| |
 Big Kat got big help Letters detail Katzenmoyer's preferential treatment
Posted: Thursday June 10, 1999 08:11 PM
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Anonymous letters obtained by Sports Illustrated allege that Ohio State's star linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer received special treatment from professors, the magazine reported. In a story headlined "Black Eye for the Buckeyes," the Magazine, due to hit newsstands Wednesday, said both letters were signed, "Sincerely, OSU Faculty" and sent to Ohio State President William Kirwan last summer. Sports Illustrated said Kirwan confirmed the basic facts in the letters, but disagreed with the conclusion that Katzenmoyer got advantages other students wouldn't get. One letter said, "The special treatment football player Andy Katzenmoyer has received this summer in order to be academically eligible is ridiculous." Katzenmoyer, an All-America linebacker for the Buckeyes, maintained his eligibility by taking classes last summer in music, golf and another course titled "AIDS: What Every College Student Should Know." "Something is definitely wrong," a letter dated Aug. 14 said. The writer alleged that Katzenmoyer had taken a mass communications course during the first summer term in which all 22 students enrolled received an A or an A- "even though there was normal grade distribution/range for the course in previous quarters."
The letter also questioned how Katzenmoyer, who it claimed had a 1.72 grade-point average or lower in five of his seven semesters, was able to get grades of 3.0 or higher in the first summer term. It also alleged that Katzenmoyer was squeezed into the golf class, which was full. A second letter dated Aug. 24 said Katzenmoyer had been granted a grade change for an art education class he had failed the previous spring. "The academic integrity of this University has become a joke," the letter said. Kirwan disputed that description. He told the magazine, "From everything I learned, nothing was done for Andy Katzenmoyer that can't be done for any other student at the university. Some will take those facts and see it one way. I saw that no rules or regulations were broken." Katzenmoyer's grade was changed from an E -- the Ohio State equivalent of an F -- to a C+ in the spring art course, Introduction to the Computer and the Visual Arts. When teaching assistant Paula DiMarco was asked by SI why she changed the grade, she said, "This is uncomfortable. I really don't want to talk." Katzenmoyer, who left school midway through his junior season, was the 28th player chosen in the first round of the NFL draft by the New England Patriots, denied that he got special treatment. "I earned every grade I got," he told television station WBNS on Wednesday. |
