UNC buckles... Hires outside investigator to probe academic fraud scandal

[pap49cba]

LINK

 

[ChicagoGG]

Long overdue. And how can they right the wrongs done to athletes who took no-show classes and have a degree, but were not "educated" as they were promised when they were awarded scholarships?

 

[Zorro]

Interesting. VERY interesting! Apparently this crap has been going on since maybe 1992, pretty blatantly, and the University has busted its butt to keep it submerged. I have read that the Black Student Organization at UNC is royally p****d at Mary Wilkerson and the others who blew the whistle and have kept the investigation alive. Their anger should be directed at the crooks who deprived student athletes (not all of whom were black) of their promised education. So far only one, maybe two are to be charged with actual crimes; it should be a lot more.

 

[diggerfoot]

I find the comments section for this piece interesting ... and perhaps revealing that there might not be any real buckling at all. Still bugs me how the men's team suffered for a "measure" that does not really measure academic progress, while the UNC farce is apparently outside the concern of the NCAA.

 

[HoopsFan21]

I find the comments section for this piece interesting ... and perhaps revealing that there might not be any real buckling at all. Still bugs me how the men's team suffered for a "measure" that does not really measure academic progress, while the UNC farce is apparently outside the concern of the NCAA.

Yep. Take note athletic directors: if you want to do something that violates the spirit of NCAA rules and regulations, just make sure you throw some non-student-athletes into the mix because then it's apparently A-OK.

 

[intlzncster]

I find the comments section for this piece interesting ... and perhaps revealing that there might not be any real buckling at all. Still bugs me how the men's team suffered for a "measure" that does not really measure academic progress, while the UNC farce is apparently outside the concern of the NCAA.

And to add insult to injury, they even had the audacity to create a "measure" and make it retroactive. Nobody ever accused the NCAA of common sense or fair play. See the eating-too-much-spaghetti "scandal" at OU.

 

[DaddyChoc]

Schooled: The Price Of College Sports... can be seen on Netflix. Documents a lot about UNC sports

 

[Icebear]

It is possible that the school should lose its academic certification. This type of academic nonsense doesn't cut it with cert boards.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

To me more appropriately a decertification (or whatever can be done) for the appropriate departments within the university, as I'm sure the decisions to "cheat" were not made at the highest levels.

 

[Icebear]

To me more appropriately a decertification (or whatever can be done) for the appropriate departments within the university, as I'm sure the decisions to "cheat" were not made at the highest levels.

Yes, depending on the breadth of the issue departmental decert may be the appropriate approach.

 

[DobbsRover2]

To me more appropriately a decertification (or whatever can be done) for the appropriate departments within the university, as I'm sure the decisions to "cheat" were not made at the highest levels.

So you're thinking that just the Afro-American Studies department should be decertified because, well, I guess only they could have been in any way aware of the corruption that was going on? The school officials are either lying or run an inept program with no oversight. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say it's a lot of both.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

So you're thinking that just the Afro-American Studies department should be decertified because, well, I guess only they could have been in any way aware of the corruption that was going on? The school officials are either lying or run an inept program with no oversight. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say it's a lot of both.

More to the point, I don't think the professors of, say, Chemistry or Physics or what have you, who were not committing academic fraud, had any idea. Or that the students who didn't take classes in the involved disciplines - depending on how widespread it is determined to be - should have their degrees trashed by the school being decertified.

I'll give you the "no oversight" at the least, but I suppose in some ways I'd like to know how any school prevents academic fraud. Not responding once they heard about it should be enough to oust individuals, but I don't buy into the punishing the university.

 

[triaddukefan]

Dont you think you guys are being a bit too harsh on the University of North Carolina and their Athletic Program ?

 

[tomcat]

Weighing in for the first time on this issue, IMHO, absolutely not. I do not think you can be harsh enough against people who do this stuff, no matter what school, no matter what department.

 

[msf22b]

To me more appropriately a decertification (or whatever can be done) for the appropriate departments within the university, as I'm sure the decisions to "cheat" were not made at the highest levels.

It strains credulity that this stuff was going on for years, decades and the admin was completely in the dark.

Sounds very much like at a pretty high level, there were requests and understandings.

Like in a neighboring state, impossible in this age of E-mail and permanent communication, for the lid to be kept on a situ like this.

And if anyone thinks that the dept. chair, now indicted, is going to take the fall for this alone…

He'll plea and bring down half the U, wait and see.

 

[DobbsRover2]

More to the point, I don't think the professors of, say, Chemistry or Physics or what have you, who were not committing academic fraud, had any idea. Or that the students who didn't take classes in the involved disciplines - depending on how widespread it is determined to be - should have their degrees trashed by the school being decertified.

I'll give you the "no oversight" at the least, but I suppose in some ways I'd like to know how any school prevents academic fraud. Not responding once they heard about it should be enough to oust individuals, but I don't buy into the punishing the university.

The same thing of course was said concerning PSU, and that of course the students and the school at large should not have to suffer because of the bad acts of a few. It is true that having the "blameless" majority punished in these cases has some issues, but we have all likely been in classes as kids that did not get to go to recess because a few troublemakers were acting up. But such actions usually do a nice job of enforcing the rules and making sure that the "innocent majority" of in this case the UNC administration does not stay silent and leans on the bad apples in the faculty and their athletic department facilitators to adhere to acceptable academic practices. Otherwise, there is no reason for schools not to turn a blind eye to everything they would prefer not to see.

Again, you may believe that for twenty plus years it was just one renegade academic who for some unknown reason masterminded a huge fraud on UNC without any of the student advisers, coaches, other faculty members and school administrators who had not the faintest inkling of what was going on. And you may believe that UNC's subsequent efforts to cover up the facts, quash any investigations, and libel and sue the whistleblowers who exposed their corrupt program were all based on righteous indignation. And if you do I have a GW Bridge to sell you and a big pack of political cronies who will deny they knew of the plans to close it down before I sold it to you.

How far the extent of the bogus courses reaches is yet to be determined, but many departments will be affected simply because students who took the fraudulent classes will also have taken many legitimate classes in other disciplines. But if a student earned a BS degree with 70% legitimate classes in chemistry and biology and 30% credits from the theory of wall thumping, all of his resume is open to decreditation review. You cannot afford as a school to have employers looking at a UNC degree and snickering, "Well we know what that's worth!" A very thorough review of the school's academics are required, and we can only hope that the independent investigator will not be hamstrung by a school that has viciously attacked any past efforts to bring the fraud to light.

And triaddukefan, I know you intend to go down kicking and screaming in defense of your UNC chums and protest that they are being unfairly attacked by their vile critics, but it's time for you to wise up and admit that they are not perfect and seem instead to be capable of some really gross deceit and scandalous conduct.

 

[Zorro]

And if the transcripts show that AA offensive tackle Bubba Beefcake who read at the 3rd grade level or so made an A- in, say, English Lit, that is going to be a little tough to explain. I suspect that a lot of class attendance/grade books for many courses in many departments will be found to no longer exist. Hey, if you are junior faculty, nomatter what department, and your dept chair, or a vp or the like lets you know that it would be really nice if player A retained his eligibility (and don't forget your tenure evaluation is coming up in a year or two and we really value School Loyalty and all), gonna be hard to give Player A the token D you would give a non-athlete of his accomplishments. I'm betting that that apple was pretty much rotten all the way through. It'l be interesting to watch, like the political reality shows that are currently playing in a couple of states. As Ms Wilkerson says, "It's all in the transcripts".

 

[UConnNick]

To me more appropriately a decertification (or whatever can be done) for the appropriate departments within the university, as I'm sure the decisions to "cheat" were not made at the highest levels.

Don't be too sure. College presidents have run the NCAA since the very late 1980's. They know exactly what they can and cannot get away with, and they also know exactly which institutions have the fix in with the NCAA. It's not too difficult to figure out the names of those particular schools.

 

[watanabe]

I don't think I will ever look at another NC grads resume and not think about this when making interview selections.
This will affect all NC grads, because I will not be the only doubter out there. How sad.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

I just think there is a tendency to oversimplify.

When I was in school I had a professor who was well known that he didn't tend to fail anyone. Now, he was an excellent instructor, and he certainly didn't give everyone an "A" , but I knew classmates that didn't get the material and none failed (this was when grades were still posted on walls).

Again, the next year, I took a class that was a bit over my head. I did my best, but got an "A" not so much for my coursework but for my honesty in the "exit" interview, where I acknowledged that I just didn't have the mathematical background (I was a chem major) to quite "get" some of the material (the course was described as best for math majors, I thought it sounded interesting and took it).

Were these professors committing "fraud"? because they graded maybe a bit high? Was the rather loony Organic Chem professor that didn't give "A" grades because he didn't think any student was really good enough to deserve one a fraud?

My point is, and I have no idea, did the fraud at UNC extend to every student in a class, or only selected students. Or was the class a complete fake - in which case, I agree, the students need to be disciplined, all of them.

I personally believe there were numerous folks in the UNC administration who knew what was going on and I believe they all should be terminated and, where applicable, charged. As I believed with Penn State where there were fewer folks involved.

I also have no issue, incidentally, with athletic sanctions, although, we know that isn't happening. What I do have is a problem with someone saying that, if the situation is cleaned up as it (hopefully) will be, the school as an entity needs anything more than academic probation.

 

[DobbsRover2]

By "anything more than academic probation" I assume it is a given that athletic penalties are essential, because if UConn can be given a stiff penalty for sliding under a retroactive academic mark, UNC's penalties should be massive for many sports programs' participation in over 20 years worth of fraud.

And though you prefer to see through a glass half lightly about the actions of the academic, athletic, and administrative departments at UNC, there are some of us who take much darker view of the actions of the school's personnel since the accusations first came to light. Similarly to the situation in NJ, there has been nothing but denials and obstructions with no attempts or interest at investigation of what happened. As with PSU,it is not just the ugliness of the root problem, it is the attempts afterward to hush up the incidents that do indeed demand further very tough sanctions against the school to deter future conduct like the Heels' actions of the last couple years. The facts of the cheating have been before the UNC admins and faculty for a long time and they have shoved it aside, and only the most recent uproar has forced them to belatedly to take any action. Investigations like this generally take a very long time, so excuse me if I don't have full confidence that UNC will end up ever doing anything to clean up its sty.

 

[UcMiami]

Dobbs - the issue I have between your comparison of PSU and UNC is that while the PSU situation was criminal and horrible any 'cover-up' or inaction was related to school and football reputation and had absolutely no relation to the sports product put on the field nor to the eligibility of any athlete to play. For this reason I think the NCAA had to stretch its universe of punishable offenses to an extreme.
On the other hand, UNC institutionalized a system of inflating grades for athletes across a number of sports specifically to keep those athletes eligible to continue to participate in their sports, This falls directly in the wheel house of NCAA enforcement criteria. In this situation the NCAA has washed its hands where as it should have resulted in the vacating of any wins in which athletes involved in the academic fraud were involved as well as bans from future tournament eligibility.

 

[pap49cba]

This is shaping up to be one of the longest running, most egregious cases of academic and athletic fraud in the history of collegiate sports. And up to now, the vaunted NCAA has done absolutely nothing, nada, zip while making millions off of jersey sales and video games and worrying about who might be selling autographs or other memorabilia. The NCAA is a joke.

 

[alexrgct]

UNC buckles again...against Virginia Tech.

 

[DobbsRover2]

Dobbs - the issue I have between your comparison of PSU and UNC is that while the PSU situation was criminal and horrible any 'cover-up' or inaction was related to school and football reputation and had absolutely no relation to the sports product put on the field nor to the eligibility of any athlete to play. For this reason I think the NCAA had to stretch its universe of punishable offenses to an extreme.
On the other hand, UNC institutionalized a system of inflating grades for athletes across a number of sports specifically to keep those athletes eligible to continue to participate in their sports, This falls directly in the wheel house of NCAA enforcement criteria. In this situation the NCAA has washed its hands where as it should have resulted in the vacating of any wins in which athletes involved in the academic fraud were involved as well as bans from future tournament eligibility.

I guess there is a certain morality level in play when the cases involve one school covering up crimes (against children) and the other covering up fraud (against and for somewhat older young people). In both cases the cover-ups extended over many years.

But I just don't see a huge difference between egregious actions at both places. How can you separate what Joe Pa and the PSU admins did to cover up the facts and protect the reputation of their football program from the big sanctions that would have (and later did) ripped the program apart if the truth of the admin's actions had been revealed back in Joe's last years? The Lions' eligibility to get into bowl games was a huge part of their sports product, and of course it would have made their players ineligible to play in them.

I know, these players are busting their helmets and their brains for a goal and its hard to rip opportunities for more busting away from them because the admins loused up, but if you don't pool them in a shared responsibility then the abuses just keep occurring without any stop gap. At the time of the Joe Pa\Sandusky revelations, the main part of the PSU student body was more incensed about the sanctions on the school than they were over the crimes, and that is not the message the schools should be teaching.