Lou Holtz leaves another program ahead of violations.

[WolverineSteve]

Do any of you actually view this vagabond as a coaching great? He is a disgrace to the institution of CFB. He leaves every program just ahead of a shitstorm of allegations. Why media-types love this douchebag is beyond me. Arkansas, Minnesota, ND, all faced some sort of NCAA action after his departure, now SC. This guy is a cheat, no matter how you slice it.





NCAA Violations May Mar Holtz's Tenure


By PETE IACOBELLI
AP Sports Writer

July 15, 2005, 7:01 AM CDT


COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Lou Holtz promised to take South Carolina football into the national spotlight. The school's NCAA violations aren't likely the attention he was seeking, however.

The university admitted to 10 violations in a summary disposition report released Wednesday. It agreed with the NCAA enforcement staff that five of the violations were major. South Carolina classified the other five as secondary, although the NCAA disagreed and called one of the five major, an issue that will no doubt get taken up when the NCAA Committee on Infractions discusses the report in the coming weeks.


With Holtz named in only the most minor of ways in the report, do the violations cloud his successful tenure?

"I don't know if it changes anything," said former Gov. Jim Hodges, who was cited for an NCAA violation when he talked to prospects (governors are ex-officio members of the university's board of trustees). "Lou did a lot of good things for the university."

That was certainly the case early on when Holtz stunned the football world (and probably most South Carolina fans) by going from 0-11 in 1999 to 17-7 and consecutive Outback Bowl victories in 2000 and 2001 -- the best two-year stretch in school history.

When news broke in 2002 that the NCAA was looking into South Carolina, Holtz angrily defended his program.

"They don't think we can win without cheating," Holtz said at the time. "They don't think we can recruit without cheating and this is nonsense."

Holtz did not return phone messages by The Associated Press at his Florida home Wednesday or Thursday. At a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada on Thursday, Holtz said the violations didn't involve "any real major stuff that happened."

"No coach was involved," he said, according to an interview transcript provided by the tournament. "The major fallacy was that we tutored two young men or I guess the academic people tutored two young men before they attended the university.

"Five of the violations were reported by us," Holtz continued, "there was no money involved, no recruiting violations, no enticements, but nevertheless, we don't want any marks against us."

The school proposed penalties of two years' probation, losing four football scholarships over two seasons and reducing its on-campus paid recruiting visits.

The 80-page summary disposition report largely leaves Holtz out of transgressions.

The most serious violations involved the conduct of former athletic administrator Tom Perry and former football strength and condition coach Pat Moorer.

The report said Perry provided academic assistance to a pair of recruits who had signed with South Carolina but had not yet enrolled.

In Holtz's interview with NCAA investigators, the coach said he had no knowledge of tutoring assistance being provided. He "did say the football staff might have monitored" the progress of an incoming player who was at Midlands Technical College, according to the report.

The NCAA report found that Moorer was the "chief actor" in conducting out-of-season athletics activities for football student athletes. Holtz said in the report he had no knowledge of Moorer conducting mandatory summer workouts or punishing or compelling makeup workouts for those players who missed sessions. Holtz noted to investigators, "I assume players would go."

As far as Gov. Hodges' contact with prospects, Holtz told investigators he was "as shocked as anybody" to see the chief executive.

Holtz said he did not know such contact violated NCAA rules until after the fact.

Holtz has kept a very low profile in the state since leaving South Carolina in November. Recently retired athletic director Mike McGee, who brought Holtz out of retirement in December 1998 and then hired Steve Spurrier as football coach after this last season, has said Holtz was disappointed how his final year ended.

He wasn't the only one. University president Andrew Sorensen said the violations "certainly cast our university in a light that no one in the Carolina family condones."

Still, Holtz was optimistic about the Gamecocks chances under Spurrier, even with NCAA sanctions. "He's a winner," he said at the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship. "We took the program from the bottom. We made it very respectable in the SEC. I think he can take it to the next step."



Copyright © 2005, The Associated Press


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Illini, NU, ND gear and more


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[indyfrisco]

Congrats South Carolina. Now you truly belong in the South Eeaster Cheating Conference.

[Cicero]

I bet The Ole Ball Coach is pissed.

[Left Seater]

Can he coach? No question!

Is he dirty and does he cheat? Undoubtedly in my opinion.

Would I want him as the RICE coach? Hell, no!

Bottom line is he is the head coach. He can say that he had no knowledge etc, etc, but it doesn't matter he is in charge. But I believe he knew each and every thing that was going on. And on the slim chance that he didn't know, he is guilty of not knowing things about his program.

Here's hoping history treats the tiny bitter man poorly as it should. Dude is batting .1000 when it comes to major violations. 4 for 4 isn't an accident.

[Danimal]

Can he coach? No question!

Is he dirty and does he cheat? Undoubtedly in my opinion.

Would I want him as the RICE coach? Hell, no!

Bottom line is he is the head coach. He can say that he had no knowledge etc, etc, but it doesn't matter he is in charge. But I believe he knew each and every thing that was going on. And on the slim chance that he didn't know, he is guilty of not knowing things about his program.

Here's hoping history treats the tiny bitter man poorly as it should. Dude is batting .1000 when it comes to major violations. 4 for 4 isn't an accident.

BINGO, this has happened too many times for the blame not to fall firmly on the shoulders of Holtz. The guy even managed to run a soiled program at holier-than-thou ND. He should never get a sniff of the college hall-of-fame. Sucks for Scuba Steve.

[Mr T]

Who is suprised? I mean really?

[Killian]

He didn't run a soiled ND program, nor was he the one that caused ND to get into trouble when he was there. ND got into trouble because a townie decided to start banging a player and paid for him and a few friends to fly to Vegas. Because she paid a $25 fee to be a part of some ND related club, she was classified as a booster. ND punished themselves in that matter and went harder than the NCAA would have. And if any of you bring up the book "Under the Tarnished Dome" as proof to Holtz's corruption, I'll choke you through the computer. If that book was still available at bookstores, it would be filed under the fiction section. All players who were quoted (edit: who were not in other trouble while at ND) came out right after that book was released to say that Yeager & Looney had twisted their words. Oh, and Yeager was just in some more hot water about the Mike Price/Destiny relationship and story he wrote.

While I wasn't aware of anything at Arkansas, I know there was stuff that arose about him after he left Minnasota for ND. Holtz himself has admitted that he is a great builder, but not a great maintainer. He's a great coach who loves the job he's at for the first few years, then I think he becomes apathetic near the end. Sucks for the 'Ole Ball Coach.

[Cicero]

I read "Under the Tarnished Dome" when I was like 14-15 and it broke my heart. I have always hoped that the allegations were false and that Looney and Yaeger had some hidden agenda.

[Killian]

I read "Under the Tarnished Dome" when I was like 14-15 and it broke my heart. I have always hoped that the allegations were false and that Looney and Yaeger had some hidden agenda.

This was written in '93 when the book was published. To say that Yeager and Looney had an agenda is an understatement. Interesting read:

Tarnished Pen
By Paul Sheehan

Forbes MediaCritic
Volume 1, Number 2


The 1993 college football season kicked off with a book by two journalists entitled Under the Tarnished Dome: How Notre Dame Betrayed Its Ideals for Football Glory. The Simon & Schuster book, which briefly made the best-seller lists, was anointed in such influential quarters of the news media as The New York Times and ABC’s “Nightline.” But careful examination shows that it deserved a far different kind of reception. The book provides a perfect case study of how reporters can manipulate evidence and how mere accusations can harden into media folklore as they are repeated, unchecked by other journalists.

Under the Tarnished Dome purports to be investigative journalism, and the tone of its authors, Don Yaeger and Douglas Looney, a 20-year veteran of Sports Illustrated, is one of high moral outrage. Their book’s premise is aptly summarized in Simon & Schuster’s breathless publicity release:

“Under the Tarnished Dome: How Notre Dame Betrayed Its Ideals for Football Glory is a jarring expose that strips the lustrous veneer off of America’s most beloved college football team. The book charges that, in its hiring of Lou Holtz to be its football coach and in its tolerance of his practices, the University of Notre Dame has punted away its ideals of academic excellence, good sportsmanship and high ethical standards.”

To sustain this quite serious charge, Yaeger and Looney claim to rely on sources whom they list at the front of the book under the heading: “Notre Dame Players in Under the Tarnished Dome.” Their prime target – 108 former and present Notre Dame players are listed – is Lou Holtz. They allege that Holtz is “a despicable human being,” who “rules by fear and intimidation.” They liken him to a steamroller, “which operates without wisdom, compassion or humanism.” They cast him as not merely a repulsive, hypocritical bully, but also as mentally unstable. “In defense of Holtz,” they write, “it could well be that living in this asylum with all these inmates has made him a little crazy. …But never forget, he hand-picked the inmates he wanted to be around him.”

The “inmates” Yaeger and Looney portray are an ugly crew of violent, stupid, drug-abusing athletes who besmirch the traditions of Notre Dame while being coddled by a hypocritical administration. “For all of Notre Dame’s palaver about there being no scuba-diving classes, no physical education majors, and no place to hide the athletes,” they write, “the no-brainer in place for the football players is American Studies.” As for the inmates’ drug abuse, Yaeger and Looney allege that steroid abuse is widespread at the school, having been encouraged by Holtz. Chapter three begins: “First Lou Holtz arrived at Notre Dame. Then a lot of steroids did. The connection is inescapable. It has also been devastating.”

Yaeger and Looney refer repeatedly to the large number of players they interviewed on the record, and they quote some 71 players in all. It is on their interviews with the players that the credibility and power of Under the Tarnished Dome hangs. Hence the long list of names at the beginning of the book.

But the list is bogus, a classic example of how journalists can stack data to achieve a desired outcome. More than 300 students have played for Notre Dame during Lou Holtz’s tenure, which began in 1986, but Tarnished Dome relies on a very small percentage of them. More than half of the 108 players on Yaeger and Looney’s list make either brief cameo appearances or are not quoted at all. The book turns out to have been built on quotes from two dozen players, most of whom were either thrown out of the university, suspended from the team, dropped out, failed out, transferred, were placed on probation, or never played for Holtz.

Consider the 13 most-quoted players in the book (all those given more than 100 lines of text), listed in order of the extent to which they are quoted:

1. Dan Quinn (suspended from the university, took steroids, accused of sexual assault, sued Notre Dame);
2. Marty Lippincott (suspended from the team, placed on academic probation three times);
3. Jim Baugus (suspended for steroid use);
4. George Marshall (suspended for drug use);
5. Linc Coleman (played only one year, dropped out of Notre Dame after academic problems);
6. Tony Smith (claimed Notre Dame caused him to lose $1 million in the NFL draft by playing injured);
7. John Foley (placed on academic probation);
8. John Askin (claims Tarnished Dome is “an outright fraud”);
9. Mike Crounse;
10. Jeff Pearson (suspended from the university, tested positive for steroids, sold steroids);
11. George Williams (suspended from the team);
12. Kurt Zackrison;
13. Mike Golic (played at Notre Dame before Holtz became coach).

And so it goes down the list – a list filled with the sound of grinding axes. The player with the greatest number of problems, Dan Quinn, is the player with the greatest number of quotes in the book. (Notre Dame refused to comment about any individual players. Their problems were revealed either in the Tarnished Dome or in Blue and Gold Illustrated, an independent sports magazine that covers Notre Dame football.)

While Yaeger and Looney stack their book with problem cases, they do not present contrary testimony. For example, they do not present the views of the leaders of the football program, the 20 team captains during the Holtz era. After hearing what several former captains have to say about the book, one can see why Yaeger and Looney chose to exclude them.

Rick Mirer, the school’s all-time passing leader and arguably the most well-known Notre Dame player from the Holtz era, is listed as one of the 108 players at the opening of the book, but Mirer told the Los Angeles Times that he was never contacted by the authors. “[Yaeger and Looney] looked for people who had a reason to be angry about whatever happened in their career there. They have no reason to talk to me.” The book, he added, is “a horrible misrepresentation of the university. If anybody knows what happened there in the last four or five years, I would definitely be one of those guys….I’m…disgusted with the things I see [in the book].” Mirer took the witness stand in defense of his former coach: “I feel badly for coach Holtz because he does so many things for the benefit of the players, to make you a better person, a better student, to make you a better athlete. It’s just not fair…the rap he’s taking.”

Andy Heck, another captain listed by the authors but never quoted by them, told Blue and Gold Illustrated: “[Yaeger] asked me, ‘Did you use steroids at Notre Dame, because some teammates are saying you did.’ I flat out told him no, and anyone who says I used them is not telling the truth….ND pioneered random drug testing in college football. I can recall three or four team meetings with Dr. James Moriarty, who pointed out the dangers of steroid use to discourage anyone from using them.” Another football captain, Ned Bolcar, told Blue and Gold: “Lou Holtz and the athletic department should be commended on the way they test. We tested way beyond what the NCAA does. I never heard Lou Holtz or anyone on his staff support steroid use.” As for the one football captain quoted extensively in the book, Mike Kovaleski, he says many of his quotes were used out of context. “In no way did hi or anyone on his staff ever condone steroid use. That’s a ridiculous accusation.”

On this subject of steroid use, the authors also did not quote Barry Alvarez, head football coach of Wisconsin and a former assistant to Holtz. Alvarez told Blue and Gold that Holtz preached the need to be a “proper representative of Notre Dame. Don’t cut corners. Don’t look for loopholes. Every coach heard it, and he lived by it. Lou Holtz represented Notre Dame as well as anyone could….To claim that steroid use was condoned is an absolutely ridiculous statement. It doesn’t make sense. I don’t even want to give the accusation any credibility by responding to it.”

Notre Dame took exactly the same approach to Under the Tarnished Dome when it was published, and the authors have used this as a shield, as if the university’s hostility exculpated them from adhering to basic journalistic standards. In their book, accusations and opinions are trotted out as truth.

Take, for example, the allegation that Notre Dame football players are loaded into the American Studies program. Of the 112 players currently on the football roster, exactly two are majoring in American Studies, and the number has changed little over the years.

Or take the allegations about steroid abuse. Everyone knows it is impossible to stamp out illegal drug use on any college campus, and college football, in particular, rides the testosterone tiger. Yet Yaeger and Looney single out Notre Dame, which has the most rigorous screening program in the nation, and then claim, against all objective evidence, that the impact of steroids at Notre Dame has been “devastating.” For the record, since screening began in 1985, only five out of more than 400 Notre Dame players have tested positive, and none since 1990. Bob Minnix, director of enforcement at the NCAA, says that Notre Dame’s “drug testing standards are much tougher than ours.”

By many measures, Notre Dame has the most successful football program in the nation. Its success seems to goad Yaeger and Looney, whose prose often shifts into rhetorical overdrive – another of the book’s faults. “It is impossible,” they write, “to fathom any greater exhibition of greed or arrogance than what the University of Notre Dame perpetrated on the college football world in February 1990 when it announced, in effect, ‘We’re Notre Dame and you’re not, so screw you.”…Greed and lust can be laid unequivocally at the Irish doorstep – greed for money, lust for attention – as the motivating forces.”

For Yaeger and Looney, Notre Dame’s sin was to break with the College Football Association (CFA) and negotiate a separate $37.5 million television deal with NBC. The authors characterize the deal as “backstabbing” and “sleight-of-hand” and “indefensible.” They do no tell readers that the CFA had negotiated a contract that was constrictive for the university, which acted within its legal rights and in fulfillment of its own obligations.

Yaeger and Looney ask: “How many national championships are worth the price of one’s own soul?...The whirring sound you hear is Knute Rockne spinning in his grave.” Here the authors’ ignorance betrays them. Knute Rockne was college football’s first and greatest entrepreneur, a point vividly amplified in Professor Murray Sperber’s 600-page history of Notre Dame football, Shake Down the Thunder. Knute Rockne just might have spun in his grave if Notre Dame had not struck the deal with NBC.

Obvious flaws like this are marbled throughout Tarnished Dome. At Simon & Schuster, even the most rudimentary journalistic checks and balances appear to have no relevance. (How, one wonders, did Simon & Schuster allow Yaeger through its gate? His dubious career includes arrest for shoplifting when he worked for the San Antonio Express-News and two firings, from the The Dallas Morning News and The Florida Times-Union.) Under the Tarnished Dome was turned down by its original publisher, HarperCollins, after it saw an early draft and decided not to proceed with publication.

Unfortunately, Simon & Schuster is not the only institution exposed by Under the Tarnished Dome. The book was serialized in such newspapers as the Detroit News and the New York Post, and it won a wide and uncritical follow-up among journalists, with the biggest boost coming from ABC’s “Nightline.” According to Publisher’s Weekly, “One of the things that helped propel the book to stardom – it now has 110,000 copies in print – is that ‘Nightline’ devoted an entire show to it.”

Surprisingly, given Ted Koppel’s deserved renown for acuity and integrity, “Nightline” delivered a television replica of the book, with the same stacked deck and the same manipulated examples. The three Notre Dame players quoted on camera are among the 20 key malcontents who shaped Under the Tarnished Dome. It appears “Nightline” could not find a single Notre Dame player to offer an alternative to the Yaeger-Looney line.

Moreover, the main accusations of the book are buttressed by ABC reporter Armen Keteyian: “In their book, Under the Tarnished Dome, Looney and co-author Don Yaeger, an investigative reporter with two other books on college sports to his credit, contend Notre Dame has sold its soul for football glory.” Interviewed by Keteyian, Yaeger says, “Now, it seems, ND stands for No Different.”

ABC was hardly alone in its uncritical treatment of the book. The New York Times, in the first month after Tarnished Dome was published, ran no fewer than six negative reports on Notre Dame, five of them quoting the book: “Notre Dame Throws the Book at Michigan” (September 12), “Holtz Comes to His Defense” (September 13), “How to Make Notre Dame’s Dome Shine” (September 14), “The Notre Dame ‘Mutiny’ that Wasn’t” (September 17), “Seeing a Different Kind of Stars” (September 27) and “Push Comes to Shove, Again” (October 2). Thus the Times, the bellwether for a vast number of editors and reporters, helped embed the main accusations of Tarnished Dome into media folklore, accepting them without ever checking them.

The underlying bias evident in this case study has little to do with Notre Dame. Rather, it reveals the news media’s deep structural bias in favor of discord, and its weakness for the disenchanted.


Paul Sheehan, a former Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, is a contributor to The Atlantic Monthly and chief U.S. correspondent for the Australian Consolidated Press magazine group.

[buckeye_in_sc]

sounds like this yaegar and other dude gave ESPiN their lessons with regard to the Mo Clarett thing with the stupid ass author...

when the story ran in ESPiN the mag...the 4 former players stepped forward and denied they were speaking about what was contained in the story had any relation to the Clarett thing...

i hate the lamecocks - and yes it's because A) i live 1 hr from Columbia and B) they beat us twice...I hope Scuba goes 0-11...

[Cicero]

Nice read Killian. I remember there being a lot of player quotes and account but I didnt realize that most of the guys were fuck ups and probably pissed at the school for ruining their time at ND.

[Left Seater]

Bottom line is the tiny bitter man was still at the helm when ND got into trouble. Either he is the man in charge or he isn't. So he should take some of the blame.

Furthermore, I have no doubt that Holtz put pressure on ND to accept athletes that ND didn't prior to his arrival nor after his exit.

[Killian]

Bottom line is the tiny bitter man was still at the helm when ND got into trouble. Either he is the man in charge or he isn't. So he should take some of the blame.

Furthermore, I have no doubt that Holtz put pressure on ND to accept athletes that ND didn't prior to his arrival nor after his exit.

I agree to an extent. Holtz was the man in charge, so the blame has to stop at him. But saying he knew about this or could have even prevented it is a totally different story. There is a distinct line between what happened at ND and what happened at SC.

And as far as the pushing for athletes, you're right. A few that he pushed hard for were Chris Zorich, Raghib Ismail and Tony Rice. All did very well while at ND and were model citizens. Most of the kids he pushed for he knew at great length and went to bat for. Of the kids he went to bat for, rarely did they blow up in his face (wassup Randy Moss). Weis is doing the exact same thing right now and has even gone as far as getting the administration to allow mid semester enrolle's for freshman. The admissions department still holds the trump card when it comes to certain players, but the coach can ask for exceptions. Davie and Willingham rarely, if ever, did this.

[SoCalTrjn]

the Holtz teams at ND did get in to the rumbles outside the locker rooms though. Im sure the people at Notre Dame didnt look too fondly on that, the first one was vs Miami and was likely over looked cause Miami fought everyone but they had another incident with USC that appeared tobe caused by the same thing.

[Left Seater]

Not to mention Holtz acting the fool on the sidelines damn near every game! He was so bad that some of his actions are now on officials training tapes.

[Degenerate]

I have enjoyed reading Yeager and Looney, but Under the Tarnished Dome is a terrible book. You would have to be a complete newbie to college athletics to reach the intended shock and/or outrage effect the authors are aiming for. Tony Rice was not a real "scholar?" Gasp! Bar fights on campus involving players? Egads!

Nearly everyone realized long ago - long before the book was written, in fact - that Notre Dame was just another big-time college football program. Yeager and Looney were still clinging to the ideal that ND was on exalted ground.

[King Crimson]

but when Looney wrote about Oklahoma it was gospel truth.

and KU fan is funny here...given the current situation.

[Killian]

Not to mention Holtz acting the fool on the sidelines damn near every game! He was so bad that some of his actions are now on officials training tapes.

His actions during the BYU game were absolutely inexcusable. I completely agree.

[Degenerate]

but when Looney wrote about Oklahoma it was gospel truth.

and KU fan is funny here...given the current situation.

How much did you pay for your Jump to Conclusions Mat?

Sorry, I'm not an administrative or athletic dept. apologist for KU or any other school.

[King Crimson]

How much did you pay for your Jump to Conclusions Mat?

I demo'd the prototype.

[WolverineSteve]

Killian,

You must be joking. Tony Rice model citizen?!

I have it from an inside source (as in inside the same dorm) that Rice was the recipient of large sums of cash while at ND.

Now I am not dumb enough to think that this doesn't go on in many places, hell, Michigan took down banners at Crisler in shame. But to present Rice as a model citizen was a bit of a stretch.

[Cicero]

How much did you pay for your Jump to Conclusions Mat?

That is the worst idea I have ever heard of.

[King Crimson]

the Holtz teams at ND did get in to the rumbles outside the locker rooms though. Im sure the people at Notre Dame didnt look too fondly on that, the first one was vs Miami and was likely over looked cause Miami fought everyone but they had another incident with USC that appeared tobe caused by the same thing.

Miami brawled with CU in Boulder as well in 93. but, really, i just want to (ahem) "rack" your avatar which i find unusually hypnotic.

[Killian]

Killian,

You must be joking. Tony Rice model citizen?!

I have it from an inside source (as in inside the same dorm) that Rice was the recipient of large sums of cash while at ND.

Now I am not dumb enough to think that this doesn't go on in many places, hell, Michigan took down banners at Crisler in shame. But to present Rice as a model citizen was a bit of a stretch.

It wouldn't suprise me one bit if Rice took money. Does that speak to his character now? No. He's a successful business man who has made his own way, unlike Monk Malloy's little toy and wife beater Dave Duerson, who was set up in his job by Malloy and his minions. Rice had no run-ins with the law in high school, at ND, or after graduation. He was the first Prop 48 kid that ND admitted and he worked his ass off to make the deans list and graduate with a degree in psychology from Notre Dame.

And you're right about many places. I went to high school with a few players who signed with UofM. One was a QB, the other a LB. The LB was driving a brand new Mustang the day after he signed his LOI with Ann Arbor dealer plates. He was later kicked out of Michigan.

[indyfrisco]

^^^ ^^^

[Terry in Crapchester]

He's a successful business man who has made his own way, unlike Monk Malloy's little toy and wife beater Dave Duerson, who was set up in his job by Malloy and his minions.

I'm still pissed at Duerson. Without a doubt, the worst punt returner I have ever seen in 35 years of watching football, bar none. And that's including pee wee level.

Btw, if anyone is curious about Notre Dame's American Studies program:

http://www.nd.edu/~amst/department/major/major.html

WHAT IS AMERICAN STUDIES

The Department of American Studies provides students with a unique opportunity to study American culture and society in challenging and innovative ways. Students majoring in American Studies explore the American experience from both integrative and disciplinary perspectives by selecting interdisciplinary courses taught by the department's faculty as well as cross-listed classes offered by Anthropology, English, Political Science, History, and Sociology. With help from a faculty advisor, a student plans a curriculum of 12 courses, six from within American Studies (Inside Courses) and six chosen in American subjects offered in cognate departments (Outside courses). The interdisciplinary courses housed in the Department of American Studies span a broad range of academic interests: Arts and Material Culture; Journalism; Media, Culture and Society; Literary and Cultural Studies; and Social History/Movements. Additional areas under development include Narrative Nonfiction and Documentary Studies and Regional and Comparative Cultures. Courses in these academic areas typically include a historical dimension, insights gathered from a variety of sources, perspectives drawn from traditional disciplines, and an integrative approach that complements specialism. Because of its breadth, the major enables students to experience much of the richness of the College of Arts and Letters. Internships are available which offer practical experience in the potential career areas of historical research, journalism, publishing, and social service. Special features include an affiliated interdisciplinary minor in Journalism, Ethics, and Democracy.



THE AMERICAN STUDIES MAJOR

Students may enroll as American Studies majors during the sophomore year, after they have had an opportunity to sample a broad range of courses in a variety of departments within the College of Arts and Letters.

Inside Courses

Courses offered by the American Studies Department offer an integrating approach to various aspects of the American experience. These Inside Courses are offered at three levels:

200-level
courses are broadly-based and designed to introduce students, particularly sophomores, to American Studies.

300-level courses organized around particular issues or themes in the American experience, appropriate for beginning and intermediate majors.

400-level courses, usually designed as seminars, that examine a specific topic in some depth, appropriate for intermediate and advanced majors. At least one 400-level senior academic seminar is required as part of the major.


Each American Studies major, under the guidance of a faculty advisor, should plan a curriculum that includes a combination of all three levels. All American Studies majors are required to complete at least one 400-level, senior academic seminar. This requirement does not include any of the department's 400-level writing classes.

Outside Courses

In addition to the six courses within the Department of American Studies, majors are required to take six Outside Courses (three courses each from two of our cognate departments) chosen from offerings dealing with American subjects in the English, Political Science, History, and Anthropology/Sociology Departments. Each semester, the Department publishes a list of Outside Courses (cross-listed courses from the cognate departments). Students pick their outside courses from this list.



SPECIAL FEATURES OF AMERICAN STUDIES

Writing Courses The Department also offers a sequence of courses designed to develop writing skills, especially for students interested in print journalism. These courses are open by application only during pre-registration. Only one writing course may be taken per semester, and only two courses may be counted toward the major as inside courses, although others may be taken as free electives.

Internships Students may sign up for an internship in one of the following four areas:

. Historical: in the University archives, historical organization, or museum.
. Community service: in various governmental or civic agencies
. Publishing: at Notre Dame Magazine
. News: at the South Bend Tribune and Notre Dame's Department of Public Relations and Information.

All internships have an American Studies course prerequisite. These are NOT counted as major courses but as electives and are graded on an "S/U" basis.

I won't say it's the most challenging major ND offers, but I wouldn't call it the cakewalk that the Tarnished Dome authors seem to think it is.

[Left Seater]

but I wouldn't call it the cakewalk that the Tarnished Dome authors seem to think it is.

You might not, but I will. That is a joke. Hell might as well do away with it and just call it liberal arts cause that is what it is. Only 1 400 level class required and you pick classes from all differnt backgrounds. Sounds like you get a degree for taking the intro to everything and not having to take upper level anything. Oh, wait I forgot the one 400 level class.

Colleges already have easy majors, they are called liberal arts. These other things are just degree programs to keep athletes elligible.

[Terry in Crapchester]

but I wouldn't call it the cakewalk that the Tarnished Dome authors seem to think it is.

You might not, but I will. That is a joke. Hell might as well do away with it and just call it liberal arts cause that is what it is. Only 1 400 level class required and you pick classes from all differnt backgrounds. Sounds like you get a degree for taking the intro to everything and not having to take upper level anything. Oh, wait I forgot the one 400 level class.

Colleges already have easy majors, they are called liberal arts. These other things are just degree programs to keep athletes elligible.

Did you read the description? Twelve courses are required for a degree in American Studies, compared to eight for a degree in just about any other discipline Notre Dame offers.

And I wouldn't put too much stock in the 400-level classification, based on my experience at ND. A dirty little secret, at least in my major (Government & International Studies, now called Political Science): the 400-level classes were actually easier (or at least graded more leniently) than the 300-level classes. However, you had to take all four of the 300-level classes in order to graduate.

Many of the other Division 1-A powerhouses offer Physical Education as a major, particularly to football players. Notre Dame does not. Say what you will about American Studies, it's more academically rigorous than a Phys. Ed. program, at least it requires some writing and some examinations.

[Left Seater]

I agree, other schools also have football majors. American studies is ND's football major.

Football majors should go away anyway since most colleges already have the perfect course, Liberal Arts.