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(Tenured Radical)

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

UD's A FEW DAYS AFTER JULY FOURTH POST


Okay, compare this country to ANY other country. Make it as difficult as you like... pick... Canada! In Canada, dogs have to learn English before they can sit in a college classroom:


Guide dog flunks language test
WebPosted Jul 6 2004 03:06 PM EDT



FREDERICTON — A guide dog is in the middle of a dispute between a man who wants to study English and the University of New Brunswick.

Yvon Tessier was turned away from an English immersion course because his guide dog only understands French.

Pavot is a black labrador retriever who has guided Tessier for two years. He responds to French commands, and doesn't understand any other spoken language.

Tessier came to Fredericton from Ottawa to study English in an intensive five-week course at the University of New Brunswick.

But university officials wouldn't let him, or his French dog, into the course. "I'm really disappointed and hurt," Tessier says.

The course features lots of out-of-class learning. Students visit restaurants and go into stores to get familiar with the English-speaking community.

The university says it rejected Tessier and Pavot because it needed more time to familiarize them with their surroundings.

Student Recruitment Director Susan Mesheau says that includes English lessons for the dog. "In the past the service has been provided that we do teach their guide dogs commands in English, so the dog learns English as well."

Tessier is disappointed and angry with the decision. He has committed time and money to come to Fredericton, and is threatening to file a complaint with the province's Human Rights Commission.

He says he could speak English to Pavot in everyday conversation, but the guiding commands are essential to his independence, and those need to be in French. "I can speak English [to] my dog [in] the times when I speak normally, but for the commands it was an impossible thing to do, to speak to my guide dog in English, to tell to him the commands to guide me," Tessier says.

Mesheau says Tessier is welcome to apply to the immersion course again, once his dog learns English commands.

Tessier says it would take eight months for his dog to learn English and he wants the university to let him take the course and continue to speak French to his dog and English to everyone else.




Now, compare that to the freedom we enjoy here:



Papers allegedly written for Buckeye

By Mike Wagner and Kyle Nagel
Dayton Daily News

One paper analyzes the works of famed artist Jackson Pollack.

Another reviews a community theater company's production of the musical "My Fair Lady."

Another argues for the United States to convert to year-round schools.

As college academic papers go, they are unremarkable. However, a Columbus nanny whose allegations are at the heart of an investigation of the Ohio State University men's basketball program said the papers weren't written by a college student.

She said they were written by her.

The Dayton Daily News obtained copies of five academic papers that Kathleen Salyers said she wrote for Slobodan "Boban" Savovic while he took classes and played basketball at Ohio State.

In all, four women told the Daily News or said in court depositions that they wrote, edited or typed academic papers for Savovic.

Salyers said she wrote dozens of papers for Savovic while she housed and cared for the former player from Serbia. She said the five papers were among those turned in by Savovic to OSU class professors.

A professor whose name appears on one of the papers said he remembers Savovic as a student in his class.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is investigating a number of Salyers' claims, including one that she convinced two professors to change failing grades for Savovic.

At least two of the academic papers were turned over to NCAA investigators, according to sources close to the investigation.

NCAA and Ohio State rules generally prohibit athletes from claiming credit for work done by others on their behalf.

Wanda Dworkin, a Columbus schoolteacher and longtime friend of Salyers, said she typed and performed simple grammar editing on the five papers. Dworkin said she never wrote any academic papers, but at the request of Salyers assisted in producing several other papers for Savovic.

Another Columbus woman, who asked that she not be identified, also told the Daily News that she, too, wrote, edited and typed a few papers for Savovic.

A fourth woman, Kim Roslovic, who is being sued by Salyers, has also admitted in a sworn court deposition that she wrote "a couple papers" for the player.

"I would try to read the syllabus with him and see what the (professors) wanted," Salyers said. "There was no way you could start working with Boban at the college level. His English wasn't good, and he didn't even know some of the smallest words."

Yet the papers display a clean and graceful writing style. In one, which describes Web site photos of sculptures by the artist Richard Serra, the writer says: "The pieces viewed were all fashioned of weatherproof steel and, judging by the dimensions given, quite large. They were all freestanding and either had a round shape or smooth curves. It seems impossible that steel could be made to look so supple and continuous in form."
Efforts to reach Savovic were unsuccessful. In Russia, Ohio, where Savovic is staying, a family member of his fiancée said the couple left the area for a vacation.
• • •

Salyers said Paul Biancardi, the current Wright State University coach, knew she was writing papers for Savovic and even thanked her for her work. Biancardi recruited Savovic and other Serbian players when he was an OSU assistant coach.

"I told (Biancardi), 'Boban is not capable of this work. He's simply not capable. I'm doing my best to keep him eligible so he doesn't lose his scholarship,' " she said.
Savovic himself has acknowledged struggling with English. In a 2000 interview with the Daily News, he said, "When I came here I couldn't speak two sentences."

Biancardi has denied all of Salyers' accusations but has declined to answer questions from the media about his role in the recruitment and handling of Savovic and other Serbian athletes at Ohio State.

Heather Lyke Catalano, associate athletic director in charge of compliance for Ohio State, said she couldn't comment on the Daily News article because it pertains to the investigation.

Catalano said OSU is conducting a joint investigation with the NCAA.

"It is taking its natural course," she said. "We all want it to be as thorough as possible."
• • •

The allegations made against the OSU program and Biancardi stem from a lawsuit that does not directly involve the university. The suit was filed in August by Salyers against Kim and Dan Roslovic and alleges the couple agreed to pay her $1,000 a month plus expenses to house and care for Savovic, who lived with the Roslovics for about a month before he moved to Salyers' house.

The Roslovics, in separate sworn depositions, both said they had no agreement with Salyers, their former housekeeper and child-care provider.

The lawsuit came to light June 8, when Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger fired Jim O'Brien, the men's basketball coach. O'Brien told Geiger in April that he gave $6,000 to the family of 7-foot-3 Aleksandar Radojevic after the player signed a letter of intent to play for OSU in November 1998.

Radojevic was eventually ruled ineligible by the NCAA for playing professionally in Europe and never enrolled at the university.

Ohio State was still recruiting Radojevic, a friend of Savovic's from Serbia, when Salyers said she began writing papers for her new houseguest in the fall of 1998. Salyers said she also attended three or four classes with Savovic during his first quarter because he wasn't able to understand the class instructions on how to write an academic paper.

Salyers said she turned to her friend, Dworkin, to type the papers, check for spelling and edit the grammar because Salyers didn't have a computer capable of producing "quality-looking papers."

Kathy would bring them to me handwritten," said Dworkin, 50, an OSU graduate who also has a master's degree in education from Ashland University. "I would call her when I got it done, and she would come back to get it or send her daughter back to get them."
Dworkin said there were times when she got the paper the night before the assignment was due.

"Kathy would always say 'we' -- because I typed it and she wrote it -- that we got a good grade on something," she said.

Dworkin, who is married and has two children, said she assisted with the papers because Salyers asked for her help and she didn't believe typing and doing minor editing for grammar would violate any collegiate rules. Both Salyers and Dworkin also said they wanted to help Savovic so that he wouldn't lose his scholarship and have to return to a war-torn country.

"I really believe I was just helping a kid whose head was barely above water," Dworkin said. "I think it would be really interesting to see how much education he really got at OSU."

Dworkin was interviewed by NCAA investigators last week.

NCAA Bylaw 16.3.3 prohibits various academic assistance, including typing, if the service is an extra benefit not available to the general student body.

Despite helping prepare the papers for Savovic, Dworkin said she refused to accompany her friend when Salyers allegedly convinced two of Savovic's professors to change the former player's failing grades.

"I was disgusted that a professor would even consider doing that," she said. "I worked for my grades, my children worked for their grades. I was totally appalled."

One of the papers Salyers said she wrote was an essay, dated Oct. 30, 1998, on American college life. In the essay, Savovic's first name is spelled incorrectly.

Another describes arriving in America two years earlier without the ability of speaking or writing English. In the paper, the writer says: "I considered myself to be a strong reader in my native language of Yugoslavian."

Savovic speaks Serbian.





I rest my case.