(SCU Archives), Original Article
When I was in the archives, I found a folder next to the one labeled “Center for the Studies of Contemporary Values” that seemed really interesting. The folder was named, “Continuing Education Extension Course Scandal.”
Who doesn’t like scandals, right???
The summary of the story goes something like this: SCU once had a program where they would give “professional advancement” classes aimed at teachers so they could gain experience to get better paying positions. These classes were NOT for credit and meant only to put on resumes (and for the school to make some extra cash on the side). But some football players from other colleges took these courses (already suspicious) and used them for credits to graduate. So SCU was blamed for giving these student athletes illegal credit to graduate.
Article accusing SCU’s involvement (SCU Archives)
The scandal was widely reported and involved some notable football players. Apparently, one of the most well-known was Chuck Muncie, an athlete at UC Berkeley who went on to play for the New Orleans Saints. SCU was involved in some hard core allegations.
Vintage collector’s item (Source)
Many of the documents in the file were related to SCU, but some news articles were just collected since they were related to the entire incident which involved other universities as well. One of them said that a 4-year old earned credit from Chapman University! Apparently I writer for a news paper used his granddaughter’s name to apply for one of these “professional advancement” programs, wrote an purposefully “crappy” essay in her name, and still got a grade of B and passed the class. That is how messed up the system was!
Even now we hear about so many scandals happening to college athletic programs, and maybe this one is not as bad as some scandals we now know of. But at the time it surely shook SCU’s reputation, and also shone the spotlight on it at the same time (Ironic isn’t it…). After all, the archives are where all the forgotten history is hidden away…
And don’t forget to take a look at the SCU archives for yourself!