Academic Standards

The president of Washington College resigned yesterday during a two-hour, closed meeting with trustees of the Eastern Shore liberal arts school.The unexpected move by President Charles Trout comes as the college appears within reach of balanced budgets for the first time in several years. As recently as fiscal year 1992, the school notched a $771,000 deficit on expenditures of $20.3 million, rTC according to the latest edition of the Washington College fact book."It's funny how historians think in terms of a decade," said Dr. Trout, who has served as president for five years.

Much fuss is made over the NCAA toughening eligibility standards for freshmen and returning athletes. The National Junior College Athletic Association addressed that issue long ago, the result being that it's harder for a JUCO player to remain eligible than it is for someone under the NCAA umbrella.A JUCO freshman must pass 12 credits with a 1.75 grade-point average in the fall semester to continue playing basketball. To play as a sophomore, he must carry over 24 credits with a 2.0 GPA."The good player who's a decent student is going to end up at an NCAA institution," said Wheeler Brown, the coach at Howard Community College.

Four years ago, as a special convention of the National Collegiate Athletic Association was ending in Dallas, one of the sharpest critics of college sports caught up with John B. Slaughter then chancellor of University of Maryland College Park.Mr. Slaughter was also president then of the NCAA's reform-minded Presidents Commission. He was leaving Dallas with deep bruises which had been administered by coaches and athletic directors re-asserting their control over intercollegiate sports.The presidents had wanted to start a debate on the proper role of athletics at American universities.

Panel to toughen freshman standardsFreshman eligibility requirements may get tougher, but freshmen probably still will be competing under new guidelines proposed this week by the NCAA Presidents Commission.The 44-member commission, the spearhead of college reform the past six years, was expected to end a two-day meeting today by calling for strengthened academic standards throughout Division I."The trend is toward strengthening initial requirements, rather than keeping all freshmen out," NCAA president Judy Sweet said.

COLLEGE PARK -- University of Maryland basketball coach (( Gary Williams said that, despite a rash of recent recruitingdisappointments, he doesn't plan on lowering his sights or changing his approach in the future."

Recent legislation passed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at its annual convention should open more doors to Division I athletics than ever before for the county's high school student-athletes.But the question is, will Anne Arundel County change to see that county student-athletes are prepared to seek those additional opportunities?Will county administrators finally see the need to raise its required grade-point average for playing high school sports from its current D-plus status of 1.67 to the NCAA Division I requirement of 2.00,an average of C?

COLLEGE PARK--Joe Krivak, still Maryland's football coach, strode into the room with the smile of a man who had just signed a new contract.But he hadn't."