Academic PR Fumble at the Goal Line
The Toledo Blade publishes a snarky article about UM’s academic standards and if they put UM at a recruiting disadvantage compared to other schools as Harbaugh has eluded.
Their FOIA request for the SAT/ACT scores for athletes (rollup, not individual) was denied, essentially because they are not required to provide this info. Ohio State provided the information and went into further detail about exemptions/leeway given to athletics. Either there is no higher standard or this was a poorly conceived response. If UM has Stanford like requirements it could have been a recruiting win. IMO it comes off as being less transparent than needed and they squandered an opportunity to boost the university’s profile. If the test score are higher than the competitors, publicize that....seems simple. I’d love to know what input the AD had on this decision, every opportunity for a competitive advantage should be publicized. Instead, the snarky little article eludes there is more to hide that the General Studies major that was previously brought to light.
It was a well publicized story that Justin Fields takes online classes. When jokes were made a professor made it clear that these courses are no joke. The way it was handled was a PR win for OSU, why can’t we respond in any other manner than “you can’t make us tell you that”.
October 2nd, 2019 at 7:45 AM ^
Because OSU handles everything in football better than we do.
October 2nd, 2019 at 7:59 AM ^
Confounded by the response to this. Somebody 'splain me? A) I want us to have high standards. B) I want sunshine on every function of MY PUBLIC university. And C), I want those standards understood by all.
October 2nd, 2019 at 8:09 AM ^
I thought a Toledo blade was the hot farts you get the day after Tony Packo's?
October 2nd, 2019 at 8:09 AM ^
I think it is fine that they denied it.
October 2nd, 2019 at 9:00 AM ^
If they are online courses, they are a fucking joke.
I highly doubt the FOIA office consulted anybody from the athletic department before denying this request. They are some of the laziest fuckers in the state of Michigan. If they have an excuse not to serve a request, you can 100% guarantee they will deny the request without thinking twice.
October 2nd, 2019 at 9:31 AM ^
UM's FOIA office says no to everything so its pretty standard practice.
You are also taking a leap that the information would show how great Michigan is compared to the rest of the country. My guess is the athletics numbers look a lot like the rest of the big tens. The idea that athletes are all rolled up into one also kind of defeats the point. Schools intentionally stock non revenue sports with kids with really high gpa's. Want to be a walk on for Michigan football? A 4.0 is going to go a lot farther getting you on the team than running 4.7 instead of a 4.9 40.
October 2nd, 2019 at 9:42 AM ^
When you look at Michigan football's academic all big ten qualifiers, almost every single walk-on makes that list.
October 2nd, 2019 at 9:53 AM ^
idiot
October 2nd, 2019 at 9:55 AM ^
I see that my hometown news paper has decided to jump the shark with this article. Guess Briggs and Rowland has never dealt with UM's FOIA office.
October 2nd, 2019 at 9:57 AM ^
Also lol at the Fields online class thing being a PR win. They may very well be legit, or even more difficult than most in-person classes there, but that's not what all the headlines were about.. most people's attention span probably moved on by the time that professor "clarified"
October 2nd, 2019 at 9:28 PM ^
Also also lol at how easy it is for someone else to take an online class for you. I took several English classes for my girlfriend at the time while she was in nursing school. Shhhhh. She got A’s on all her papers though.
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:03 AM ^
I think the real issue is the way the institutions of the State of Ohio vs how the State of Michigan handle FOIA requests. Michigan has become notoriously expensive, evasive and downright restrictive when it comes to getting FOIA's fulfilled. Ohio doesn't seem to be that.
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:05 AM ^
Slightly off topic from the article (which is a joke), but I always laugh when people try to roast Michigan players for their selected major. First, if they knew anything about Harbaugh, he doesn’t fear athletes toward any major (unlike how he prior accused Michigan). Players can choose whatever major they like, but they know their class work comes first, which I’m sure can be a detractor from pursuing many STEM based majors due to the intensity of the work. Second, the big detractor people like to point at is the number of general studies majors. I’m not going to sit here and try to argue that it’s the most competitive or difficult major because it’s not, but as a student who didn’t decide on their major (economics) until late, I fell under that category for awhile in my undergraduate studies. However, I promise it was not for a lack of difficult course work (took multiple computer science and math courses). Sometimes people try multiple subjects before deciding. Now that may not apply to our football student athletes (I don’t know), but with the amount of work on their plates, it would not be surprising to me if they weren’t always fully focused on mapping out their career paths outside of football. I mean let’s be honest, how many regular students graduate knowing exactly where their future plans lie. Anyways... I digress just venting a little lol.
October 2nd, 2019 at 11:06 AM ^
If you plan on going to grad school (which many players do, especially when they take advantage of all five years), a general studies major is probably a smart way to go. There are so many classes you might want to take but have to miss out on if you follow a specific major track. Especially for athletes, who have to keep everything on schedule.
Personally, I think it's unfair to athletes that we expect them to graduate in four (often three) years considering the average student takes five years to receive their degree nowadays. We should give them five years to get a four year degree.
October 2nd, 2019 at 12:04 PM ^
Jourdan Lewis recently tweeted he was not allowed to be a graphic design major while at UM. That doesn’t square with what you are claiming.
October 2nd, 2019 at 1:38 PM ^
It’s very unlikely that the problem was rigor. Some majors just have too many conflicts with an athlete’s schedule. This is why it’s unfair that we make athletes complete their majors within four years.
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:16 AM ^
-or- you don't know how FOIA law works.
You can't expect a governmental body to create work product for you. You can only ask for work product that they already have. Since Michigan doesn't have a separate admission process for athletes (OSU might which made it easy for them to provide that stuff), Michigan couldn't actually respond by FOIA.
Likely Michigan just didn't have that information and didn't want to task 3 people to compile it. I'll add that if Michigan did decide to create a list for this FOIA request, they'd have to compile it by names in order to create it, and there's no guarantee that this list to include athlete names would not end up produced through a FOIA appeal. Also, creating work product for one FOIA request would be a great way to find yourself explaining to a judge why the university won't create work product (or compile data) for other random requests. Stranger things have happened.
So, no. It's only a PR fumble if you are an OSU grad.
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:24 AM ^
Actually after going back and reading the article that's exactly what Michigan said:
“Your request is denied because we have no responsive records. The University does not calculate or compile the requested data, and pursuant to Section 3 (4) and (5) of the Michigan Freedom of Information Act, the University is not required to make a compilation, summary or report of information, nor create a new public record, in order to respond to your request.”
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:42 AM ^
Kerryon Johnson.
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:58 AM ^
Why should we judge students by their SAT/ACT scores, anyway? They have to do well enough to get in the school and that's all that matters. It's how we, as a university, help them excel at the college level that matters.
Besides, we take in a lot of athletes that have offers from Stanford, Ivy League schools, and other academically-focused programs. This is probably why there have been fewer direct recruiting competitions in the Harbaugh/Meyer era. A lot of athletes (including some in the state of Michigan) that Ohio State and MSU went after Harbaugh neglected to pursue.
I'm pretty confident that if the FOIA request was processed, it wouldn't have painted the picture the Blade hoped it would and then they wouldn't have published anything. I also don't think this is a "PR fumble" because only Ohio State internet trolls will care.
October 2nd, 2019 at 11:59 AM ^
This shit pisses me off. UM is clearly being disingenuous on this matter. We can’t name one player on the OSU roster we would not have taken. Gary got a 6 on the wunderlik and they acted like he was a genius. I’ve seen the kid speak in a formal setting. He’s no idiot, but a genius he is clearly not.
October 2nd, 2019 at 1:03 PM ^
The article was an opinion piece with some reporting in it of their efforts to get information which was not available. I am already regretting the five minutes it took to skim the piece. It's all pro-OSU PR stuff. Including the protestation by the beacon of morality, Gordon Gee.
Why OSU flirts with this MSU like inferiority complex thing when they keep beating us, is beyond me.
October 2nd, 2019 at 1:26 PM ^
That Toledo Blade dude is a troll. Do not feed.
October 2nd, 2019 at 2:18 PM ^
Michigan does not have Stanford like or Northwestern like requirements
October 2nd, 2019 at 2:35 PM ^
David Briggs went to OSU. You really think he's going to objectively report on Michigan's athletic department?
October 2nd, 2019 at 7:06 PM ^
Idk about admission standards but one HUGE disadvantage is not being able to get JUCOs