Why couldn't Barnwell e-mail the professor?

[S.B. Crumb]

It does seem to me that it's time some sort of statement about the magnitude of what we are dealing with here is made by the University. If this is a small deal, say so. If it is more complicated, say so. Silence is not helping now.

I was watching Doug Gottlieb (don't ask me why) on CBS sports and he was discussing this with a reporter.

And guess what, they were of course assuming the worst because they guessed if it was just a single innocuous email, the university would have disclosed its contents by now or at least provided some further insight on the subject.

Perhaps you are right about continued silence not helping. Not pleased to hear this discussed at a national level.

 

[willisneverrana43]

There are some many unknowns in this story that this list could be endless -
- maybe Barnwell had - but could not get a response
- maybe Barnwell had had a conversation & felt that he was getting non-answers / or was getting treated dismissively
- maybe Barnwell was being ambiguous with Flood & Flood was looking to get resolution one way or another.
- maybe this was an instructor that Flood knew (or thought he knew) & Flood tried to expedite the process
- maybe Barnwell knew he fell short of the mark & was despondent & basically giving up - & Flood said let me see if there is anything that you can possibly do to improve this.
we just don't know - and likely never will.

None of these are acceptable reasons for a head coach to directly ask a professor about a grade and ways to improve it. None.

 

[Knight_Light]

I was watching Doug Gottlieb (don't ask me why) on CBS sports and he was discussing this with a reporter.

And guess what, they were of course assuming the worst because they guessed if it was just a single innocuous email, the university would have disclosed its contents by now or at least provided some further insight on the subject.

Perhaps you are right about continued silence not helping. Not pleased to hear this discussed at a national level.

It probably wouldn't take too long to investigate Flood's official RU email communications that might have been sent to profs.

However, since its been reported (not yet proven) that Flood used his own personal non-RU email for this particular communication, RU obviously does not have access (nor the right) to fully investigate Flood's personal email account...RU probably is looking at almost every RU Profs official RU email account that has/had an enrolled RU Football player and see if any of them have ever received an email from Flood's personal non-RU email account.

Now that could take some time...a LOT of time, to investigate.

Bottom line, this could have been just a one time thing that Flood used his personal email account to contact an RU instructor/prof...but maybe he has done it multiple times...with his official RU email or thru his personal non-RU email.

I think RU will take their time to get it right and not take someone's word for it (i.e. Eddie Jordan had already earned his RU degree).

 

[Saint Puppy]

Bottom line Flood shouldn't be contacting a professor for obvious reasons. There are probably 100 other ways he could have gone about this with all the support staff and higher ups involved with the football team. I'm sure Flood is not the first coach to ever do this, but it is definitely wrong. To the OPs question - who knows the answer - could be a lot of things. Could be Barnwell is the stereotypical milenial who needs his butt wiped and has everybody else do his bidding. It could be the prof is one of those people who hate the football program, and because of that decided to stick it to Barnwell. If it's something like the latter, then welcome to life - sometimes you are on the right side of life and the streets are paved with gold, sometimes people aren't going to give you a break because of your status, sometimes you have to work twice as hard to get the same results as other people and sometimes you are simply in the midst of sh** storm and can't win. Either way this was Barnwell's situation to handle himself.

 

[Kbee3]

agree that this is a non issue anywhere else.

it is part of the university culture historically that the faculty at Rutgers does not want the athletic department to over-shadow the academic integrity of the university.

Exactly. And that's one of the reasons that I'm totally surprised when RU has any measurable success in any sport. Most of our competition is not playing by the same rules as we are.

 

[willisneverrana43]

Bottom line Flood shouldn't be contacting a professor for obvious reasons. There are probably 100 other ways he could have gone about this with all the support staff and higher ups involved with the football team. I'm sure Flood is not the first coach to ever do this, but it is definitely wrong. To the OPs question - who knows the answer - could be a lot of things. Could be Barnwell is the stereotypical milenial who needs his butt wiped and has everybody else do his bidding. It could be the prof is one of those people who hate the football program, and because of that decided to stick it to Barnwell. If it's something like the latter, then welcome to life - sometimes you are on the right side of life and the streets are paved with gold, sometimes people aren't going to give you a break because of your status, sometimes you have to work twice as hard to get the same results as other people and sometimes you are simply in the midst of sh** storm and can't win. Either way this was Barnwell's situation to handle himself.

Great post.

 

[GeorgeStreet]

WHERE WAS BARNWELL'S ACADEMIC ADVISOR DURING ALL THIS, AND WHAT WAS HE/SHE DOING ABOUT IT?

 

[PaKnight]

WHERE WAS BARNWELL'S ACADEMIC ADVISOR DURING ALL THIS, AND WHAT WAS HE/SHE DOING ABOUT IT?

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink.