Bustamante fortunate he's not a basketball player

Simple Text by Joshua D. Scroggin

Somebody please tell Courtney Alexander to run for governor.

Sure, the ex-Bulldogs basketball player got caught receiving credit for a class he did no work in, but so did one of the race’s front-runners—Cruz Bustamante.

The Fresno Bee reported Bustamante received credit in the late 1990s for a speech class he never attended at Fresno State.

Robert Powell, a professor in the communications department, gave Bustamante credit for a speech class based on Bustamante’s previous public speeches, according to published reports.

And Bustamante didn’t even bother to try to cover it up? What kind of a cheater is he?

At least Alexander denied it.

But the NCAA still caught Alexander. It caught Terrance Roberson too, and the Fresno State basketball program paid for it.

The team suffered a postseason ban this past March, had its number of scholarships cut and will be on probation for longer than the Cold War.

So who’s going to pay for the lieutenant governor’s discretions? Maybe we should ask Ray Lopes.

If the university is going to be consistent, it should put the political science department on probation and limit its scholarships.

I propose a postseason ban on The Barking Bulldogs—the Fresno State debate team.

Sorry dudes, no Lincoln-Douglas debate this year, but maybe you can compete in the Save Mart Center next season. That should help recruiting.

Don’t blame me. Blame Bustamante. Or just take it without complaint like we all expected Lopes and the gang to take it.

But don’t get your church-clothes in a bunch, debate team members. Most likely there will be no punishment levied against Bustamante or the university, and that’s too bad.

There is no defending the basketball players who duped the university out of credits everyone else has to earn, but how does it look when professors are giving out credit to politicians just because they’re old?

The Fresno Bee quoted Bustamante as saying he understands the university gives credit to returning students for “life-long learning.”

Life-long learning? Why doesn’t everybody come back to school?

Retirees: come to Fresno State. YOU TOO could receive a degree in whatever industry you just retired from!

It sounds like a marketing scheme from San Joaquin Valley College.

It really is too bad Bustamante’s academic history had to be plastered all over the recall election coverage—but only because I go here.

Thank you, Fresno State, for again reinforcing my decision to attend your fine institution. I can’t wait until I get my hands on that piece of paper with both our names on it.