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Report: Auburn athletic department pushed to ensure survival of major
Did Auburn's athletic department influence the school's decision to keep its public administration major?
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, the school had decided to eliminate the major in 2013. However, following discussions with the athletic department, the major survived.
In addition to meeting with the school’s provost to urge him to spare public administration, the documents show, top athletic officials also offered to use athletic department funds, if necessary, to help pay its professors and support staff. Gary Waters, Auburn’s senior associate athletic director for academic services, wrote in an email in January 2013 that athletics had made “similar investments in academic programs during the last few years,” although in those cases, he added, “it has not been publicized.”
In the fall semester of 2013, more than half of the roughly 100 students majoring in public administration were athletes, records show, including nearly all of the top stars on the Auburn football team, which would win the Southeastern Conference title and play in the national-championship game. “If the public administration program is eliminated, the [graduation success rate] numbers for our student-athletes will likely decline,” a December 2012 internal athletic department memo said.
An Auburn spokesman said that while various groups may provide input on curriculum decisions, the “athletic department has not improperly influenced academic decision-making.” The school said athletics has donated money and other resources to help several academic programs over the years, “but public administration is not one of them.”
The report in the WSJ comes days after Rutgers revealed it was investigating communication between coach Kyle Flood and a lecturer regarding a Rutgers football player who may be on the cusp of being academically ineligible.
The report says the political science faculty at Auburn voted unanimously to eliminate the program in 2012. In early 2013, Auburn provost Timothy Boosinger met with Waters and athletic director Jay Jacobs. After waiting for a new dean for the College of Liberal Arts, the school kept the major later in the year.
It also states that fewer than one percent of Auburn students pursue a public administration major. 26 football players on the 2014 team had public administration majors.
Clustering athletes in the same majors isn't a new phenomenon. Many North Carolina athletes majored in African-American Studies, the program at the center of the academic fraud controversy that enveloped the university.
It's clear to see why athletic departments would want its athletes to have majors that may be considered "easy" even if it may not be the most ethical of practices; it helps decrease the risk of eligibility issues. And the more players that graduate, the better a team's Academic Progress Rate. Teams with poor APRs can face NCAA punishment.
While reports like this may be eye-opening to some, don't expect the trend to change as long as there's extreme pressure to win.
For more Auburn news, visit AuburnSports.com.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
