The BU Zoo Blog

If you read this blog everyday, then you probably all ready know that the Judith Kaye’s report on the BU basketball program is out.  I’m not going comment on it until I’m fully done reading it (half way there) but lack of institutional control of the program is ridiculous.  Not only was there no control but the senior administration and athletic department officials told down right lies to help Kevin Broadus get the players he wanted here. So many articles this morning that I’m going to be late for work.

• Press & Sun Bulletin: “A report Thursday from the State University of New York, produced at a cost of $913,000, found: * Academic irregularities. An assistant basketball coach and a player discussed the coach “rewording” the player’s paper. Coach Kevin Broadus worked to get a grade changed. An independent-study class was created for four athletes.  * Admissions issues: Basketball recruits who didn’t meet academic standards were admitted. Coaches tried to circumvent BU’s established process for reviewing athletes’ applications for admission. * Crime/drug issues: Star player “Derrick” D.J. Rivera illegally bought a television and clothing using a debit card that wasn’t his, as teammates looked on. In other incidents, other players smoked or possessed marijuana. * Talk of improper benefits. A player claimed – but later recanted – that a coach paid for players’ cell phones. An assistant coach texted a player that the coach would give the player money for gas.  * A cover-up attempt. A coach labored to resolve a marijuana-possession charge against a key player before the case reached town court.”
• Press & Sun Bulletin: “Gerald Mollen is happy to finally get his hands on the Binghamton University report.  The Broome County District Attorney said information contained in the 102-page document will help his office move forward with criminal charges against four former basketball players allegedly involved in making purchases with a stolen debit card.  To this point, Mollen said, his hands have been somewhat tied…After officers reviewed security videos from the stores where the card was used, Lukusa met with police and identified D.J. Rivera, Malik Alvin and Paul Crosby – all BU players – as the men in the video. Later, another player, Corey Chandler, was identified as the fourth individual.”
• Press & Sun Bulletin: “‘Honestly, I haven’t seen the report,’ said Rivera, who added he had no plans to read the lengthy document. “We go to class every day and play basketball when we can. We’re regular students.  ‘I have no thoughts about it. That’s it. Nothing really.’  Alvin was equally evasive.  ‘I’m not too worried about it,’ Alvin said. ‘Whatever they do, they have to do. I’m just concentrating on my education.’ Fine, who was dismissed from the team shortly after campus police discovered marijuana in his dormitory room following a complaint, was a little  more forthcoming with his thoughts about the report.  ‘I can’t speak for everyone else, but my situation is, the report said my eyes were glassy,’ Fine said. ‘They were trying to imply that I was high. I passed the drug test a week after the incident happened. I can’t control what they write in the paper, but I know I passed the test.’  Fine said he was in his room alone, but that the marijuana wasn’t his.  ‘I’m not going to blame anyone else,’ Fine said.”
• Press & Sun Bulletin: “Admissions officials felt slighted, ignored and sometimes bullied as Binghamton University basketball coaches tried to get recruits into school despite questionable qualifications.  That’s the picture painted after a four-month SUNY investigation, which concluded that coach Kevin Broadus recommended admission of a recruit who had no academic qualifications supporting admission, and pushed the university to admit a transfer student who had been kicked off his previous college team for disciplinary reasons.  ‘Coach Broadus recommended (Corey) Chandler’s admission to BU without disclosing to Admissions that Chandler had been dismissed from the Rutgers athletic program,’ the report says.”
• Inside Higher Ed: “A scathing investigative report of myriad academic improprieties committed by the men’s basketball program at the State University of New York at Binghamton implicates its outgoing president and former athletics director for their lack of oversight. The independent audit, commissioned last fall by Nancy L. Zimpher, SUNY’s chancellor, was led by Judith S. Kaye, former chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals. The report, which cost SUNY $913,381, was released Thursday. In it, Kaye chronicles Binghamton’s rapid  transition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association from a low-profile Division III, or non-scholarship, program to a high-profile Division I program with a surprisingly successful men’s basketball team during the two-decade tenure of Lois B. DeFleur, who announced her retirement as president last month, and Joel Thirer, its athletics director, who retired amid scandal last fall.”
• New York Times: “The Binghamton travesty was certified Thursday in a special report issued by a panel led by Judith S. Kaye, a former chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals.  This cautionary tale shows how Binghamton University, with 11,500 undergraduates holding an excellent average College Board score of 1,290, was held hostage by an upgraded basketball program that forgot to honor academic standards or, for that matter, normal ethics or honesty.  The administrators at Binghamton might as well have leased out a portion of the campus to a counterfeiting operation or a prostitution ring or a drug mill. Go all the way. Instead, a few administrators had the bright idea of turning Binghamton into a powerhouse capable of reaching the N.C.A.A. tournament. What a lousy goal. What poor judgment. By so-called educators.”
• ESPN: “The report documents how Binghamton officials compromised academic standards in order to build a winning men’s basketball team, details how coaches and athletic officials at Binghamton pressured admissions staffers to admit questionable recruits and chronicles previously-unreported allegations of criminal behavior on the part of several former basketball players.  The report recommends hiring an “athletic oversight officer” for the entire State University of New York system, reporting to the chancellor and Board of Trustees on admissions, the academic progress and behavior of student-athletes, and rules compliance.  Citing text-message exchanges, the SUNY report also suggests Binghamton coaches made cash payments to players and assisted them with academic assignments.  ‘I am disappointed that a great institution like Binghamton University would, in any way, because of its athletic program, compromise its terrific academic reputation,’ SUNY chancellor Nancy Zimpher said Thursday in a conference call with reporters. The SUNY report also cites potential NCAA violations by former Binghamton coach Kevin Broadus, who was placed on paid leave by the school last October.”

Today is the Global History Regents for the kids in my four remedial classes.  The remedial classes are the most frustrating and challenging assignments a teacher can get.  The kids don’t want to be there, they don’t care about the material, and they are the worst students in the school.  Global is particularly hard because you have to cover everything from the Great Rift Valley to 9/11 and Iraq.  Last year, I had three remedial classes.  17% passed.  I am hoping for a much better passing rate this year.  Every day in class, we made an index card on an important topic.  I hoping that the cards helped them learn the material and so study skills as well.  Just got to hope for the best (grade like crazy so I don’t have to come in on Saturday!)

• Pipe Dream:”Over the past few years, Binghamton University has been thrown into national news headlines for both the good and the bad, but more so the latter. As the University awaits the results of an ongoing review of the athletic department announced last semester, President Lois DeFleur is set to retire come July.  David Henahan, spokesman for SUNY, stated that the review has not yet been completed.  According to a press release, SUNY officials anticipate that ‘Judge [Judith] Kaye will provide the board of trustees with a report and recommendations that will enable us to address all issues related to the Binghamton athletic program and restore full public confidence in the University.’  Because the audit has not been completed, Henahan said, SUNY was unable to determine the repercussions of the audit’s results and any potential decisions following those results.”  Well for $500+/hr, can’t we tell them to work faster?
• Pipe Dream: “Although the University of New Hampshire Wildcats (8-10, 3-4 America East) currently sit near the bottom of the America East standings in seventh place, this team should not be taken lightly. Of the Wildcats’ four losses in conference play, three of those were by six points or fewer. Their one double-digit loss was to the University of Maine Black Bears, who currently sit atop the AE standings. The Binghamton Bearcats (9-13, 4-3 AE) will host the Wildcats tomorrow at the Events Center. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.  This will also be the first meeting between the Bearcats and the Wildcats since New Hampshire nearly knocked Binghamton out of contention for the AE title in last season’s conference tournament. If not for a last-second steal and dunk by then-junior swingman D.J. Rivera, the Bearcats would have likely fallen to the gritty Wildcats squad.”
• Pipe Dream: “‘When I was a freshman I … always noticed that the BU Zoo was loud and present,’ Broccoli said. ‘What I’m noticing over the past two years is that the BU Zoo as a group wasn’t there, even though the athletics department says that it does exist. As the leadership graduated no one took it over.’  Amit echoed Broccoli’s words.  ‘A bunch of us are really trying to push the BU Zoo and get it back into the business,’ Amit said. ‘We really want it to be looked at as one concise group rather than just fans in the stand.’  Amit and the others are looking to other schools with large and successful cheer squads to see if their approach will go well with Binghamton’s basketball games. Along with this, they have created new chants and have plans to draw a large crowd to their cause. Their main goal is to reestablish the Zoo and encourage the student body to join in numbers.”  I graduated in ‘07.  That sounds like the source of the problem!