Amy Gutmann and Lee Stetson Show Their Commitment to the “Student” in “Student-Athlete”
Last summer, Keenan Jeppesen, Brown's best basketball player, applied to transfer to Penn, and was turned down. Was his GPA too low? Did he have discipline problems? Do they suspect his involvement in a certain kidnapping?
Nope. Penn's president and dean of admissions felt it would make Penn too good at basketball and Brown too bad. From the DP:
"We feel badly about taking students from Brown, a member of our league," [dean Lee Stetson said]. Stetson stressed that the decision had nothing to do with academic standards. Rather, he cited a desire for fairness and a concern for the integrity of a fellow Ivy League institution.
President Amy Gutmann "and I talked, and we just don't think it's fair to take someone from the other Ivies," Stetson said. "It just isn't fair. He is a Brown student, he chose to go to Brown, and we're hoping he flourishes there. He made his choice, and Brown is his place, just like we would not want to have students taken out from underneath of our program at Penn."
Jeppesen -- who, we should probably point out, is a human being and not just a thing that dribbles -- was faced with returning to a school and a team he didn't like. So he's opted to drop out of school.
Jeppesen is by all accounts a great kid, and certainly a terrific athlete. He lost his chance to earn an Ivy League degree because a couple of academics decided to stick their noses in an arena they know very little about. Somebody let us know the next time these two give a speech about "student-athletes" with a straight face.
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December 5th, 2006 at 11:53 am
This is a non-story. The DP is awful in terms of reporting and writing, let me parse the information for you: Jeppesen applied for transfer long after the deadline had passed on a year when transfer admissions were particularly difficult (I believe somewhere around a 10% acceptance rate). It’s not shocking that he didn’t gain admission. In fact, this doesn’t really bother me. Had he gotten in considering that he sent his application in several months late I would be worried about the integrity of Penn.
December 5th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
The Penn admissions committee had a very valid reason to deny his application – namely, that it was late – regardless of the athletics issue. And the fact that he lost out on receiving an Ivy League degree was not either Brown’s or Penn’s fault – he himself decided to drop out of the former, after the latter denied him admission. It’s clear that education wasn’t the thing about which he’s most concerned.
December 5th, 2006 at 1:40 pm
Still, why bring it up in the interview?
December 5th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
This is non-news. Both Christopher and Bob are right. Jeppesen applied for transfer admission well after the deadline. If Penn had accepted him w/his late application, right now you’d be writing a story about how it’s unfair to anyone else who applied late and was denied b/c they aren’t an athlete.
You can’t blame Penn or Brown for Jeppensen dropping out. He made the decision to “deprive” himself of an Ivy degree.
December 5th, 2006 at 2:02 pm
This is certainly not a non-issue. Regardless of the deadline question, the president of Penn went on record saying “it’s not fair to take someone from one of the Ivies” (!!!) What the hell does this mean? I’m not allowed to transfer from one Ivy to another because that’s somehow not fair to the institution?? This is total bs.
December 5th, 2006 at 2:02 pm
Late applicants are admitted to Ivies every year.
What Stetson and Gutman did in denying Jeppersen the opportunity to even apply was absurd. I find their subsequent reasoning, if you want to call it that, to be nothing more than ridiculous prevarication.
Let the kid go where he’s happy. Or is that concept so foreign to these two.
December 5th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
He DID apply – and he was rejected. Schools make tough calls that border on arbitrary all the time, so why should this be any different? Just because it’s publicly known that he wants to go to Penn?
“Let the kid go where he’s happy. Or is that concept so foreign to these two.”
Yes, actually, that’s quite a foreign concept. Since when did schools have an obligation to accept someone just because it’ll back them happy? And I’d like to see Jeff show me an example of when “Late applicants are admitted to Ivies every year” – not because I don’t think it happens, but because he seems to proffer it as being quite commonplace whereas I don’t think this athlete’s situation is so extraordinary that it warrants an admissions committee bending over backwards to accomodate him while risking ruining commity with fellow Ivies.
December 5th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
I dont know very many folks who had Brown as a top choice. I think it is usually a rebound Ivy. If the guy had the record to get into an Ivy that wasnt Brown, Im sure he would have gone.
Definitely is his fault if he was unhappy/wanted to drop out though. I mean, what kind of person cant tell ahead of time that he isnt going to fit in at a school like that?
And yeah, I have two friends who applied way after the deadline and are here.
December 5th, 2006 at 3:05 pm
Hey, in case you missed it, “d”, when Stetson and Gutmann said it’s not fair to poach people from other Ivies they were specifically referring to ATHLETES. I think that was made abundantly clear.
December 5th, 2006 at 3:07 pm
F,
Perhaps your friends are not the perfect indicator of the nation’s youth. Brown may be a backup for privileged kids looking for advanced degrees in soulless wealth, but I assure you most people actually wanted to come to Brown. That aside, if Jeppesen can’t cope with going to the school he chose, and can only think of one acceptable place to transfer, then maybe some time in the real world will expand his mind. Poor, deprived, victimized ivy students. When will the oppression stop?
December 5th, 2006 at 3:21 pm
This is most certainly an issue whether it happened at Brown, Penn or otherwise. If Jeppesen were at UCLA and his basketball coach (who recruited him to play) took the job at Stanford, he might have a legit reason to want to transfer and the schools would certainly let him if he had the credentials. It happens all the time out there in the real world. If Penn didn’t want to take Jeppesen, for academic or other educational/cultural reasons, fine. But the excuse given about poaching players from another league institution is assinine. A few years ago a player named Harold Bailey transferred to Brown from Penn.
December 5th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
F,
Brown is not a “rebound” school for most people. In fact, in my entire group of friends, I know of only one person here who initially came becuase she didn’t get into another Ivy. She planned to transfer at first, but then realized that Brown is awesome and stayed. And a ton of my friends applied here early (I did as well), and weren’t even considering other Ivies.
(as a sidenote, people with a pompous outlook like yours are much of the reason many of us chose to come to Brown, where that sort of attitude doesn’t seem to be as prevalent…)
just my 2 cents…
December 5th, 2006 at 3:53 pm
Brown is 4th hardest to get into in the nation. Yep, a real rebound school.
December 5th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
Penn and Brown have had many transfers between them over the years including athletes and also including basketball players. Oggie Kapetonich transferred from Brown to Penn in the late 90’s. Harold Bailey transferred from Penn to Brown a couple years after that. Both were varsity players who continued playing at their new school.
As for late applications, especially involving transfers of athletes where the circumstances develop late in the admissions cycle (like a coaching change), Stetson has admitted lots of these kids over the years.
This decision was not made by Stetson or Penn Admissions. He was given his marching orders from above. I wonder what other student applying to Penn in 2006 had the University President intervene in the process.
December 5th, 2006 at 4:54 pm
Since when has a coach changing been a valid reason for applying late? I think Gutmann’s point was that the Ivy League in particular does not make special arrangements for transfer-athletes. He applied late, and therefore, regardless of his athletic prowess or academic aptitude, he was denied admission. I think it should be abundantly clear that we all attend schools that posit academics above athletics, and Gutmann’s point reflects this fact. Allowing him to apply late and gain acceptance would essentially be an act of taking him based on his athletic merit–or poaching him from Brown for just that reason. Sure, big schools with big athletic programs may do this, but that doesn’t make it right. It’s kind of like a gentleman’s agreement among Ivies if you’ll excuse the parlance. I see no problem with acknowledging that this, and frankly, I laud Stetson and Gutmann for coming out and saying it.
Furthermore, I think their comments were put into an unfortunate context in the articles, as they truly refer to Penn’s decision not to give him exceptional consideration above their own rules due to his status as an athlete, not Penn’s decision to deny him solely because he was a Brown basketball player. I know several Ivy-to-Ivy transfers here, including my roommate who went to Cornell, and a few kids who originally went to Columbia.
December 5th, 2006 at 5:22 pm
As I said before, Penn has taken many athletes under the exact same circumstances (at least as far as application timing is concerned). Many.
When a D1 athlete seeks to transfer, they must get a written release, get transcripts sent, complete the applic etc. Nothing can happen until he/she gets that written release in their hands. It takes time and often it occurs late in the year because the event precipitating the transfer (coach leaving, school abandoning program, better incoming players recruited etc) occurs after the end of a season. We have NEVER held these kids strictly accountable to our application timetables.
What was different in this case is that this kid wanted to follow his coach who was also from Brown. Brown applied pressure on Gutman not to accept Jeppesen and she buckled. This will probably be the last time she steps on Stetson’s toes judging from the negative feedback she got from some of our most influential trustees. My guess is that she avoids Halloween parties going forward as well, or at the least has party goers screened at the door.
December 5th, 2006 at 5:30 pm
You’re missing my point. Just because this has been done in the past does not make it right. Gutmann made the right call in not allowing him to apply right if it truly came down to her word. I really have no sympathy for the plight of scorned transfer-athlete.
December 5th, 2006 at 5:37 pm
I should have added that in the case of recruited athletes, the recruiting coach plays a very important role in the decision making process. Since Jeppesen was denied admission to Penn, not only has he left, but two additional freshmen recruited by Glen Miller have also quit the team and departed. Another recruit for 2007, originally sourced by Miller, won’t be attending Brown either but will be enrolling in another Ivy.
Keenan Jeppesen was recruited by several Ivies. He probably chose Brown for a number of reasons, but the biggest factor was Coach Miller.
Gutman must learn to leave admissions decisions in the hands of her Director and his staff and athletic decisions in the hands of Steve Bilsky and his staff. I think she has learned her lesson and I doubt a situation like this reoccurs. At least I hope so.
December 5th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
Chris – I guess you missed my point. It’s been done in the past for good reasons and it’s also a privilege extended to non athletes when extenuating circumstances exist.
December 5th, 2006 at 5:57 pm
No, I didn’t miss your point, I disagree with it. Tough shit for him. If he really hated Brown and loved to Penn so much he could have just applied as a regular student along with all of the other transfers. Simple as that.
December 5th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
to “uhhh”
Where are you getting this information that Brown is the “4th hardest school to get into in the nation.” I think you’re full of it.
Would everybody else agree that harvard, yale, princeton, stanford, mit, caltech, and maybe columbia are quite a bit harder to get into than Brown?
December 5th, 2006 at 6:36 pm
No – I think you actually must have missed the point, or alternatively are not all that familiar with Penn Admissions Policies and Practices.
If this was a qualified Brown student from Phila whose mother got sick, we’d have let her transfer to Penn in the middle of the summer. If this was a Brown student whose parent took a position at Penn Med School in the summer, we’d let her transfer in. We do this for students and athletes. It’s pretty routine. In doesn’t effect hundreds of kids, but there are a bunch every year. Sometimes we let kids of the rich and famous apply very late in the admissions cycle. There are many different circumstances under which the timetable is not determinative.
This kid was singled out because he was an athlete and because Ruth Simmons personally lobbied Gutman to make him stay at Brown. The deadline was the official excuse but not the real reason. In the Ivies, students and athletes are supposed to be given comparable consideration. While the Ivy recruiting guidelines allow for athletes on the whole to measure one standard deviation below the mean Academic Index at a particular school, a school President should not be intervening to block admission for one singled out student – especially because he is an athlete. Had Jeppesen been turned down by Admissions because of academic or personal shortcomings that’s one thing – but this was not the case. Everything was proceeding on course with Athletics and Admissions working to successfully effect the transfer; that is, until Ruth called Amy.
If Penn wanted to set a hard deadline and not deviate for ANYONE going forward, that of course would be an option, but that’s not what happened here. If that’s what you want, I would offer that that would be bad policy in my opinion. But – at least on this, there would be an honest disagreement between us.
If you are saying it’s ok to apply the deadline to refuse an athlete but to extend it for others, then we have more than a disagreement. You basically would not be in sync with the guiding principles that constitute the foundation upon which the entire Ivy League rests.
December 5th, 2006 at 7:27 pm
Once again, I understand all of this, but it’s a moot point. We’re discussing one specific case–a student athlete who applied late for transfer and expected to get in because he plays basketball. Regardless of the motivations for not accepting him, the fact that his application was late is not a “technicality.” There was a deadline, and he missed it. I don’t give a shit if they let Steve Wynn’s nephew in after he applied four months late–other cases of favoritism are irrelevant. I have little sympathy for the trials and tribulations of someone who expects preferential treatment and then has the rug pulled out from under them.
December 5th, 2006 at 7:37 pm
These deadlines are Administrative Guidelines. They are not Statutory. They are there to create a sense of order in what is inherently a chaotic process, college admissions. They have never been administered as drop dead dates.
But now I think I truly think I understand your point. You don’t care that there are frequent exceptions to the deadlines for cause and you don’t object to the University President intervening on a one off basis. You just don’t have much sympathy for this particular person and his particular extenuating circumstances despite the fact that Penn has allowed these exceptions under very similar circumstances for years.
Now that I understand your point, I think I can let this rest. We really do disagree.
December 5th, 2006 at 7:39 pm
I agree with Christopher. “Well, they do it in xyz situation too” doesn’t make this particular instance right.
December 5th, 2006 at 7:43 pm
What extenuating circumstances? Oh no…he’s not too happy at Brown! BIG DEAL. And so what if Gutman decides to single out this case? She’s in charge of the university and she, presumably, can appoint the Dean of Admissions and, a fortiori, has a say in determinations regarding admissions. If she decides to step in for this case alone, or all subsequent cases, it’s her perogative. I think the very fact that this athlete dropped out of Brown AFTER he was rejected from Penn really says something about how sorry we should feel for him. It was not the wrangling of the Penn administration that left him without a university – he brought this upon himself.
December 5th, 2006 at 7:44 pm
Exactly.
December 5th, 2006 at 7:46 pm
Yeah, really. Maybe the entire Brown team should have a right to transfer to Penn, too. Cuz, you know, we should have sympathy for their “extenuating circumstances”…
December 5th, 2006 at 8:59 pm
to “CU”:
Yeah, I agree that Brown is less selective than H/Y/P/S/Mit/Caltech and possibly Columbia. This “4th hardest to get into in the nation” stuff that “uhh…” is spouting is just false. (And I say this as a Brunonian.)
December 5th, 2006 at 10:22 pm
According to the Princeton Review, Brown is the 4th hardest school to get into in the nation. It ranks MIT first, then Princeton, and Harvard.
Princeton Review page (sorry, but I think you have to sign in to see it): http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/rankings/rankingDetails.asp?CategoryID=1&TopicID=10
December 6th, 2006 at 12:20 am
Bullsh*t that Brown is harder to get into than Yale, Caltech, and Stanford. Don’t get me wrong, I love Brown. But it’s not harder than those 3.
December 6th, 2006 at 12:25 am
to “Brown 2010″
So according to that, it’s easier to get into Yale than Brown? I find that hard to believe.
December 6th, 2006 at 12:54 am
Didn’t Yale have the lowest acceptance rate last year?
December 6th, 2006 at 1:05 am
You’re free to agree or disagree with the Princeton Review rankings; I just wanted to back up “uhh…”’s statement that Brown was 4th hardest to get into.
December 6th, 2006 at 1:53 am
Brown you’ve got it all wrong, the rankings have nothing to do with official numbers, they have to do with surveys that students take.
December 6th, 2006 at 1:54 am
“Brown 2010″
December 6th, 2006 at 1:56 am
It is truly remarkable that many a (relatively) intelligent debate on this site should inevitably degenerate into the simple “I am better than you” discussion. I guess the “Comment about comments” last week was right on target.
All the “my rankings are bigger that yours” banter is pretty pathetic.
December 6th, 2006 at 1:57 am
So, “oy!”, if I go to some TTT w/a 100% accept rate, and fill out Princeton Review’s survey saying I think my TTT is more selective than Harvard, it will be acknowledged as such?
The Princeton Review…a lot of credibility right there.
December 6th, 2006 at 4:31 am
“Brown,” there is no “more selective than”. Students just put down whether or not they thought it was hard to get into their school (maybe on a scale, I took the survey a while ago). Princeton Review has the actual facts on each college’s page but as far as rankings in any of their catagories it is purely subjective.
December 6th, 2006 at 4:45 am
My bad. Heh?
The rating is percentage of self-selecting students who apply. Brown has a higher percentage of qualified people apply than Yale. Pointless argument settled.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:18 am
bulldog: Don’t you know? The internet is a giant virtual ruler to measure your penis with. Just by posting on an Ivy League site doesn’t change this universal truth. It only means there’s less of the “d00dZ, c0rn3L iZ teh rUL3xor!11!~ONE!!” speak.
December 6th, 2006 at 8:15 am
Princeton review – where the Yale newspaper is ranked among the top college newspapers in the country this year … yet, wasn’t even on the list last year. Or where Cornell was at the top for campus beauty a few years ago, yet is no longer on the list in the latest rankings … did a bomb go through campus, or are Princeton Review’s rankings generally unreliable?