Thursday, June 10, 2010

Admissions-speak on athletes

The UM admissions office clarifies how admissions work for student athletes:
Our admissions criteria are more rigorous than the NCAA minimums for academic eligibility. All undergraduate admissions decisions are based on the individualized, holistic review of information about each applicant that considers academic achievements and his or her potential to succeed, as well as many additional variables such as essays, letters of recommendation and other factors. In the end, some student-athletes who have received letters of intent are not admitted and that has always been the case.
Well, that clears that up!

For those readers not used to the particular dialect spoken by academic administrators, let me translate. That paragraph means: "We do whatever we want. Now go away."

2 comments:

BMMillsy said...

I'm curious...why even make this statement? Has there been more hubbub about it lately? Does a statement actually matter, given that we know how these things work, and Football and Basketball are pretty insignificant to the student population as a whole where there are 40,000 students?

econjeff said...

I was puzzled by the timing too, and assumed that there had been something in the media that I had missed. Anyone?