USF becomes the second Florida university to join the AAU

Meh

 

And the classes were available to and taken by all students, not just athletes. For over 10+ years.

 

UNC's entire defense to the NCAA in this egregious case was basically: we can set up any academic program we want even if it doesn't require attendance, classwork, testing or basically any rigor at all. The knowledge of this program and its purpose went all the way to the top at UNC, not just the athletic department. Another part of their defense was that a handful of non-athletes went through it so it must be legit. You would think that this would be the classic case of lack of institutional control, but of course the toothless NCAA did nothing about it.

If the AAU isn't concerned about its members setting up fake degree programs with the blessing of the Presidents on down just to keep athletes eligible, then they must not really care about academic excellence do they? UNC should have been sanctioned, put on probation, ejected, or had some sort of response from the AAU if they had any concern about academic prestige, standards, and excellence, but all I heard from them was crickets.

I'm not going to address your attempt at a straw man argument about UF because my post was about the AAU and UNC and had nothing to do with any respect as an academic institution that UF has or will earn.

 

That’s a Spurrier-ism?

 

How do you make this reach?

 

Didn’t they have their own football stadium?

 

You are conflating the role of the NCAA with the role of the AAU. They are not related at all and they do not share the same roles.

AAU’s focus in on research, research, and did I also include research?

Seriously, it was an accreditation body in the german tradition for specific reasons in the early 1900’s. It’s role and purpose has evolved significantly to the point it is now a collection of universities who are research focused, and its mission has shifted to political lobbying, which is what it’s members want it to do.

Associations evolve according to member’s needs and they are also run by members and a board of directors who directs the single staff leader such as a CEO or an executive director who oversees the headquarters staff who are executing the decisions of the Board of Directors. The board is made up of members who decide the Association’s direction, strategy, and action, including putting action items for a membership wide vote on matters required by its bylaws.

The AAU cannot take any admission/suspension action unless there is a 2/3rds vote by its members.

 

AAU is all research related. They care little about teaching. All about research and funding/grants

 

Good for the state. Hah! No F¢U!

 

Hmmm...they seem alot alike to me....no concern for academic ethics. Apparently its all about chasing the dollar whether its research or athletics.

If that is the case it would be pretty easy to pull up the list of the top research universities and call it a day. Why the need to join some club then? Sounds like the need for a group grope to me.

It seems you admit it appears to be not much more than an organization committed to feathering its own bed at any cost.

Fine. If they were concerned about their reputation as a bastion of academic prestige, their leadership should have recommended consequences for one of their institutions that tarred the entire group with its egregious academic dishonesty actions. Why is the NCAA as an organization viewed as such a joke right now? Its because they gave up trying to enforce standards for its members. In my view, at least, that is the exact path the AAU appears to be taking.

 

I don't think Playboy's top party schools counts

 

While I know you were joking, here is their page on it. They are better than people give them credit for in a lot of ways.

Rankings | Arizona State University

 

AAU Membership Principles

1. 
   
   
   • The primary purpose of AAU should be to provide a forum for the development and implementation of institutional and national policies promoting strong programs of academic research and scholarship and undergraduate, graduate, and professional education.

1. 
   
   
   • The members of AAU should be comprehensive universities distinguished by the disciplinary breadth and quality of their programs of graduate education and research.

1. 
   
   
   • The members of AAU shall approve appropriate criteria for assessing the breadth and quality of these programs and shall apply these criteria in making judgments about potential new members of the Association and in the assessment of current members.

1. 
   
   
   • All current members are subject to ongoing assessment by the Membership Committee. In those instances in which there appears to be a significant and sustained disparity between the mission or accomplishments of a member institution and that of other members of the association, the Membership Committee will make the appropriate recommendations to the Board about continued membership.

AAU Membership Indicators

The AAU presidents and chancellors have adopted the following set of membership indicators to use in assessments of the U.S. current and potential new members. All indicators will be tabulated as both actual values and normalized, per-faculty measures where feasible.

These indicators are divided into Phase I indicators, which will be used as the primary indicators of institutional breadth and quality in research and education, and Phase II indicators, which will be used to provide additional important calibrations of institutional research and education programs.

Both the Phase I and Phase II indicators constitute the first stage of membership assessment. The second stage involves a more qualitative set of judgements about institutions and their trajectories.


https://www.aau.edu/who-we-are/membership-policy

 

I know our law school dean adopted her plan to get UF law school in the top 25 straight from what Arizona State law school was doing