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Wednesday, August 22, 2007

View Cart...


...isn't the sort of thing you expect to see on a university's home page. Greetings from the president, sure... campus scenes... a few news items... But View Cart?

At the Trinity College & University diploma mill, however, way low prices on any level degree in the field of your choice are so tempting, you'll want to start shopping right away, just like Dave Serrano, the top candidate for baseball coach at the University of Oregon:





'The University of Oregon has delayed a follow-up interview with Dave Serrano, the award-winning University of California Irvine baseball coach, amid reports that Serrano obtained his bachelor's degree from a Spanish school that awards degrees but does not require students to attend class.

Oregon, which is restoring baseball after a 26-year hiatus, has listed a bachelor's degree as a requirement for the baseball coaching job. The university dropped the degree requirement when it hired Pat Kilkenny as athletic director in February.

Kilkenny left the University of Oregon short of graduation before a successful career in the insurance industry in which he accumulated a net worth of more than $100 million. The Oregon athletics booster now serves as athletic director on a token salary.

Kilkenny did not return calls to The Oregonian. He told The (Eugene) Register-Guard that the delay in interviewing Serrano was caused by logistics. But Kilkenny acknowledged the school was reviewing Serrano's degree from The Trinity College and University, a school in Malaga, Spain, that awards degrees "based on previous life experiences."

Renee Baumgartner, a senior associate athletic director at Oregon, said the university was concerned about Serrano's degree... '



UO should hire him. I think it wants to, because it's handling the diploma mill problem correctly. It's acknowledging it, and it's telling us it's concerned about it. That'll do. It matters not a bit for this job whether the guy is educated, and they've already made an exception for Kilkenny.

I mean, I guess you could argue Serrano's not a very good academic role model for the players, but almost no one in a major university sports program is.

It's sleazy of Serrano to have bought a bogus BA and passed it off as authentic. But bringing sleaze to major university sports programs is bringing coals to Newcastle. Who cares.
Posted at: 8/22/2007 10:18:00 PM