No longer will Andy Katzenmoyer’s rigorous academic load of golf, TV, AIDS awareness, and music, be the standard for athletes taking summer school courses. Oh no. Ladies and gentlemen, I present you the USC summer school bust.
Apparently several USC athletes had been taking a Spanish 3 class at a school close by – Los Angeles Trade Tech College (which I’ve never heard of despite being born, raised, and living in Los Angeles) to fulfill their foreign language requirement at USC. The details the from Los Angeles Times:
Among those signing up were three 300-pound Trojans linemen, including one with academic troubles at the university…and a succession of strapping athletes, among them millionaire ex-USC receiver Keary Colbert of the Carolina Panthers….along with members of the USC women’s basketball, volleyball and water polo teams…and others from men’s basketball, baseball and track.
Why would all these athletes be running to take the class you might ask? Well…
A Times review of the 25-student Spanish 3 class list shows that [Senora Rose Mary] Ross, a USC graduate from the 1950s, issued a B to five summer school students. All others got an A.
They do say the Trojan family sticks together, no surprise she’s an alumnus. But I must say kudos to the USC academic department for busting up the party:
Kenneth L. Servis, USC’s dean of academic records and registrar, said that after examining class material and what was required of the students, it was decided that Trade Tech ‘did not offer the students the course we expected.’ He called the order to rescind credit ‘a necessary action,’ because the community college course didn’t meet our academic requirements.
I’m not sure what USC is doing here – not like they have the academic standards of a Harvard or a UC school – but once again, kudos to them for stepping up to promote academic standards. More on the class they were taking – exactly what was expected of the students you ask?
Ross said she wasn’t trying to prepare any of her students to fly off to Geneva and be ‘a translator for the U.N.’ But she said she did try especially to help her classroom of athletes. I gave them tests, diction, translation assignments. I made them write compositions in Spanish about why they were in the class, why they played football.
Man, that sounds TOUGH! Can I sign up? Between this and Reggie Bush, the Trojans are working on a heck of an off-season. Keep up the good work fellas!
