'The interim head of the University of Arizona's classics department has stepped down amid accusations he gave preferential treatment to a UA basketball player.

UA officials said the school is investigating the claims after a majority of upper-level classics professors signed a letter March 28 indicating their collective "vote of no-confidence" in Alexander Nava.

The professors alleged that Nava allowed the player to enroll in classes without the proper prerequisite courses and that he implored an adjunct instructor not to drop or fail the athlete during the season, although the instructor told the Citizen he was not pressured.

…The eight professors who signed the letter to College of Humanities Dean Charles Tatum accused Nava of "academic fraud" and having "extraordinarily poor judgment and administrative incompetence."


…In the letter, the eight classics professors wrote that Nava had "abused his power without submitting the necessary paperwork to the director of graduate studies in classics."

The unnamed student was enrolled in a six-unit graduate-level independent study course when one to three units is the norm, the letter said.

Faculty members said Nava should have consulted with the department because the student did not have the necessary prerequisite courses.

The course, Classics 599, consists of independent study agreed upon by the student and professor.

It was not clear exactly what the student was studying.' [As usual, UD was able to find out:

Historical/Comparative Grammar of Latin
Introduction to Latin historical/comparative grammar via reading of pre-classical texts, including both literary texts (Cato, Ennius, Saturnian poetry) and non-literary forms (early inscriptions, the Twelve Tables, the Latin grammatical tradition); the position of Latin among the languages of ancient Italy; the development of the literary language.]