Still unqualified

In his Nov. 24 Point of View article (“Athletes and admissions: UNC-Chapel Hill's procedure”), UNC-Chapel Hill’s Stephen M. Farmer, vice provost for enrollment and undergraduate admissions, is wholly unpersuasive in his defense of admitting athletes who are academically unqualified.

He didn’t mention that many of these athletes fail academically despite an enormous amount of assistance provided them – assistance that isn’t available to the ordinary student. He didn’t confess that every academically unqualified athlete displaces an applicant who was qualified. He fails to note that admitting academically unqualified athletes eliminates an incentive for those athletes to work hard in their high school studies.

Farmer’s words that “most of these students have either graduated or made progress toward their degrees” are as broad as a barn door because “progress” could mean little more than passing a few no-show courses. And lastly, when he justifies UNC-CH’s policy by observing that other universities do the same thing, he merely confirms that this absurdity is widespread.

Chuck Till

Raleigh