I agree with you in your disgust of the Eric Knott situation (“Cold reception,” SN 8/15). But before you lavish the University of Michigan with “high praise for their discretion and selectivity in choosing their players” consider the case of Kelly Baraka. He is a highly recruited freshman running back at U-M and just spent four days in the Kalamazoo County jail for marijuana possession and usage.

In spite of his less than stellar behavior, Baraka will keep his scholarship at Michigan and will only be redshirted for the 2001 season. I would say marijuana usage is a less significant crime than fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct except that Baraka was jailed only after his third arrest for the same crime. Baraka also has shown no remorse for his actions and continues to deny his guilt even though a positive drug test preceded his jailing.

Every university with a big time athletic program deals with poor behavior by its athletes because of this lack of accountability. We would like to think our school can be different, but we also expect our teams to compete on the field or court with teams who continue to allow poor behavior to keep prize recruits.

Dina Hershberger
1982 graduate