University of North Carolina academic-athletic scandal
The University of North Carolina academic-athletic scandal involved alleged fraud and academic dishonesty committed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Following a lesser scandal that began in 2010 involving academic fraud and improper benefits with the university's football program, two hundred questionable classes offered by the university's African and Afro-American Studies department came to light. As a result, the university was placed on probation by its accrediting agency.
An internal investigation by the university released in 2011 and another investigation commissioned by former North Carolina governor Jim Martin in 2012 found numerous academic and ethical issues with the AFAM department, including unauthorized grade changes and faculty signatures, a disproportionate number of independent study class offerings relative to other departments, and an over-representation of student-athletes enrolled in such classes. In 2014, a series of charges and counter-charges began between university officials and former learning specialist Mary Willingham, including disputes about statistics and methods of analysis by Willingham alleging that certain student-athletes were not academically qualified for college. As a result of these revelations, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools placed the university on probation for one year, endangering the university's regional accreditation. Losing accreditation would have resulted in the loss of any federal funding or support.
The university introduced new standards, protocols and rules to prevent misadministration within academic departments in the future. As a result, UNC exited probation and regained full standing by June 2016. The National Collegiate Athletic Association then completed its own investigation in October 2017, finding no violations of its rules, largely due to the fact that the NCAA does not have oversight authority for university academic programs.
The controversy sparked debate as to whether the university educated some of its student-athletes improperly and called into question the role of NCAA Division I athletics relative to the academic mission of NCAA-member colleges and universities.
Background
North Carolina football scandal
Greg Barnes of Inside Carolina initially broke the scandal with ESPN following closely behind. On July 15, 2010, ESPN reported that the NCAA interviewed several North Carolina football players over alleged gifts, extra benefits, and sports agent involvement. Reportedly, the investigation began after North Carolina defensive tackle Marvin Austin made a post on Twitter on May 29, 2010, containing a reference to a nightclub in Miami in which a sports agent's party had taken place two months earlier. The university later suspended Austin and over ten other football players from the team. On October 11, 2010, Austin was dismissed from the football team, and the NCAA declared wide receiver Greg Little and defensive end Robert Quinn "permanently ineligible" due to receiving improper benefits.On August 26, 2010, the NCAA began a separate investigation of North Carolina football that involved possible academic fraud involving a tutor in the university's academic support program. The tutor was later identified as Jennifer Wiley. Another source familiar with the investigation said that Wiley was accused of "inappropriate help on papers that football players were required to write for classes." However, Baddour said on September 24 that Wiley declined to cooperate with the NCAA.
Because the university felt that the NCAA investigation was extremely embarrassing to its reputation, North Carolina fired football head coach Butch Davis on July 27, 2011. The next day, athletic director Dick Baddour announced that he would resign and allow chancellor Holden Thorp to hire a new football head coach.
On March 12, 2012, the NCAA issued formal sanctions against North Carolina football: a postseason ban for the 2012 season, reductions of 15 scholarships, and 3 years of probation. The NCAA found North Carolina guilty of multiple infractions, including academic fraud and failure to monitor the football program. However, the NCAA did not find more serious violations amounting to what would constitute a lack of institutional control, explaining that the university "educated its tutors regarding academic improprieties and its coaches regarding outside athletically related income... self-discovered the academic fraud and took decisive action... cooperated fully, is not a repeat violator and... exhibited appropriate control over its athletics program." In November 2013, the university sent a letter of disassociation to Austin, Little, and Quinn.
Academic irregularities and punishment
The crux of the alleged irregularities proceeded from the UNC Department of African and Afro-American Studies. Over approximately fifteen years, the department offered two hundred independent study courses, many without full adherence to University procedure for course provisioning or sufficient professorial oversight. The irregularities called into question the department's academic integrity and led to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools putting the university on academic probation for one year, a rare action against a major research university.Overview
A basic charge by critics was that UNC did not live up to its end of the bargain by not sufficiently educating some of its student-athletes. Rebecca Schuman of Slate.com accused the university of "abjectly failing some of its students" by keeping them "functionally illiterate."Gerald Gurney, president of the Drake Group for Academic Integrity in College Sport, called UNC "the mother of all academic fraud violations" because of "cooperation of friendly faculty and cover-up." Paul M. Barrett, in a cover story for the March 3, 2014 edition of Bloomberg Businessweek magazine, wrote: "... rather than seriously investigate the connection between sports and classroom corruption, top university administrators used vague committee reports to obfuscate the issue." Reporter Dan Kane of the News & Observer was part of a three-person investigative team that exposed the scandal, causing UNC fans and some faculty to accuse Kane of conducting a witch hunt for a conspiracy that did not exist.
In a 2021 article about the scandal, journalist and UNC alum Andy Thomason concluded that no nefarious individuals could be blamed for the scandal, but instead the substandard classes were the result of a series of decisions by multiple people, mostly well-intentioned, operating for years under the powerful forces of money-making college athletics.
Initial accusations
Suspicions about the UNC Department of African and Afro-American Studies were raised as early as 2011. UNC defensive end Michael McAdoo filed a lawsuit against the NCAA on July 1, 2011, seeking reinstatement to the football team. The NCAA declared McAdoo ineligible for accepting improper benefits and committing academic fraud, based on the UNC Undergraduate Honor Court finding that McAdoo committed academic dishonesty by having Jennifer Wiley complete a bibliography and works-cited section on a research paper for an AFAM class. From this lawsuit, McAdoo was forced to make public the paper; an analysis by Dan Kane of the Raleigh News & Observer found that the Honor Court failed to find multiple instances of plagiarism in McAdoo's paper. On July 13, a North Carolina Superior Court judge in Durham refused to grant an injunction against the NCAA, thus upholding ineligibility for McAdoo.Then in August, Dan Kane reported that football player Marvin Austin took a 400-level course in the department the summer before his freshman fall semester. According to an academic adviser at the university, "it is unusual for any freshman to begin his or her college education with a 400 level course." On September 1, 2011, just over a week after Kane's article about Austin's transcript was published, AFAM department chair Julius Nyang'oro resigned from his executive position but remained on faculty.
More controversy for AFAM came after the transcript of former North Carolina football and basketball player Julius Peppers was found under a University of North Carolina web address by members of PackPride, a Scout.com community for fans of rival school NC State. A university staffer originally posted the transcript with Peppers's identifying information removed on a secure UNC server as a test record in 2001. Six years later, another staffer mistakenly moved the test record to an unsecured server. The transcript showed a cumulative grade point average of 1.82 from the summer 1998 to spring 2001 terms with 11 grades of D or F. Additionally, Peppers's grades for AFAM classes were on average higher than for non-AFAM classes, and Peppers was never academically ineligible for athletic competition despite his grades. Through his agent, Peppers confirmed that the transcript was his and stated that there was "no academic fraud." University chancellor Holden Thorp later apologized to Peppers.
Reviews of AFAM
On May 2, 2012, UNC released the results of an internal investigation into AFAM courses commissioned by Jonathan Hartlyn, senior associate dean for social sciences and global programs, and William L. Andrews, senior associate dean for fine arts and humanities. The report examined AFAM classes from the summer 2007 to summer 2011 sessions. Among the findings in the Hartlyn-Andrews report:- Thirty-six percent of students enrolled in questionable AFAM classes were football players.
- There was no evidence showing that student-athletes who took AFAM classes received preferential treatment.
- AFAM administrator Deborah Crowder likely oversaw scheduling and grade rosters of questionable classes.
- Nearly nine classes lacked evidence that a professor taught course material and graded work. For one Swahili class, the syllabus listed AFAM chair Julius Nyang'oro as professor, but Nyang'oro told university investigators that he did not teach that class. For 40 other courses listing Nyang'oro as instructor, mostly during summer sessions, a professor was present during class but seldom taught.