3100 Students, 1500 ATHLETES Implicated In The UNC Cheating Scandal

[Tugg Speedman]

So will UNC have to vacate every victory in every sport for the last 20 years?  Will it matter?

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Univ. of North Carolina chancellor: 9 employees fired or being disciplined in academic scandal

http://www.startribune.com/nation/280072212.html



CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — More than 3,100 students — nearly half of them athletes — enrolled in classes they didn't have to show up for and received artificially inflated grades in what an investigator called a "shadow curriculum" that lasted nearly two decades at the University of North Carolina.

The report released Wednesday by former high-ranking U.S. Justice Department official Kenneth Wainstein found more far-reaching academic fraud than previous investigations by the school and the NCAA.

Many at the university hoped Wainstein's investigation would bring some closure to the long-running scandal, which is rooted in an NCAA investigation focused on improper benefits within the football program in 2010. Instead, findings of a systemic problem in the former African and Afro-American Studies department could lead to NCAA sanctions. At least nine university employees were fired or have had disciplinary procedures started against them in light of the report, chancellor Carol Folt said. She wouldn't identify them.

"I think it's very clear that this is an academic, an athletic and a university problem," Folt said.

The report outlined courses in the former African and Afro-American Studies department that required only a research paper that was often scanned quickly and given an A or B regardless of the quality of work.

The NCAA hit the football program in 2012 with scholarship reductions and a postseason ban, though the academic violations focused mainly on a tutor providing improper help to players on papers. The NCAA said it reopened its investigation in June because new information was available.

Wainstein's staff has briefed NCAA investigators at least three times, and plans another meeting on the final report.

The report outlined how the fraud ran unchecked for so long, as well as how faculty and administration officials missed or looked past red flags, such as unusually high numbers of independent study course enrollments.

It said athletics staffers steered athletes to classes that also became popular with fraternities and other everyday students looking for an easy grade.

"By the mid-2000s, these classes had become a primary — if not the primary — way that struggling athletes kept themselves from having eligibility problems," the report said.

The school hired Wainstein in February. Unlike previous inquiries by former Gov. Jim Martin and the school, Wainstein had the cooperation of former department chairman Julius Nyang'oro and retired office administrator Deborah Crowder — the two people at the center of the scandal.

Nyang'oro was indicted in December on a felony fraud charge, though it was dropped after he agreed to cooperate with Wainstein's probe. Crowder was never charged.

It was Crowder who started the paper classes as a way to help struggling students with "watered-down requirements" not long after Nyang'oro became chairman of the curriculum in 1992, according to the report. Though not a faculty member, she managed the courses by registering students, assigning them topics and then handing out high grades regardless of the work.

By 1999, in an apparent effort to work around the number of independent studies students could take, Crowder began offering lecture classes that didn't meet and were instead paper classes.

After her retirement in 2009, Nyang'oro graded papers "with an eye to boosting" a student's grade-point average, even asking Crowder's successor to look up GPAs before he'd issue a grade for a course, according to the report.

Nyang'oro stepped down in 2011 as chairman after accusations of undetected plagiarism surfaced against a former football player.

In all, athletes made up about 47 percent of the enrollments in the 188 lecture-classified paper classes. Of that group, 51 percent were football players.

Wainstein's staff reviewed records dating to the 1980s and interviewed 126 people, including men's basketball coach Roy Williams, who said he trusted the school "to put on legitimate classes," according to the report.

Former basketball player Rashad McCants, who told ESPN in June that tutors wrote research papers for him and that Williams was aware that of no-show classes, didn't respond to numerous requests for interviews, according to the report.

[tower912]

This is going to end poorly.

[brandx]

This is going to end poorly.

Shocking news!!! As Greg Brown sang "Who Woulda Thunk It"?

[Groin_pull]

This is going to end poorly.

Yeah, for some poor mid-major. You think mighty UNC hoops will be brought to its knees? Nah.

I'll believe it when I see it.

[Benny B]

So any chance their 1977 runner-upionship is vacated, and if so, do we get to raise a banner for being the champion and the runner-up?

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

So any chance their 1977 runner-upionship is vacated, and if so, do we get to raise a banner for being the champion and the runner-up?

Unfortunately for marquette that took place about 20 years prior to the allegations. Crazy to think that 1977 was almost 40 years ago now.

[jesmu84]

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/11745036/north-carolina-investigation-says-advisers-pushed-sham-classes

"A report commissioned by the University of North Carolina says school academic advisers steered athletes into sham classes over an 18-year period but does not directly implicate coaches or athletic administrators in the scheme."

No coaches and no athletic administrators. It's all those evil academic people's fault.

[Eldon]

Yeah, for some poor mid-major. You think mighty UNC hoops will be brought to its knees? Nah.

I'll believe it when I see it.

.

Agreed.  I lost a huge amount of respect for the NCAA after it pulled back heavily on its Penn State sanctions.

BTW, whatever happened to Miami?  Those guys had a baseball violation and then BAM that football scandal hit.  Back then, they were talking death penalty for Miami.  But then the PSU scandal broke and I don't ever remember hearing anything about Miami.

Were they even punished?

[StillAWarrior]

Damn.  Cleveland State's going to get put on probation.

[1990Warrior]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/22/us/unc-report-academic-fraud/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

3 national championships in jeopardy.

I wonder how other schools would stand up to such an investigation.

[Wade for President]

This is a massive blow to UNC's reputation.  I don't see how their AD survives this.  What could a 3-5 yr postseason ban do to their recruiting efforts?

Gotta imagine Wojo and Carawell are smiling about this one.

[Groin_pull]

They'll get a slap on the wrist because they "cooperated" with the NCAA.

Do you really think UNC hoops will be brought to its kness? C'mon.

[mu03eng]

.

Agreed.  I lost a huge amount of respect for the NCAA after it pulled back heavily on its Penn State sanctions.

I'll bite, why?  NCAA never should have been involved in the first place.  They walked back the sanctions because if they didn't it was going to turn into a PR fiasco and now they are less likely to lose upcoming legal actions.

[GGGG]

.

Agreed.  I lost a huge amount of respect for the NCAA after it pulled back heavily on its Penn State sanctions.

BTW, whatever happened to Miami?  Those guys had a baseball violation and then BAM that football scandal hit.  Back then, they were talking death penalty for Miami.  But then the PSU scandal broke and I don't ever remember hearing anything about Miami.

Were they even punished?

Yeah they lost some scholarships.

BTW,  if you think the NCAA is going to go back to the days of the death penalty, you are mistaken.  It is a toothless organization that doles out relatively minor penalties these days.

My guess is UNC's football team will lose some scholarships, but that's about it.

[MU82]

Maybe I'm a little warped, but the first thing I thought of when I saw the headline yesterday was that fewer than half of those implicated were athletes.

Not condoning the athletic side of it one iota, but I wonder what the punishments and/or solutions will be for the non-athletic side of things.

[GGGG]

Maybe I'm a little warped, but the first thing I thought of when I saw the headline yesterday was that fewer than half of those implicated were athletes.

Not condoning the athletic side of it one iota, but I wonder what the punishments and/or solutions will be for the non-athletic side of things.

I supposed their accreditation could be at risk.  But I doubt that will happen.  Very likely they will get a harsh talking to from the Higher Learning Commission and they'll have to write up a bunch of reports saying it won't happen again.

[ChicosBailBonds]

African American studies you say?  Interesting.

Wonder if the media looked into each school's preferred major of athletes at each school what the distribution would be.  There's a reason kids pick certain majors.  MU would pop off the charts with Communications for basketball. 

That doesn't make any of those other schools fraudulent in what they are doing, of course.  My point is that kids are steered toward certain majors at schools all the time.  In this case, sounds like you showed up and got the grade, and that's the key difference.  We shouldn't pretend, however, that athletes are often shown the easiest way to reach the finish line and stay eligible, and it happens pretty much everywhere.  MU is no exception.

[GGGG]

African American studies you say?  Interesting.

Why?  What is so interesting about it?

[jsglow]

I supposed their accreditation could be at risk.  But I doubt that will happen.  Very likely they will get a harsh talking to from the Higher Learning Commission and they'll have to write up a bunch of reports saying it won't happen again.

Unfortunately probably true.  MU routinely prepares diligently for all its accreditation reviews.  UNC should be slapped and slapped hard.  If I were a parent writing a tuition check to that place I'd be plenty POd.  My kids are far from perfect but there's no damn 'basket weaving' in their respective curriculums.

And let me add from a basketball standpoint that jsglow jr. has tons of exposure to our basketball players.  They take 'real' classes in 'real' majors and while accomodations are made (travel, for example), they are expected to perform just like the next guy.  Sure they get tutors; sure they get help.  But they are absolutely expected to be student athletes.  Rant over.

[brandx]

Why?  What is so interesting about it?

Indeed!

[warriorchick]

Maybe I'm a little warped, but the first thing I thought of when I saw the headline yesterday was that fewer than half of those implicated were athletes.

Not condoning the athletic side of it one iota, but I wonder what the punishments and/or solutions will be for the non-athletic side of things.

The other students were members of their highly-ranked show choir. That competition is brutal. Have you not seen "Pitch Perfect"?

[GGGG]

The other students were members of their highly-ranked show choir. That competition is brutal. Have you not seen "Pitch Perfect"?

I used to say at my kid's high school that the athletic coaches could *never* get away with what the music program teachers got away with.  The time commitment for practice and performance?  The money commitment?  And people think that high school athletics is over-emphasized?

[Ellenson Guerrero]

They'll get a slap on the wrist because they "cooperated" with the NCAA.

Do you really think UNC hoops will be brought to its kness? C'mon.

I doubt the NCAA will do anything of substance, but you never know.  Just ask SMU.

[MUWarrior4Life]

Uh oh, maybe Tokoto transfers back home!!!!

[tower912]

I used to say at my kid's high school that the athletic coaches could *never* get away with what the music program teachers got away with.  The time commitment for practice and performance?  The money commitment?  And people think that high school athletics is over-emphasized?

Football coaches never have their kids out playing exhibition games 30 weeks out of the year like the Cappella Choir director my daughter had.