ESPN’s key witness in their report, “Rouse, on the other hand, was a troublemaker from the beginning. My roommate during my MA was a Florida high school official who had done a few of Rouse’s games. I distinctly remember him coming home disgusted that, as far as he could tell, Rouse had just played a game ‘high.’ He predicted he wouldn’t last at FSU, and his prediction was correct. I wouldn’t trust Fred Rouse beyond the reach of my arm, and I would take anything he said with a grain of salt.”

Another former Florida State athlete, Chris Nickinson, described Rouse this way: “To describe Rouse’s character level – His HS 4x100m relay was the best in the nation in ’05. The[y] were DQ’d at state for fighting. I believe the fight was AFTER the race, maybe on the awards podium. Anyways, they were ranked #1 in the US & won Nike Outdoor Nats. Here are the results of that race: http://bit.ly/4PbyqI.” Nickinson was also a teammate of Cromartie’s on the Florida State track and field team.

What’s interesting to note about Staples is that he wasn’t simply an athlete at Florida State; he went on to become an academic tutor for the athletic department. He saw both sides of the “injustices” being described by ESPN through Rouse and Monk. Here’s what he had to say about the report:

“…part of the tradition of college athletics is that people who would otherwise have had no opportunity to get a college education receive scholarships and assistance to receive that education in return for their participation in sports. That has always been true, whether simply a matter of those from families without the means to support a college education or those from schools or educational backgrounds that otherwise do not well prepare students for higher education. Additionally, FSU (and every other university) regularly admits students who do not meet the academic standards set by the institution, and athletes are only a fraction of this group of students. And is it wrong to admit a student who shows promise but comes from a high school where breaking 1000 on the SAT is seen as remarkable? Every university admits a small number of such exceptional cases every year in the hopes that these students, finally receiving educational opportunities they have never had, will better themselves and eventually better the community.”

When asked about Monk’s claims that she was encouraged to write papers for student athletes and do their work for them, giving them “free passes” Staples strongly disagreed. “As for the second claim, that athletes were given a ‘free pass,’ this is patently false. Florida State, like every other BCS school, does steer certain athletes towards more manageable (i.e. easier) course loads or majors. But given that playing a D-1 sport is the equivalent of working a full time job, this is a matter of prudence more than anything else. Think about it: most non-athlete college students who are working full time in addition to going to school either take smaller course loads (NCAA athletes have minimum course loads they have to meet, so that’s out of the question) or tend to carefully schedule more manageable course loads or even easier majors. So there is little difference between athletes and non-athletes on that front. That said, we had several pre-med, engineering, computer science, and other difficult majors on the football team when I was at FSU, so it is not impossible, though these players had to be extra disciplined to keep up (some had to miss portions of practice on occasion due to mandatory labs, etc.)

“I have a series of emails from FSU’s athletic academic support staff from when I was a tutor in the athletic department (during my MA studies) reminding tutors of their responsibility to help the athletes learn the material rather than giving them answers or helping them do their work. I quote from a memo sent out by Mark Meleney, the Director of Academic Support, on October 12, 2006:

I would also like to remind everyone that we can not provide typing services for our students. This is a service we do not offer in house and typing without compensation is considered an extra benefit. If a student athlete needs a paper to be typed they must type it themselves or hire a typist. I understand that research is a vital part of producing academic work and I understand that you, at times, will be sitting at a computer helping a student athlete conduct research. With this being said, if you are observed working with a student athlete and you are sitting at a computer typing, expect to be questioned about what you are doing. If it is research, fine. If it is just typing for the student you are in violation of NCAA rules. Any and all staff members have a responsibility to question this observance. If it is deemed that what you are doing is typing a paper for a student athlete then expect consequences for your actions.

In closing, I’d like to thank everyone for their efforts to date.  Remember, the goal is to develop independent learners.

Where, in this memo, would any tutor receive the inkling of an idea that it was a good idea to produce work or give answers to athletes, as Monk has claimed? FSU also had every tutor sign a form in which they promised not to produce material or give out answers to students; no tutor could work without having signed that form (if I recall correctly, it had to be signed every semester). Monk’s claims about tutors giving athletes ‘free passes’ is more of a sign of a lazy tutor than anything else.”

Staples testimony shows that Florida State had repeatedly reminded tutors to make sure students were “turning in projects and papers that are a reflection of their own ideas and effort.”

In conclusion, after much research and interviewing with former Florida State athletes, it seems that ESPN aired a story from two begrudged sources rather than researching the entire story first.

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Jason Staples is presently a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and blogs about religion, sports, and other interesting topics at his blog: http://www.jasonstaples.com/blog/