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Thursday, December 14, 2006

NOTE ON FORMATTING: When stories are transferred from the Web, certain punctuation marks and other marks in this report don't carry over and result in symbols and other formatting errors. To see or print the story in full without these translation errors, simply click on "full story" at the end of each item."

Total Clips: 8

	Date	Outlet
Robo Camp begins Feb. 3	12/14/2006	Opelika-Auburn News
Report Says Minority Diversity Progress In NCAA Ranks Is 'Very Slow'	12/14/2006	Washington Post
AU to send audit data to NCAA	12/14/2006	Birmingham News
AU scores high with junior faculty in survey	12/14/2006	Opelika-Auburn News
Welcome center at state line to be demolished, later replaced	12/13/2006	Athens News-Courier
Auburn Says Professor Changed Grades	12/13/2006	New York Times
Auburn president says some grades were altered	12/13/2006	Atlanta Journal Constitution
AU to investigate grade complaint	12/13/2006	Opelika-Auburn News


Robo Camp begins Feb. 3 12/14/2006 Opelika-Auburn News Staff Report		Return to Top
Because it is becoming increasingly important to arm children with technical skills, Auburn University will be offering Robo Camp in February. The Robo Camp curriculum reinforces children's computer literacy knowledge while introducing them to more advanced concepts and hands-on applications of computer programming and robotics. Cutting-edge educational computer applications will be used. Robo Camp will be held in the AU Computers Applications Laboratory. The course will be taught by computer science and software engineering graduate students and supervised by Dr. Daniela Marghitu. Students in the camp will be given individual tasks and they will work together in small teams to complete program assignments. The class will reinforce the students' knowledge about personal computer hardware, software architecture, Windows XP and the Internet. More advanced concepts, such as basic computer programming and robotics, will be taught using the Carnegie Mellon University Alice Programming System, the Lego Mindstorms and Robotics Invention System, and Microsoft interactive educational applications. To minimize expense, students will be provided, for use in the lab, with computer programming textbooks, Lego Mindstorms and Robotics Invention System software and memory flash drives to save their work. This is a 20-hour class that will meet from 10 a.m. until noon on 10 Saturdays beginning on Feb. 3. In order to maintain an appropriate faculty/student ratio, the size of the class will be limited, so register early to ensure a place in the class. Students in grades 5-12 are eligible. Register online at www.auburn.edu/cconline or by contacting the Outreach Program Office at opo@auburn.edu or 844-5100.
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Report Says Minority Diversity Progress In NCAA Ranks Is 'Very Slow' 12/14/2006 Washington Post		Return to Top
AU was included in this roundup of sports briefs in regard to President Richardson's statement about an internal investigation. Similar briefs ran in the Arkansas Democrate Gazette, the Winston Salem Journal, the Philadelphia Daily News, San Jose Mercury News, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the (Louisville) Courier Journal and on ESPN. White men dominate the leadership positions in college sports, a new study says, with women and minorities making only slow progress moving into the top jobs. Athletic directors, conference commissioners and university presidents overwhelmingly are white, the study released yesterday by the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport found. "There's a gradual movement toward positive change both in terms of race and gender, but it's been very slow," Richard Lapchick, the institute's director, said in an interview with the Associated Press in Orlando. "The situation still remains that people who lead college sports in America are still white, which doesn't reflect the student-athletes on the teams they represent." All 11 NCAA Division I-A conference commissioners -- whom Lapchick called the most powerful people in college sports -- were white men, according to the study, which looked at employment data from the 2004-05 academic year for all 1,025 NCAA member institutions, conferences and NCAA headquarters. All 36 conference commissioners throughout Division I were white, according to the study. . . . Auburn University President Ed Richardson said an internal investigation determined that a faculty member changed students' grades, including those of some athletes, from 2002 to '04. Richardson said in a statement that Auburn will work with the Office of the Provost to determine "the appropriate corrective steps" against the professor. He didn't identify the professor or provide any details on how many grades were changed. A university spokesman said Auburn could not release the professor's name because it is a personnel matter. The grade changes involved only a small number of students, and few of them were athletes, according to the spokesman. ? BASEBALL: Seattle Mariners shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt and the family of Chicago White Sox pitcher Jose Contreras were among the Cubans allegedly smuggled into the United States by an agent and others accused of immigration violations, federal prosecutors in Miami said. Betancourt and another Cuban baseball player, Zaydel Beltran, were among a group of Cubans smuggled to the United States by boat on Dec. 4, 2003, and then driven to Los Angeles, according to documents filed this week in the case against agent Gustavo"Gus" Dominguez and five other defendants. The papers for the first time revealed the identities of players and family members allegedly involved in some of the smuggling ventures that resulted in a 53-count grand jury indictment announced in October. Dominguez and the other defendants have pleaded not guilty to federal alien smuggling, conspiracy and other related charges. A trial is scheduled to begin early next month in Key West, Fla. ? TENNIS: Three-time major champion Lindsay Davenport is pregnant and will miss at least the start of the 2007 tennis season. Davenport, 30, and her husband, Jonathan Leach, are expecting their first child in early summer. Davenport ended 2006 ranked 25th in the world. -- From News Services
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AU to send audit data to NCAA 12/14/2006 Birmingham News JON SOLOMON		Return to Top
AUBURN - Auburn University reversed position Wednesday and said it would forward to the NCAA relevant information from an internal audit examining grade changes. The audit showed that a grade for at least one scholarship athlete was changed without the knowledge of the student's professor. The change allowed the athlete to barely finish above the 2.0 grade-point averaged needed to graduate. In an interview Wednesday, Auburn interim President Ed Richardson said the audit showed "a few" grades involving the sociology department were reportedly changed by one faculty member between 2002 and 2004. Richardson said "very few" students impacted were athletes and none were football players. Richardson declined to discuss specifics of the case, citing ongoing NCAA and campus procedures. "I've assured (NCAA President Myles) Brand as late as (Tuesday), whatever pertains to athletics, we'll send to the NCAA," Richardson said. "We are looking at compliance issues today. If we found no compliance issues, we still would send it to the NCAA to say we looked and couldn't find any." Auburn initially told The New York Times this week the university would provide the NCAA the audit report upon request, which had not happened. Auburn sent the NCAA a separate report, which has not been made public, earlier this fall regarding unusually high grades in directed-reading courses. Richardson said Auburn has not heard back from the NCAA on the first report. "Now, with this other issue, I'm sure they'll pool this all together," Richardson said. Auburn began investigating this latest revelation three weeks ago from an anonymous tip. Richardson said the audit reviewed the sociology department and adult education - the two areas where department heads were forced to resign in August - and found no evidence of grade changes in adult education. At the provost's recommendation, the case will go before the Faculty Dismissal Inquiry Committee to review the evidence. The six-person committee will recommend to Richardson whether to initiate formal dismissal proceedings to remove a tenured faculty member. When asked if the faculty member in question is Thomas Petee, the criminology professor forced to resign as chairman of the department that oversees sociology, Richardson responded: "I can't get into that. The area is sociology." Richardson said the grade changes reported in the audit could have been made by a department head. "I say `reported' because this is a report some have disputed," he said. Petee declined to comment when reached Wednesday. "I'm not allowed to talk about that because it's an internal audit," he said. Auburn's findings earlier this fall showed that Petee made about 55 grade changes from January 2003 to the spring of 2006. The average for professors in the department during that period was 22. The report did not break down the number of grade changes Petee provided for athletes. Petee has said his high number of directed readings - essentially one-on-one, independent-study courses - were due to rising student demand and limited department resources. Auburn continued to maintain any grade changes were not coerced by the athletics department. "The fact this is scattered all over the board over a period of several years and very few athletes involved, I think this is just a case of using poor judgment," Richardson said. "I don't see the influence of outside sources." The investigation started when sociology professor Jim Gundlach revealed to The New York Times that students - including a disproportionate number of athletes, some of whom were football players - received high grades for directed readings that required little or no work. Meanwhile, Gundlach said a Congressional staff member informed him Monday there is an improved chance the new Democrat-controlled Congress will hold hearings on the tax-exempt status of the NCAA. "It's been indicated to me that Democrats really want to increase Pell grants but are facing an issue of pay as you go," Gundlach said. "So cutting the tax-exempt status on big-time athletics could put a whole lot of poor kids through college and would be very much the kind of things Democrats would like to point at by the time 2008 came around." Hearings would include examining whether big-time athletics really promotes education. Gundlach was approached last summer by the House Ways and Means Committee about possibly testifying. "I'm still interested in testifying," Gundlach said. "The thing that makes big-time sports actually detrimental to education is it has too much money. Too much money, too much power, too much influence." Richardson said that while ongoing investigations may "generate negative publicity in the short term, our focus remains on defending Auburn's academic reputation."
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AU scores high with junior faculty in survey 12/14/2006 Opelika-Auburn News Staff report		Return to Top
In a Harvard University-based survey, Auburn University's tenure-track junior faculty have given their university high marks. The Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education, or COACHE, asked new faculty at 31 doctoral universities how they felt about their careers, colleagues and institutional support. Tenure-track junior faculty, who typically have been at an institution for seven years or less, gave AU especially high marks for collegiality, policy effectiveness, tenure expectations and clarity and the institutional environment for work and family. Their ratings placed Auburn among the top four institutions in each category. In addition to the overall picture of satisfaction levels, the survey developed detailed data on a variety of questions and examined differences in response by gender and race and differences between expectations and reality encountered by faculty at each institution. AU Provost John Heilman said Auburn joined the higher education collaborative at Harvard to identify the needs of junior faculty. He noted that AU has raised faculty salaries to the regional average and has taken a number of initiatives, such as establishing the nationally prominent Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, to help new faculty improve their skills and stay on track toward tenure. "We are committed to making sure that Auburn is a great academic environment for our faculty as well as our students," Heilman said in a news release. "The COACHE survey shows us that Auburn is a national leader in making that commitment a reality for tenure-track junior faculty." He added that the positives will not lessen the university's commitment to further improving conditions for junior faculty. "We plan to use the COACHE survey results to identify policies, practices and issues where we can further improve the working and teaching environment at Auburn," he said. Researchers for COACHE conducted the survey between October 2005 and January 2006 with faculty hired before summer 2005 who were working toward tenure. The AU faculty response rate to the survey was 67 percent, higher than the overall response rate, which was 58 percent. Drew Clark, executive director of institutional research and analysis at Auburn, said the response rates for AU and overall were very strong indicators that the survey produced an accurate reflection of junior faculty attitudes. Auburn was the only institution in Alabama to participate in the survey. Other participating universities include the University of North Carolina System, Duke, Memphis, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Tennessee, Notre Dame, the California State University System and flagship universities in Washington, North Dakota, Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, Connecticut, Ohio, Minnesota and Michigan.
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Welcome center at state line to be demonlished, later replaced 12/13/2006 Athens News-Courier Karen Middleton		Return to Top
AU's CADC welcome center design project is mentioned in this story. The Ardmore Welcome Center, a north Limestone County fixture since 1977, will fall under the wrecking ball within two years, according to an Alabama Department of Transportation spokesman. Both the Ardmore and the Lanett centers are slated for demolition after ALDOT officials found it was cheaper to tear them down and build a new structure than to renovate and repair them. "We were planning on renovating them, but it would cost a third again as high as replacing them," said Randy Braden, an assistant maintenance engineer for ALDOT who oversees the physical plant at each of the state’s eight welcome centers. Braden said it would cost another 25 percent more to leave the centers open during renovation. Curtis Vinson of the ALDOT North Alabama Regional Office in Guntersville said I would be closer to two years before construction would begin. "We're probably looking at the end of 2008—it's in the budget for then," said Vinson. "We would have had to rehabilitate the existing structures and update them for the correct number of restrooms. Based on one in another part of the state—I believe it was Calhoun County—we found it would be more economical to replace them." Vinson said the estimated cost of a new center would be $1.5 million. "We probably won't know until we see further designs," he said. "Right now, we're doing traffic counts and trying to determine how much use the center gets. One of the things we're looking at is doing two sets of men’s and women's restrooms. A lot of the centers have those to allow closing one set for cleaning." Jackie Pitts, manager of the Ardmore Welcome Center, said she and her staff of five were glad to hear they were getting a new center. "The Department of Transportation does a really good job of taking care of this center," said Pitts. "But we are very limited in display space, and our storage is limited. We work 40-hour weeks and we're open seven days a week. The major holidays of the winter we are closed—Thanksgiving and Christmas—but we're open on all the summer holidays." Pitts said that ALDOT personnel are always at the center, even though the information room is closed. She said restrooms are always available to travelers. Also slated for work is the Cleburne Welcome Center, but that one is to be renovated. Six student teams from Auburn University's College of Architecture, Design and Construction presented scale models of their designs for the Cleburne renovation last week in Montgomery. A Talladega racecar crashing through a brick wall, a plasma TV centered over the fireplace, an electronic brochure finder, and stations of sweet and unsweetened ice tea were among the suggestions of six design teams. Their professor, Randy Bartlett, said the teams, made up of three students each, designed their creations on computers and then translated them into scale models that they constructed. The students paid attention to every detail, even constructing tiny brochures for the brochure racks. Braden said the Auburn student team would not be designing the new Ardmore Welcome Center, but rather a consultant from a professional firm. "We might use some of the ideas of the Auburn group because some of them are pretty good," said Braden.
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Auburn Says Professor Changed Grades 12/13/2006 New York Times Associated Press		Return to Top
Similar AP stories appeared in the Tuscaloosa News, Decatur Daily, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Lakeland ledger, Miami Herald, Sports Illustrated online. AUBURN, Ala., Dec. 13 (AP) — The president of Auburn University, Edward R. Richardson, said an internal investigation determined that a faculty member changed students’ grades, including those of some athletes, from 2002 to 2004. Richardson said in a statement Wednesday that Auburn would work with its provost's office to determine "the appropriate corrective steps" against the professor. He did not identify the professor or provide any details on how many grades were changed. Richardson said the university would take "quick and decisive action" on the matter. A university spokesman said Auburn could not release the professor's name because it was a personnel matter. The grade changes involved only a small number of students, and few of them were athletes, the spokesman said. The New York Times has reported that at least one grade change at Auburn involved a student-athlete who was able to maintain eligibility when the grade in a directed-reading course was changed from incomplete to an A in 2003. The change was made without the knowledge of the professor who taught the directed-reading course, The Times said. Richardson said that Auburn had fixed the process that allowed the changes to be made.
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Auburn president says some grades were altered 12/13/2006 Atlanta Journal Constitution		Return to Top
Faculty member changed students' grades, including those of some athletes, between 2002 and 2004 Auburn, Ala. — Auburn University President Ed Richardson said an internal investigation determined that a faculty member changed students' grades, including those of some athletes, during 2002-04. Richardson said in a statement Wednesday that Auburn will work with the Office of the Provost to determine "the appropriate corrective steps" against the professor. He didn't identify the professor or provide any details on how many grades were changed. He said the university would take "quick and decisive action" on the matter. A university spokesman said Auburn could not release the professor's name because it is a personnel matter. The grade changes involved only a small number of students, and few of them were athletes, according to the spokesman. The New York Times has reported that at least one grade change at Auburn involved a student-athlete who was able to maintain eligibility when his grade in a directed-reading course was changed from incomplete to an "A" in 2003. The change was made without the professor's knowledge, the newspaper said. Richardson said Wednesday the university has fixed the process that allowed the grade changes to be made. He said Auburn will supply the NCAA with information "related to any issue involving student-athletes." "We are committed to an academic program that plays by the rules," Richardson said. Last month Richardson said irregularities in Auburn University's independent studies program were limited to two professors and were the result of insufficient oversight and poor record-keeping. That internal investigation by a committee of academic administrators came after the New York newspaper's report that a sociology professor was helping football players and other athletes stay eligible through one-on-one courses, often called "directed reading" that do not require time in a classroom. Richardson said the investigation found the independent study problems were limited to that sociology professor, Thomas Petee, and another in adult education, James Witte. Petee resigned as chairman of the sociology department and Witte stepped down as program chair of adult education. The Times had reported that 18 members of the undefeated 2004 Auburn football team, including star running back Cadillac Williams, took a combined 97 hours of Petee's courses during their careers. None of the grade changes in the latest probe involved football players, the spokesman said Wednesday.
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AU to investigate grade complaint 12/13/2006 Opelika-Auburn News Joe McAdory		Return to Top
Though Auburn University President Dr. Ed Richardson is frustrated over a second report of fraudulent grades within the schools sociology department in six months, he remains confident that corrective steps taken to resolve the issue make Auburn a better institution. No question that whenever you have an institution of higher education, academic integrity is the first thing you can consider, Richardson told the Opelika-Auburn News Wednesday. To have another complaint filed is certainly disappointing to me. The New York Times reported Sunday that an incomplete grade was changed to an A for a student-athlete in a class listed as given by sociology professor Paul Starr. However, Starr told the Opelika-Auburn News he has no recollection of the grade or student. It came in as an anonymous complaint, Richardson said. We sent an internal audit committee to see if the grade was changed. The provost recommended I forward the report to the faculty inquiry committee to see if there is sufficient evidence to warrant action. Auburns academic integrity is my top priority. The Auburn family can be sure that we will fully investigate, fairly evaluate, and take quick and decisive action on this and all other academic matters. That may involve improvements in policies or procedures, organizational changes or personnel actions. In July, the Times reported that a number of students, including athletes, received favorable grades in directed studies courses offered within the department. Since then, university officials stringently applied new guidelines and policies in an effort to police such activity. Auburn released its findings from an internal investigation last month. The report Auburn publicly released in November addressed issues in the directed studies program and focused on irregularities by one professor in each of two departments, Richardson said. Based on that report, Auburn implemented new policies to resolve those issues and ensure that academic rigor is maintained. Although the grade changes occurred between 2002-2004, we have already corrected the process that allowed these changes to take place. Auburn has fully investigated the matter, and we will take the appropriate corrective steps in consultation with the Office of the Provost. These complaints go back two or three years. (The complaint involving Starr) didnt happen recently. If it had happened after we implemented our new policies, Id have jumped through the ceiling. The complaint reported Sunday involved a student-athlete who is not a football player. Richardson said he has been in communication with the NCAA and was instructed not to make comments regarding athletics and this issue until they decide what to do. Richardson took particular interest why a newspaper based in New York would be so interested in what may or may not be happening at a university far from the Big Apple. I really believe for this to be of interest for a national newspaper is almost beyond comprehension to me, he said. There are 4,000 institutes of higher learning. Why this is of interest to the Times, I dont know. We are committed to an academic program that plays by the rules. While these investigations may generate negative publicity in the short term, our focus remains on defending Auburns academic reputation - one earned through the hard work of many committed faculty, students and alumni.
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