OT: UNC Academic Fraud Investigation

[FollowerCT]

CNN now has the story as Breaking News ...

 

[CL82]

Maybe a fair punishment would be an 18 year postseason ban...

Well for the APR years, how about recalculating the APR by giving zero credits for the no show class? Then for any year UNC did not meet the APR minimum vacate those games. Isn't that a fair, neutral way to handle this? Anything short of that and the entire NCAA academic monitoring scheme has to be declared as big a scam as those no show classes.

 

[Icebear]

This will result in one less state school with a higher academic evaluation than UCONN.

 

[Icebear]

Just the beginning.

If they don't pay off everyone in sight
Someone will stool-pigeon and squeal, especially amidst all the firings.
Also, some muck-wrecker will start an investigation
or the accreditation folks
or the FBI
or even the little ole NCAA
Or the State legislation (led by the minority party)
Or even the (so-called) free press
Some higher ups are toast.

The NCAA may well try to say that since it involved 50% students from across the student body it isn't an NCAA issue or violation.

 

[CamrnCrz1974]

The "paper classes" lasted for 18 yrs affected 3100 students; athletes accounted for 47% of enrollment.

BASKETBALL (13 scholarships per year)
Dean Smith - 54 in 5 years. 10.8 enrollments in AFAM independent students per year. (83% of scholarship base)
Bill Guthridge - 17 in 3 years. 5.67 enrollments in AFAM independent students per year (44%)
Matt Doherty - 42 in 3 years. 14 enrollments in AFAM independent students per year. (108%)
Roy Williams - 167 in 6 years. 27.83 enrollments in AFAM independent students per year (214%)

But here is the whitewashing:

The report listed Wayne Walden -- the Associate Director of ASPSA and academic counselor for a number of sports, including men's basketball from 2003 to '09, and who has worked closely with head men's basketball coach Roy Williams at both Kansas and North Carolina -- as one of the counselors who "steered players into these paper classes." It also said Walden and his predecessor, Burgess McSwain, "routinely called Crowder to arrange classes for their players." The report also said Walden later played a role in the basketball players' move away from the paper-class system.

The report said that Walden acknowledged knowing about irregular aspects of the paper classes, including that Crowder was doing at least some of the paper grading. It added that, when asked whether he shared this information with former UNC assistant and then director of basketball operations Joe Holladay or Williams, Walden could not recall doing so.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/s...vestigation-says-advisers-pushed-sham-classes

 

[UConnChapette]

You have to wonder how widespread this type of thing is among athletic programs. UNC is one of the top public universities in the country. Isn't one of the ACC bragging rights the quality of their academics? Since other students that are not athletes took these classes it seems to call into question the overall quality of a UNC degree. This is certainly a stain on the reputation of the ACC and it's claims of quality academics. Would the ACC ever kick a school out for such academic fraud? Doubtful. The All Cash Conference is unlikely to do anything at all.

 

[j66kicker]

I

CNN now has the story as Breaking News ...

Very comprehensive CNN article and good video

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

 

[MilliniumPrince]

If they go with the whitewash, I could see a creative attorney and a few Alums threaten a class-action suit claiming the value of their degree has been degraded due to willful and purposeful fraud by the Administration. I don't have the expertise to determine if such a threat holds water legally...but I could see Alums from that time frame who took those courses (maybe honorably is some cases) raising hell over this.

I don't think the NCAA will do anything unless they have absolutely no choice, but I still think UNC is in deep trouble.

 

[vtcwbuff]

Although Crowder insists that her motives were altruistic it makes me wonder if there is a bit of booster money jingling around in her purse.

 

[pap49cba]

Haven't seen any mention of the woman whistle-blower, Mary Willingham, who was ridiculed and forced out during the initial cover-up. I would think she is lawyering up as we speak.

 

[CamrnCrz1974]

Reading the Wainstein Report, Roy Williams admitted he had concerns about the classes and had his adviser, whom he brought with him from Kansas, taking care of everything, but then never did anything with his concerns or bothered to investigate the curriculum and coursework of his athletes. Basically saying that he smelled smoke, evacuated his group from the building, and then never bothered to alert anyone else or find out if the building was in fact burning down.

From the Report:

329 students (including 169 student-athletes) had at least one semester in which the grade they received in their paper class either pushed or kept their GPA above 2.0. In other words, for at least one semester in their college career, each of those students had an actual cumulative GPA above a 2.0 but a recalculated GPA (excluding the paper class grade(s)) below a 2.0. This number includes 123 football players, 15 men’s basketball players, eight women’s basketball players, and 26 Olympic sport athletes.

So absent impropriety, 15 men's basketball players would not have been eligible. Not 15 semesters. 15 separate men's basketball players had at least one semester in their respective college careers where they were only academically eligible because of fraudulent grading.

 

[CamrnCrz1974]

Haven't seen any mention of the woman whistle-blower, Mary Willingham, who was ridiculed and forced out during the initial cover-up. I would think she is lawyering up as we speak.

From July 2, 2014:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebas...-mary-willingham-files-lawsuit-against-school

 

[HGN]

This situation is just dowright UGLY...........I wonder if this is one of the reason's DD decided to transfer. As I recall , a real reason was never given. At least not publically.

Just wondering.

 

[ChicagoGG]

Not quite OT. UNC WBB were among the student-athletes in the no-show classes and who benefited from unauthorized grade changes. About 6 percent of the student-athletes in the classes were on the wbb team.

This particular story here is disturbing on many levels and directly ties to WBB http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/10/22/4255051/wainstein-report-says-jan-boxill.html

ETA that it appears Jan Boxill is one of the nine who was fired or disciplined today. She is no longer listed as director of Parr Center for Ethics.

Boxill was the Director of the Center for Ethics???? How outrageous, egregious and just plain disgusting is it that this all went on and the Director of the Ethics Center was involved?
UNC should shut that center down until someone at that school learns the meaning of ethics. (No sarcasm, I mean this straight out). What a revolting mess. And they will probably get away with few or no NCAA sanctions and the University accreditation will not be questioned or reviewed. A mere wrist tap perhaps. SMH till it rattles.

 

[CL82]

The "paper classes" lasted for 18 yrs affected 3100 students; athletes accounted for 47% of enrollment.

BASKETBALL (13 scholarships per year)
Dean Smith - 54 in 5 years. 10.8 enrollments in AFAM independent students per year. (83% of scholarship base)
Bill Guthridge - 17 in 3 years. 5.67 enrollments in AFAM independent students per year (44%)
Matt Doherty - 42 in 3 years. 14 enrollments in AFAM independent students per year. (108%)
Roy Williams - 167 in 6 years. 27.83 enrollments in AFAM independent students per year (214%)

But here is the whitewashing:


http://espn.go.com/college-sports/s...vestigation-says-advisers-pushed-sham-classes

wow, did anyone under Williams even take a real class?

 

[Icebear]

As bad as it gets.

 

[UcMiami]

Haven't seen any mention of the woman whistle-blower, Mary Willingham, who was ridiculed and forced out during the initial cover-up. I would think she is lawyering up as we speak.

She already has a lawsuit pending and this report is probably got her and her lawyers dancing the jig! I suspect UNC will settle this one out of court as quietly as possible - throw in a few $100Ks more to buy her silence in the media.

The earlier idea posted that UNC would vacate any athlete's diploma is crazy - they are just praying the athletes that were steered into these classes do not sue the university for fraud.

What is not stated here, but is obvious - these classes were initially set up for athletes. The fact that other students could take them and did is pretty standard procedure for 'easy' classes at every university. You have a heavy semester in your core coursework and your roommate or friend tells you about a 'gut' class and you use it to fill out your credit hours - most college students have done that. Once these classes existed, Crowder and Co couldn't deny an athlete's friend from taking one without perhaps raising a stink. I suspect however, the friends didn't have academic councilors calling Crowder to suggest the grades they should receive or helping them write their papers.

 

[Icebear]

Those students would have been complicit in the fraud.

 

[loneycafe]

In reply to ChicagoGG

Yep, the director of the ethics center (who also served as an announcer for WBB) appears to be involved. Here's The Daily Tar Heel piece on it: "Campus shocked by former faculty chairwoman Jan Boxill's involvement in academic scandal"

And sources confirm to The Daily Tar Heel that she is one of nine who has been fired or disciplined.

In addition to WBB, football, and MBB, women's soccer and baseball looks to be in this deep, too (with the head coaches knowing what was up). The emails are amaze-balls.

 

[j66kicker]

In reply to ChicagoGG

Yep, the director of the ethics center (who also served as an announcer for WBB) appears to be heavily involved. Here's The Daily Tar Heel piece on it: "Campus shocked by former faculty chairwoman Jan Boxill's involvement in academic scandal.

Campus "shocked"
https://www.google.com/#q=casablanca+i'm+shocked

 

[Beemer]

Haven't seen any mention of the woman whistle-blower, Mary Willingham, who was ridiculed and forced out during the initial cover-up. I would think she is lawyering up as we speak.

She ought to. And I hope she wins big.

The way UNC has handled this has been a disgrace from day one.

 

[Beemer]

Campus "shocked"
https://www.google.com/#q=casablanca i'm shocked

I just bet they are /sarcasm

 

[UcMiami]

Not only head of the ethics center, but Faculty Chairwoman - that means she was elected by the rest of the faculty to represent them!!!
And what she did for the students she was advising - editing their papers, colluding in plagiarism and self-plagiarism, etc. would be a fireable offense at ANY academic institution for any faculty member had they themselves been helped in such a way during their student life and it became known.

 

[UcMiami]

And what about the bozo first two investigations UNC conducted - anyone involved in those should be investigated too!

 

[Huskies Rule]

Yes, it is. Brian Williams with this quip: "We've all heard the jokes of athletes taking Basketweaving 101; turns out basketweaving would have been a step up at UNC."

http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/56282940/#56282940

Also, my respect for Diamond DeShields went up. Good for her for transferring from that place. That entire athletic department was in on this. The emails are so revealing and disturbing.

Wait. An athlete transfers seeking academic advantage? Alert the media!