Athletes Get Into College on a $399 Diplom

[Southpaw]

Poor Grades Aside, Athletes Get Into College on a $399 Diploma



By PETE THAMEL and DUFF WILSON
Published: November 27, 2005

By the end of his junior year at Miami Killian High School, Demetrice Morley flashed the speed, size and talent of a top college football prospect. His classroom performance, however, failed to match his athletic skills.
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Temple's Philip Simpson says he lacks college educational skills. More Photos >

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This listing for University High School appears on the directory of a building located in South Miami. University High School has raised the G.P.A.s of several college-bound athletes.

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University of Tennessee's Demetrice Morley graduated from University High with a grade point average of 2.75, precisely what he wound up needing to qualify for a scholarship. More Photos >

He received three F's that year and had a 2.09 grade point average in his core courses, giving him little hope of qualifying for a scholarship under National Collegiate Athletic Association guidelines.

In December of his senior year, Morley led Killian to the 2004 state title while taking a full course load. He also took seven courses at University High School, a local correspondence school, scoring all A's and B's. He graduated that December, not from Killian but from University High. His grade point average in his core courses was 2.75, precisely what he wound up needing to qualify for a scholarship.

Morley, now a freshman defensive back for the University of Tennessee, was one of at least 28 athletes who polished their grades at University High in the last two years.

The New York Times identified 14 who had signed with 11 Division I football programs: Auburn, Central Florida, Colorado State, Florida, Florida State, Florida International, Rutgers, South Carolina State, South Florida, Tennessee and Temple.

University High, which has no classes and no educational accreditation, appears to have offered the players little more than a speedy academic makeover.

The school's program illustrates that even as the N.C.A.A. presses for academic reforms, its loopholes are quickly recognized and exploited.

Athletes who graduated from University High acknowledged that they learned little there, but were grateful that it enabled them to qualify for college scholarships.

Lorenzo Ferguson, a second-year defensive back at Auburn, said he left Miami Southridge High School for University High, where after one month he had raised his average to 2.6 from 2.0.

"You take each course you failed in ninth or 10th grade," he said. "If it was applied math, you do them on the packets they give you. It didn't take that long. The answers were basically in the book."

The N.C.A.A. has allowed students to use correspondence school courses to meet eligibility requirements since 2000. That year, the N.C.A.A. also shifted the power to determine which classes count as core courses to high school administrators. In doing so, it essentially left schools to determine their own legitimacy.

"We're not the educational accreditation police," Diane Dickman, the N.C.A.A.'s managing director for membership services, said in September.

But last week, Myles Brand, president of the N.C.A.A., said he would form a group to examine issues involving correspondence courses and high school credentials. Brand acted partly in response to a letter sent on Nov. 2 from the Southeastern Conference that highlighted cases similar to Morley's and Ferguson's.

The man who founded University High School and owned it until last year, Stanley J. Simmons, served 10 months in a federal prison camp from 1989 to 1990 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud for his involvement with a college diploma mill in Arizona. Among the activities Simmons acknowledged in court documents were awarding degrees without academic achievement and awarding degrees based on studies he was unqualified to evaluate.

In interviews last week, he said he should never have pleaded guilty and that he operated legitimate correspondence schools for adults.

In 2004, Simmons sold University High to Michael R. Kinney, its director. Kinney, 27, who was arrested on a marijuana possession charge in 2003 and is wanted on a bench warrant, declined to comment, despite requests by phone, fax and visits to his apartment.

Several University High graduates said they found the school through Antron Wright, a former XFL and Arena Football League player who is prominent in Miami's high school athletic circles. He is considered a savior by some players, but one principal has barred Wright from his building for luring athletes to a rival school and introducing them to University High.


rest of article at
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/sports/ncaafootball/27school.html

 

[Southpaw]

Florida School Is Target of Inquiry



By PETE THAMEL
Published: November 29, 2005

The Florida High School Athletic Association announced yesterday that it was starting an inquiry into University High School, a correspondence school where several students quickly improved their grades to gain college eligibility.
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John A. Stewart, the association commissioner, said the inquiry would take place over the next few weeks and would examine the legitimacy of University High. Stewart declined to say which public high schools would be contacted.

Stewart said that a New York Times article on Sunday about high school football players dropping out of public schools to attend University High prompted the inquiry.

University High has no classes and no educational accreditation. It was founded by Stanley J. Simmons, who served 10 months in a federal prison camp after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud for his association with a college degree mill.

"We have a lot of reservations about numerous things mentioned in the article," Stewart said.

Joseph Garcia, a spokesman for Miami Dade County Public Schools, said his organization would also be making inquiries. The article detailed how Antron Wright, a former Dade County substitute teacher, had lured students to Killian High School, a public school, and later to University High.

"Certainly this question of whether an individual is enticing a student athlete to move from one school to another is a serious concern," Garcia said.

The Times identified 14 students from the Miami area who attended University High and went on to sign with 11 Division I football programs. Many of the students said they had significantly increased their grade point average over short periods at University High, graduating in as little as three weeks.

Three of the colleges that accepted University High graduates - Tennessee, Auburn and Florida - play in the Southeastern Conference.

Mike Slive, the SEC commissioner, said he was pleased that the conference had questioned what he said was a loophole in N.C.A.A. rules that had allowed University High transcripts to be accepted. Slive pointed to a 10-point letter that the SEC sent to the N.C.A.A. on Nov. 2 as proof of the conference's scrutiny of the issue.

"It's important now that this loophole be looked at nationally," Slive said. "In 2000, when the N.C.A.A. decided to move away from some critical analysis, it opened the door and people moved ahead with it."

Partly in response to the SEC's letter, the N.C.A.A. is forming a group of college and high school administrators to look into the subject and forward recommendations to the N.C.A.A. by June 1.

The group will examine how correspondence school courses are reviewed, the legitimacy of high school credentials and the time limitations on meeting core course requirements.

"We think this is a bigger issue than the operation in South Florida," said the University of Florida's president, Bernie Machen.

"We think it could be all over. A few years ago, it was in the junior colleges; now this is the next wave higher education is going to have to deal with."

Allen Ezell, a former F.B.I. agent who specialized in investigating degree mills, said yesterday that University High "sounded like watered-down education to the point of being fraudulent."

Ezell spent 11 years investigating college degree mills for the F.B.I., and helped shut down about 40 of them, including one that Simmons was affiliated with.

He said that focusing attention on places like University High could lead to increased state regulation. Florida law is explicit in its hands-off policy toward regulating private schools and their curriculums.

Ezell said, "It may be good to point out a flaw in the system: that no one does regulate them."

 

[phillycard]

Florida huh? Typical.