BID TO KEEP PENN STAR ELIGIBLE IS BLASTED, AN INDEPENDENT STUDY COURSE WAS SET UP THE DAY BEFORE THE FINAL GAME. TWO TOP PROFESSORS CALLED IT A “SLEAZY” MOVE.
Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
November 27, 1997
Edition: SF Section: LOCAL Page: A01
Author: Ralph Cipriano, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Without the course, Penn officials said, Mitch Marrow, a 6-foot-5, 285-pound all-Ivy defensive tackle, would not have qualified as a full-time student, a prerequisite for competing in an NCAA sport. Using an ineligible player could be grounds for forfeiting games in which he played, according to NCAA regulations.
Lynn Lees, chairman of the history department, and Bruce Kuklick, who oversees undergraduate history, said they backed a junior professor in rebuffing a request by an associate athletic director to authorize an independent course in their department for Marrow last week.
But then another prominent Penn professor, Kenneth L. Shropshire, agreed to approve a course for Marrow in the Wharton School. That course was then reluctantly ratified by Diane Frey, the director of advising for the College of Arts and Sciences, to protect “the university’s interest,” she said. Otherwise, the consequences to the team could have been “dire,” she said.
A day later, Penn, with Marrow in the lineup, beat Cornell, 33-20, to finish its season at 6-4.
“This is so sleazy. It wouldn’t happen under normal circumstances,” said Kuklick, who is one of Penn’s most prominent professors and the author of a popular history of Shibe Park.
Lees said, “It seemed quite clear what they [the athletic department] were trying to do. They were trying to get an academic cover for this kid so he can play football.”
Penn has no written policies for exceptions to its guidelines for dropping and adding courses, so they are handled by administrators on a case-by-case basis, Frey said.
Shropshire, an authority on sports business and the school’s representative to the NCAA, declined to discuss the particulars of Marrow’s case, citing the student’s right to privacy. But he said he had granted similar requests approximately five times in the last 11 years, and only one of those other requests was for an athlete.
Marrow, 22, signed up for three courses at the beginning of the semester in September, considered a full-time load at Penn. But early in the semester, he dropped a course, an act that could have led to him being classified as a part-time student, and thus ineligible to play.
A spokesman for the NCAA said that student athletes are supposed to be enrolled and registered in a full-time course load during the football season, and not just at the beginning and end of the season, according to Rick Perko, of NCAA membership services. Perko said the NCAA would look into the matter.
Marrow did not return messages left over the last three days at his campus apartment. A woman at his parents’ house in Harrison, N.Y., hung up on a reporter.
Shropshire said students who are approved to take independent study from him would most likely study the legal and business aspects of sports and entertainment. He said a student in Marrow’s position typically would get an incomplete this semester and have to make up the work the next semester.
“If a student can get the work done, they get credit,” Shropshire said. “If they can’t, they don’t get credit.”
Ironically, if Marrow had simply continued in the course he dropped, his eligibility would not have been an issue, even if he received a failing grade. His cumulative grade-point average of 2.45 posed no threat to his eligibility.
Denis Elton Cochran-Fikes, Penn’s associate athletic director, said he only became aware of Marrow’s eligibility problem last week, but declined to say who told him. Cochran-Fikes, who is also the athletic department’s NCAA compliance officer, said he notified Marrow and his coaches of the eligibility problem and told them it had to be resolved before the Cornell game.
“The concern was addressed and rectified by week’s end,” said Cochran-Fikes. He declined to respond to the remarks of the history professors. Athletic director Steve Bilsky was out of town and not available for comment. Penn coach Al Bagnoli did not return a reporter’s call.
Cochran-Fikes said he began his efforts to help Marrow last Wednesday by calling Frey. She said Cochran-Fikes initially asked her whether Marrow could be readmitted to the course he had dropped. That, she said she told Cochran-Fikes, was “not an option.” The deadline for adding courses is Sept. 19.
“I do not recall having a conversation of that nature with Diane,” Cochran-Fikes said.
Frey said she was then asked whether Marrow could apply for independent study, and she said she told Cochran-Fikes that “I wouldn’t be asking professors to do this for a student” so late in the semester. But Frey said she also told Cochran-Fikes, “I wouldn’t stand in the way” if he could find a professor to agree to an independent study. Cochran-Fikes declined comment on Frey’s remarks.
After talking with Frey, Cochran-Fikes said he called Beth Wenger, an assistant history professor in her first year of teaching who already had Marrow as a student this semester for a regularly scheduled course on Jewish history. He declined further comment.
Wenger said Cochran-Fikes asked her if she could admit Marrow in an independent study course, according to Wenger.
“I thought it was highly irregular,” Wenger said. “I never heard of anyone signing up for independent study this late in a semester,” which ends Dec. 8.
Wenger said Cochran-Fikes told her the “worse-case scenario was that the whole Pennfootball season might have been forfeited” and that there might be “long-term sanctions against the university” if she turned down the request. She said she was told the deadline was last Friday, and that Marrow “very much wanted to play in that game.”
Wenger said she consulted with Kuklick and Lees, who urged her to say no, which she did.
“The timing of the request, being right before the Thanksgiving break, is clearly inappropriate,” said Lees.
Kuklick said that normally, independent studies are arranged by students, and not athletic department officials, and that they are often worked out before a semester begins. He said he had not seen a similar request in his 25 years as a history professor at Penn.
“It’s completely hokey,” Kuklick said of the way the university handled Marrow’s request. “The history department simply followed the policy of the school of arts and sciences. The drop-and-add period is long since over. I was quite surprised that Wharton’s policies seemed to be different.”
“It would have been a terrible precedent,” Lees said. “This whole thing has the smell of the athletic department trying to run around the academic department to protect one of their players. I understand their motives, but I don’t have to go along with it.”
Both history professors charged that Cochran-Fikes attempted to pressure an untenured professor into doing a favor. “I was distressed that the athletic department tried to pressure a junior faculty member,” said Kuklick. “That’s putting outrageous pressure on a new assistant professor,” Lees said.
The independent study with Shropshire had to be approved by the College of Arts and Sciences, since Marrow is a history major not a Wharton student, Penn officials said. Frey said she reluctantly approved the added course on Friday, the day before the game, after she received a letter from Shropshire, authorizing Marrow to take the course.
“I don’t like it,” Frey said. “It doesn’t sit well with me, but I think the consequences for the university could have been dire. I don’t know how it would have played out.”
Frey said there are no written guidelines for approving late added courses, and “each situation is dealt with as it comes.” She said she usually approves one request a year, normally to accommodate “extenuating circumstances,” such as clerical errors or students with financial problems.
Frey’s immediate superior, Robert Rescorla, associate dean for the College of Arts and Sciences, agreed with Kuklick that the normal procedure is for students to represent themselves in seeking independent study. He said he would review Frey’s decision, and could either let it stand, or reverse it.
Marrow, a fifth-year student, was redshirted during his freshman year. He returned for his fourth and final year of football eligibility, hoping to impress NFL scouts after a spectacular junior season.
But Marrow played only intermittently this year, missing the third and fourth games, because of injury and a bout with mononucleosis.
He played just three series of downs in the opening game against Dartmouth, and about three series in the second game against Bucknell, said Shaun May, spokesman for Pennathletic communications.
Marrow was diagnosed as having mononucleosis after the Bucknell game on Sept. 27, according to May. He missed the next two games, before he began a comeback, playing about 20 plays against Columbia on Oct. 18.
In the season finale against Cornell, he played only the first quarter. After a 33-0 loss to Harvard the prior week, Penn was no longer in the running for the Ivy League title.
“There was no reason for Mitch to play on Saturday, and he did it because he wanted to help the team,” May said. “That’s the kind of kid he is.”
Caption:
PHOTO
“I thought it was highly irregular,” said associate history professor Beth Wenger, about the independent study request. Bruce Kuklick, who oversees undergraduate history, urged her to turn down the request. (The Philadelphia Inquirer / BONNIE WELLER)
Mitch Marrow played the first quarter of the season’s last game.
PHOTO
Copyright (c) 1997 The Philadelphia Inquirer
Record Number: 9711290027