The only take i have on the Hagen article.

A lot of fuss has been made about a recent Ann Arbor news article stating that at Michigan athletes have easier classes. Apparently a psychology professor Jim Hagen has been teaching an independent studies class that is apparently popular with athletes and said to be one of the easiest classes on campus.

While this may be true this is hardly indicative that athletes get no education and a free ride through college. If i recall correctly the policy towards student athletes who skip classes is that they serve a one match suspension for such action. The fact that there are such harsh penalties for skipping class would be a good reason to take easy classes in my opinion and the fact that our athletic department has enforced this rule on everyone from walk-ons in volleyball to all-Americans in football, is a pretty telling fact to me. Most schools with athletic programs gear their athletes towards easy classes from what i hear, this is no surprise, hell most students athletes or not are driven towards what they can learn and away from things that trouble them academically. What would be a real scandal to me would be if the athletic department preferred enforcing the no-skip policy in a preferential way for the scholarship athletes as opposed to the walk-ons.

P.S. i keep hearing people tell me that communications classes are relatively easy. I've taken two myself and i found them to be two of the hardest classes i have ever taken at the University of Michigan.