By Sanford G. Thatcher
It is sad to see SMU’s administration and students react to the NCAA’s sanctions by criticizing the NCAA rather than recognizing what these problems unearthed by the investigation say about the university’s values, at least as represented by the comments of administrators and students quoted in the newspaper.
The tenor of the comments suggests that the highest value at SMU is having a winning basketball team, not running a clean program and holding academic integrity as the highest value. The administration and students stand behind Larry Brown despite him being proved a serial NCAA offender, as long as his team wins games. I can’t help but wonder if a professor or a student who lied and cheated would be kept on campus for long.
But the questions go beyond the NCAA report. Is no one bothered by the fact that Keith Frazier’s high school transcript was falsified and yet he was allowed to remain a student at SMU even after this information was disclosed? He had no business being a student here in the first place.
SMU might better devote its efforts to improving its standing in the national academic rankings (tied for 61st) rather than in the NCAA standings. TV Channel 8 sportscaster Dale Hansen opined not long ago that SMU wants to be Harvard academically and Alabama athletically. If a school can’t be both (and Hansen thinks it’s impossible), then ask yourself which paradigm would it be better for SMU to emulate?
Sanford G. Thatcher, an Associate of the Tower Center at SMU, is a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University who spent his entire career in scholarly publishing, first at Princeton and then at Penn State, where he was director of its university press for twenty years. As an undergraduate at Princeton he was a member of the swimming team. He continues to swim in masters competition today and holds six state records in the Texas Summer Games in his age group. In May 2015 at his 50th college reunion, he was honored with the 250th Award, given for “outstanding dedication and commitment” to the Princeton swimming and diving program.
