Excellent analysis of how and
WHY B-Rad's "evolved" since his hiring at unx...
Diary of a Madman not named Ozzy
The cast:
Bradley Bethel (@ bethellearning) is an Academic Counselor with the Academic Support Program for Student Athletes (ASPSA) at unc-Chapel Hill and author/editor of the Coaching the Mind blog.
Dan Kane (@dankanenando) is an investigative Reporter for the Raleigh, NC News and Observer
Dr. Bobbi Owen is a Professor of Dramatic Art and former Senior Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education
Dr. Jay Smith (@jaysmith711) is a Professor of History and founding member of the Athletics Reforms Group at the University of North carolina at Chapel Hill.
Mary Willingham (@paperclassinc) is the Founder of Paper Class Inc and a former Learning Specialist in the Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes at the University of North carolina at Chapel Hill. Willingham and Smith are publishing a book, Cheated: The unc Scandal, the Education of Athletes, and the Future of Big-Time College Sports, that addresses the scandal at the University of North carolina at Chapel Hill.
For nearly a year, beginning with his February 24 Truth and Literacy at unc blog entry, Bethel has been hypercritical of his fellow educators (Smith & Willingham) and the reporting of Dan Kane. In his January 7, 2015 blog entry Emails Reveal Disputes Between Jay Smith and Other Faculty Members, Bethel elevated his rancor by releasing emails exchanged with Jay Smith. Buried within one of the emails is a statement that CBR had read before:
I was called into an office and specifically told I should not talk about "underprepared" students at unc. Email dated 9//2013
Prior to the email release, Bethel had described the same event in his November 4, 2014 entry, The Wainstein Report and the (Anti-) Athletics Reform Group:
Owen was an autocratic micromanager who led by intimidation. When I was interested in another job on campus, three separate people told me they believed she had interfered with other people's career advancement, and one of those people suggested Owen may attempt to interfere with mine. Prior to that, during Summer 2012, Owen wanted to meet with me to chastise me about an interview I had given to The Chronicle of Higher Education. During the interview, I had described my job as serving academically underprepared student-athletes. Owen admonished me to replace the term "underprepared students" with the euphemism "students with special talents."
In that blog entry, we learn of a summer 2012 meeting with his supervisor, Dr. Bobbi Owen (Owen is rumored to be one of the nine individuals disciplined by unc-CH as a result of the findings included in the Wainstein Report). Bethel reports Owen wanted to meet to address his comments in the Chronicle article Big Sports Programs Step Up Hiring to Help Marginal Students published on June 4, 2012.
"All these student-athletes are coming to campus who are really underprepared, which is why the need for learning specialists has arisen," says Bethel, who got responses from 53 of 120 FBS programs."
The summer 2012 meeting appears to have been a turning point for Bethel. Before the reported meeting, Coaching the Mind had just one post, a rather benign entry about "a goal-setting workshop conducted for a group of new football student-athletes." The next series of posts are daily logs of activities from the 2012 Annual Convention of the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics. Following that series of entries, Bethel has one praising two professionals (Dr. Gerald Gurney @GeraldGurney1 and Dr. Richard Southall @CSRISouthall), both of which would later become part of a cadre of educators destined for Bethel's scorn and ridicule. In 2013, Bethel has just one blog entry. In 2014, Bethel's diatribes become a source of great praise by fans of Tar Heel athletics, praise that seemed to stoke his ego as readership increased dramatically with each new blog entry and followers on Twitter escalated.
What motivated this once docile blogger to become the activist that he is today? What triggered the tirades that began in February 2014? CBR speculates it has to do with Bethel trying to repair his reputation with the aforementioned autocratic micromanager that was his supervisor, as well as the athletic community in the Frank H. Kenan Football Center. There must have been a breaking point.
Bethel's comments regarding underprepared students received little attention by the athletic community for a simple reason, they were published in a journal (the Chronicle) not frequented by athletic administrators. The fall out was contained to the academics at unc-Chapel Hill, that is, until January 30, 2014. On that day, in a sidebar to his article "A former unc dean recalls athletes unable to do college-level work," News and Observer investigative reporter Dan Kane included the following:
"Although we in the Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes are capable of supporting many student athletes who are not as academically prepared as most unc students, there have been many student-athletes who were specially admitted whose academic preparedness is so low they cannot succeed here," Bethel wrote. "At a rigorous university like unc, there are some underprepared students who, no matter how much support they receive, have too many hurdles to overcome. To appropriately balance academics and athletics, we need to look more closely at the decisions, and the decision-making process, regarding specially admitted student-athletes."
Bethel's criticism of the student athletes and questions about their ability to succeed was now front and center in the popular story line even the staunchest Tar Heel fans were following. Bethel had to find a way to put the genie back in the bottle. The motivation is clear, again, from his September 6, 2013 email:
Many fear losing their jobs if they speak, and some already have lost their jobs. We don't have tenure.
and his impression of his supervisor, post summer 2012:
When I was interested in another job on campus, three separate people told me they believed she had interfered with other people's career advancement, and one of those people suggested Owen may attempt to interfere with mine. Nov 14, 2014
Bethel appears to be a young professional, inexperienced in the politics of big time college athletics, that now found his career in jeopardy --
"some already have lost their jobs. We don't have tenure."
Was the trigger that resulted in Bethel's madness the sidebar in Dan Kane's January 30, 2014 story? That is hard to say, but chronologically, that event was a turning point in Bethel's rhetoric. Prior to January 30, 2014, Bethel's last released email to Jay Smith begins:
Jay, thanks for taking the time to respond. There's no hostility here
Very cordial on September 12, 2013. After January 30, 2014, the vitriol towards Jay Smith, Mary Willingham, Dan Kane and anyone else reporting on the unc-CH Scandal is well documented on Coaching the Mind. It is not apparent Bethel was mentally unstable prior to the sidebar-article. But his abrupt change following the N&O sidebar is certainly alarming.
UNC-CHeat
