The Carolina Way VIII
- Thread starter DevilDJ
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Why the Tarheels Deserve the Death Penalty
The academic scandal consuming the University of North carolina sports program represents the most morally offensive institutional misconduct in the history of college sports.
It's far worse than the money-for-athletes misbehavior that seems to pop up every few months or so or even the Pony Express payoffs that resulted in SMU football receiving the NCAA's death penalty: a complete one-year ban on competition.
Accordingly, there is one, inescapable conclusion: The University of North carolina athletics program deserves the death penalty.
UNC-CHeat
The academic scandal consuming the University of North carolina sports program represents the most morally offensive institutional misconduct in the history of college sports.
It's far worse than the money-for-athletes misbehavior that seems to pop up every few months or so or even the Pony Express payoffs that resulted in SMU football receiving the NCAA's death penalty: a complete one-year ban on competition.
Accordingly, there is one, inescapable conclusion: The University of North carolina athletics program deserves the death penalty.
UNC-CHeat
unc failed its students
Perhaps the saddest part of this entire scandal is that it originally surfaced five years ago, and few people know. Whether or not the lack of publicity is because news outlets didn't want to touch the subject is unclear. But now that the eight-month Wainstein Report is available to the public, they must.
Unless, of course, you're ESPN. The supposed world leader in sports reporting has completely ignored the issue. That said, it's worth pointing out ESPN's current president, John Skipper, received his degree from unc.
IU received a harsher punishment for Kelvin Sampson making illegal phone calls than unc has received so far. It's time for the NCAA to step in and strip unc of anything they have achieved in the last 18 years and bar them from any postseason for years moving forward.
After all, I just wrote more in this column than one of those unc students did in a semester.
UNC-CHeat
Perhaps the saddest part of this entire scandal is that it originally surfaced five years ago, and few people know. Whether or not the lack of publicity is because news outlets didn't want to touch the subject is unclear. But now that the eight-month Wainstein Report is available to the public, they must.
Unless, of course, you're ESPN. The supposed world leader in sports reporting has completely ignored the issue. That said, it's worth pointing out ESPN's current president, John Skipper, received his degree from unc.
IU received a harsher punishment for Kelvin Sampson making illegal phone calls than unc has received so far. It's time for the NCAA to step in and strip unc of anything they have achieved in the last 18 years and bar them from any postseason for years moving forward.
After all, I just wrote more in this column than one of those unc students did in a semester.
UNC-CHeat
He just doesn't know when to keep that trap closed does he, DevilDj?Originally posted by DevilDJ:
Keep talkin' Roy....
Q&A WITH ROY WILLIAMS, PART I
Now I see where PJ got his speeding ways from. Roy mentions that he routinely runs 10 mph over the speed limit...and that more than likely means it 15 or 20 mph above the speed limit.
OFC
Agreed dirt. Some say HOF Coach Roy Williams wears his emotions on his sleeve.I think he is just a Tar Heel fan who coaches his favorite college basketball team who thinks he's entitled. OFCOriginally posted by OldasdirtDevil:
He just doesn't know when to keep that trap closed does he, DevilDj?Originally posted by DevilDJ:
Keep talkin' Roy....
Q&A WITH ROY WILLIAMS, PART I
Now I see where PJ got his speeding ways from. Roy mentions that he routinely runs 10 mph over the speed limit...and that more than likely means it 15 or 20 mph above the speed limit.
OFC
Skysdad
Proceed with caution. Bradley is butt-hurt. Big-time.
Definitely not in favor of apologizing to Mary. What a whiney little beach. How he still has a job speaks to just how arrogant and holier-than-thou tptb at unx really are. National laughingstocks and perps of the most egregious academic/athletic fraud in NCAA history but B-Rad says different AND publicly insults long-time unx faculty. Please GOD I hope the NCAA nukes those cheating f-tards back to the Stone Age. Disgusting...
Yet if we employ the logic of the (Anti-) Athletics Reform Group (hereafter referred to as A-ARG), the carolina Covenant program should be abolished as a result of Clark's recommending the paper classes.
Hodding Carter and Harry Watson
Last Friday, at the Faculty Council meeting, for the first time in my three years as a unc employee, I was embarrassed to be associated with this university. My embarrassment, however, was not due to the improprieties of a few well-meaning individuals between 1993 and 2011 or in response to the sensational headlines following the Wainstein Report. No, my embarrassment was in response to the cowardice, hypocrisy, and pretentiousness of some outspoken faculty members, most notably Hodding Carter and Harry Watson.
At the meeting, those two men, especially, displayed an impudent bias against athletics and an audacious disregard for measured, scholarly analysis of the Wainstein Report. Forget reading the Report with the same scrutiny they and dozens of other faculty members in the humanities teach students to employ when reading texts-particularly texts written by powerful white men. Carter, Watson, and others clearly had rushed to appropriate whatever assertions and phrases they could find in the Report to confirm and champion their already entrenched anti-athletics bias. In other words, while maintaining the guise of scholars, the faculty members claiming the Wainstein Report as a moral victory over athletics were actually behaving more like benighted partisans, undermining the enlightened citizenship for which institutions of higher learning stand.
The University does not owe Willingham an apology, and making such an apology would undermine the integrity of the University as a research institution.
UNC-CHeat
Yet if we employ the logic of the (Anti-) Athletics Reform Group (hereafter referred to as A-ARG), the carolina Covenant program should be abolished as a result of Clark's recommending the paper classes.
Hodding Carter and Harry Watson
Last Friday, at the Faculty Council meeting, for the first time in my three years as a unc employee, I was embarrassed to be associated with this university. My embarrassment, however, was not due to the improprieties of a few well-meaning individuals between 1993 and 2011 or in response to the sensational headlines following the Wainstein Report. No, my embarrassment was in response to the cowardice, hypocrisy, and pretentiousness of some outspoken faculty members, most notably Hodding Carter and Harry Watson.
At the meeting, those two men, especially, displayed an impudent bias against athletics and an audacious disregard for measured, scholarly analysis of the Wainstein Report. Forget reading the Report with the same scrutiny they and dozens of other faculty members in the humanities teach students to employ when reading texts-particularly texts written by powerful white men. Carter, Watson, and others clearly had rushed to appropriate whatever assertions and phrases they could find in the Report to confirm and champion their already entrenched anti-athletics bias. In other words, while maintaining the guise of scholars, the faculty members claiming the Wainstein Report as a moral victory over athletics were actually behaving more like benighted partisans, undermining the enlightened citizenship for which institutions of higher learning stand.
The University does not owe Willingham an apology, and making such an apology would undermine the integrity of the University as a research institution.
UNC-CHeat
When colleges become super fans
This is an epic scandal that undermines the value of a degree received by any unc athlete who depended on the shadow classes to get through school. It would be unfair to use this to paint with a broad brush about what may be going on at other colleges. However, the fact that it continued for so long at one of the more respected academic institutions in the country should be an alarm bell for all colleges and universities that engage in big time athletics. When the fun on Saturday is propped up by fraud the rest of the week, we have a problem.
UNC-CHeat
This is an epic scandal that undermines the value of a degree received by any unc athlete who depended on the shadow classes to get through school. It would be unfair to use this to paint with a broad brush about what may be going on at other colleges. However, the fact that it continued for so long at one of the more respected academic institutions in the country should be an alarm bell for all colleges and universities that engage in big time athletics. When the fun on Saturday is propped up by fraud the rest of the week, we have a problem.
UNC-CHeat
You can watch this in its entirety but these are some specific speakers. Great stuff. unx's Faculty Council...
Hodding Carter
Hodding Carter
Great work, DevilDJ.
Really thought the Harry Watson statement was solid.
Not impressed that much with the woman (provost?) at the head table. She struck me as almost condescending and more like a college student. "Really great questions, guys" - I mean, seriously? You're talking to some serious and heavy academic minds in the room.
Really thought the Harry Watson statement was solid.
Not impressed that much with the woman (provost?) at the head table. She struck me as almost condescending and more like a college student. "Really great questions, guys" - I mean, seriously? You're talking to some serious and heavy academic minds in the room.
Bob Smizik: How best to punish unc
Anyone with even a casual interest in the Jerry Sandusky scandal -- and who among us would that exclude? -- has to be at least mildly intrigued with the academic scandal at the University of North carolina (unc). The Sandusky child-rape scandal left an indelible black mark on Penn State University. The unc scandal has been festering for years. Its full magnitude was only recently completely revealed and the exact nature of how it will affect the university still is not known and probably won't be until punishment is handed down.
Penn State, for example, was rocked by the Sandusky scandal to the point it fired legendary coach Joe Paterno for his part in it. But it wasn't until extremely harsh penalties were handed down that Penn State's place in NCAA infamy was secured for the university and its once-sterling football program.
North carolina awaits judgment. No doubt, academicians are looking askance at unc for the fraud that took place from 1993-2011. But unc's place in educational hell won't be fully known until punishment is delivered.
unc, located in Chapel Hill, is known by most for the long-time excellence of its basketball team -- the North carolina Tar Heels. It is the school of Michael Jordan, the greatest player in basketball history, and of Dean Smith, near the top of the list of all-time great coaches. North carolina occupies a more hallowed place in NCAA basketball history than does Penn State in NCAA football history.
When the time came for punishment to be handed down, Penn State was crushed by the NCAA in 2012.
* The most serious measure was a reduction in scholarships, which are the lifeblood of any football program. The full brunt of that penalty is being seen this season as the football team struggles for wins against opponents it once routinely defeated.
* The university was made to pay $60 million over five years into a special endowment created to fund programs that prevent child sexual abuse and assist victims.
* There was a four-year ban on bowls games.
* All wins from 1998 to 2012 -- 113 in total -- were vacated. That included two Big Ten championships and six bowl game wins.
Some of those penalties, most notably the scholarship reductions, have been reduced, but the sanctions against Penn State remain historic in their magnitude.
The Associated Press described the academic fraud at North carolina this way:
''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 Raleigh News & Observer, which originally broke this story, reported that many men's basketball players took part in these sham classes. Included were members of the 2005 NCAA championship team. unc won two titles, the other in 2009, during this period.
North carolina has stood behind coach Roy Williams, who has claimed he didn't know about the phony classes and that he had delegated monitoring authority to assistants. That's a flimsy excuse. Since when is the head coach not in charge of everything?
Punishment of some sort must be meted out to Williams. As for his program, there should be scholarship reductions and tournament bans. But the greatest penalty for North carolina will be vacated victories, including its two most recent national championships.
The NCAA was near-merciless with Penn State. It should treat North carolina similarly.
UNC-CHeat
Anyone with even a casual interest in the Jerry Sandusky scandal -- and who among us would that exclude? -- has to be at least mildly intrigued with the academic scandal at the University of North carolina (unc). The Sandusky child-rape scandal left an indelible black mark on Penn State University. The unc scandal has been festering for years. Its full magnitude was only recently completely revealed and the exact nature of how it will affect the university still is not known and probably won't be until punishment is handed down.
Penn State, for example, was rocked by the Sandusky scandal to the point it fired legendary coach Joe Paterno for his part in it. But it wasn't until extremely harsh penalties were handed down that Penn State's place in NCAA infamy was secured for the university and its once-sterling football program.
North carolina awaits judgment. No doubt, academicians are looking askance at unc for the fraud that took place from 1993-2011. But unc's place in educational hell won't be fully known until punishment is delivered.
unc, located in Chapel Hill, is known by most for the long-time excellence of its basketball team -- the North carolina Tar Heels. It is the school of Michael Jordan, the greatest player in basketball history, and of Dean Smith, near the top of the list of all-time great coaches. North carolina occupies a more hallowed place in NCAA basketball history than does Penn State in NCAA football history.
When the time came for punishment to be handed down, Penn State was crushed by the NCAA in 2012.
* The most serious measure was a reduction in scholarships, which are the lifeblood of any football program. The full brunt of that penalty is being seen this season as the football team struggles for wins against opponents it once routinely defeated.
* The university was made to pay $60 million over five years into a special endowment created to fund programs that prevent child sexual abuse and assist victims.
* There was a four-year ban on bowls games.
* All wins from 1998 to 2012 -- 113 in total -- were vacated. That included two Big Ten championships and six bowl game wins.
Some of those penalties, most notably the scholarship reductions, have been reduced, but the sanctions against Penn State remain historic in their magnitude.
The Associated Press described the academic fraud at North carolina this way:
''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 Raleigh News & Observer, which originally broke this story, reported that many men's basketball players took part in these sham classes. Included were members of the 2005 NCAA championship team. unc won two titles, the other in 2009, during this period.
North carolina has stood behind coach Roy Williams, who has claimed he didn't know about the phony classes and that he had delegated monitoring authority to assistants. That's a flimsy excuse. Since when is the head coach not in charge of everything?
Punishment of some sort must be meted out to Williams. As for his program, there should be scholarship reductions and tournament bans. But the greatest penalty for North carolina will be vacated victories, including its two most recent national championships.
The NCAA was near-merciless with Penn State. It should treat North carolina similarly.
UNC-CHeat
"Accountability...."
Letter: Undue leniency for football players
TO THE EDITOR:
Here we go again. Very early Sunday morning, unc running back Romar Morris was arrested for driving while intoxicated. If you've ridden a Chapel Hill Transit bus recently, then you've almost certainly seen signs warning students that driving while intoxicated is the fastest way to get suspended from school.
Indeed, according to Section III.D.2 of the sanctions section of the rules governing unc student conduct, "For operating a motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol, drugs or other substances the usual sanction shall be drug or alcohol suspension for at least one full academic semester."
Fortunately for Morris, he is not just a student - he is a football player. And if we have learned anything in the continuous state of scandal which has existed in our Department of Athletics for the past four years, it is that athletes are anything but "usual."
So instead of being suspended from school for a semester, Morris will be suspended from the field for - wait for it - one game. Chancellor Folt tells us not worry. After all, the 70 plus reforms that have been recently implemented have all but solved the athletic and academic troubles which used to exist at our fine university.
The message that was sent from Coach Fedora on Monday, though, was that if football players can put their drunk selves behind the wheel and endanger others, then they will face a slap on the wrist. Or as he likes to call it, "hold(ing) our players accountable for their actions."
Matthew Zipple
Senior
Biology, Political Science
COMPARE/CONTRAST...
UNC-CHeat
Letter: Undue leniency for football players
TO THE EDITOR:
Here we go again. Very early Sunday morning, unc running back Romar Morris was arrested for driving while intoxicated. If you've ridden a Chapel Hill Transit bus recently, then you've almost certainly seen signs warning students that driving while intoxicated is the fastest way to get suspended from school.
Indeed, according to Section III.D.2 of the sanctions section of the rules governing unc student conduct, "For operating a motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol, drugs or other substances the usual sanction shall be drug or alcohol suspension for at least one full academic semester."
Fortunately for Morris, he is not just a student - he is a football player. And if we have learned anything in the continuous state of scandal which has existed in our Department of Athletics for the past four years, it is that athletes are anything but "usual."
So instead of being suspended from school for a semester, Morris will be suspended from the field for - wait for it - one game. Chancellor Folt tells us not worry. After all, the 70 plus reforms that have been recently implemented have all but solved the athletic and academic troubles which used to exist at our fine university.
The message that was sent from Coach Fedora on Monday, though, was that if football players can put their drunk selves behind the wheel and endanger others, then they will face a slap on the wrist. Or as he likes to call it, "hold(ing) our players accountable for their actions."
Matthew Zipple
Senior
Biology, Political Science
COMPARE/CONTRAST...
UNC-CHeat
Washington boots CB Marcus Peters after reported dispute with coaches
In what comes as a very surprising move, Washington dismissed starting cornerback Marcus Peters from the team Thursday.
"These are not decisions that are taken lightly," Huskies coach Chris Petersen said in a statement. "We have high standards for players in our program and they are held accountable when those standards are not met. I wish Marcus the best in the completion of his education and in achieving his football goals."
According to the Seattle Times, which first reported the dismissal, Peters got into an argument with an assistant coach Wednesday in what was just the latest in a series of confrontations between Peters and the coaching staff. Peters got into another argument with Washington coaches during Saturday's game against Colorado and missed practice Tuesday.
Peters was also suspended for a game earlier this season after throwing his helmet and gloves on the sideline in a game against Eastern Washington.
Peters is one of the best players on Washington's defense, and he's projected to be a first-round pick in next spring's NFL Draft if he leaves school early. If he has been dismissed from the team, you have to think that's a very real possibility.
Peters leads the Huskies defense with three interceptions and 10 passes defended this season. He also has 30 tackles on the year.[/I]
At U-Dub , ya get a game just for throwin' your helmet...even if you're a projected NFL draft pick. At unx , ya get a game for driving drunk. unx....your school is a joke. Fedora? Joke. All this talk about "cleaning up" and ya still haven't done a damn thing. "Accountability" , unx-style.
UNC-CHeat
In what comes as a very surprising move, Washington dismissed starting cornerback Marcus Peters from the team Thursday.
"These are not decisions that are taken lightly," Huskies coach Chris Petersen said in a statement. "We have high standards for players in our program and they are held accountable when those standards are not met. I wish Marcus the best in the completion of his education and in achieving his football goals."
According to the Seattle Times, which first reported the dismissal, Peters got into an argument with an assistant coach Wednesday in what was just the latest in a series of confrontations between Peters and the coaching staff. Peters got into another argument with Washington coaches during Saturday's game against Colorado and missed practice Tuesday.
Peters was also suspended for a game earlier this season after throwing his helmet and gloves on the sideline in a game against Eastern Washington.
Peters is one of the best players on Washington's defense, and he's projected to be a first-round pick in next spring's NFL Draft if he leaves school early. If he has been dismissed from the team, you have to think that's a very real possibility.
Peters leads the Huskies defense with three interceptions and 10 passes defended this season. He also has 30 tackles on the year.[/I]
At U-Dub , ya get a game just for throwin' your helmet...even if you're a projected NFL draft pick. At unx , ya get a game for driving drunk. unx....your school is a joke. Fedora? Joke. All this talk about "cleaning up" and ya still haven't done a damn thing. "Accountability" , unx-style.
UNC-CHeat
UAF Athletics Penalized For Eligibility Violations
The University of Alaska Fairbanks has been penalized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association for eligibility violations. Wednesday, Chancellor Brian Rogers wanted it understood that that the athletes are not to blame.
"These infractions were the result of university error and not due to wrongdoing by any of our student athletes," Rogers said.
Sanctions include a $30,000 fine, the short term elimination of some scholarships, no post season play for some teams during the 2014-15 season, and the vacation of wins and records achieved by offending athletes and teams they competed for. The academic eligibility violations involve 40 athletes in 9 UAF sports, between 2007 and 2011.
The NCAA eligibility violations were self reported by UAF in 2011 and 2012. Chancellor Rogers attributed them to UAF failing to fully understand, and identify issues for student athletes.
Among the numerous NCAA penalties, is a requirement that UAF develop a program to educate staff on eligibility certification and advising practices, something Athletic Director Gary Gray says the university has already implemented.
"That has been in place now for quite sometime. We continue to educate folks and employees in the registrar's office, advising, ect.," Rogers said. "We meet with them monthly; we have a great process, it works, it's well documented and I would hold it up as a model process. So we've completed that requirement."
UAF has also has hired an academic adviser for student athletes, and designated staff to manage their records.
The NCAA is requiring the university to file an annual compliance report, including a review by an outside consultant.] Gray says UAF will now figure out what records need to be vacated as a result of the NCAA penalties.
Paltry numbers...years-wise and players-wise...compared to unx. UAF still vacated games. Self-reported too.
UNC-CHeat
The University of Alaska Fairbanks has been penalized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association for eligibility violations. Wednesday, Chancellor Brian Rogers wanted it understood that that the athletes are not to blame.
"These infractions were the result of university error and not due to wrongdoing by any of our student athletes," Rogers said.
Sanctions include a $30,000 fine, the short term elimination of some scholarships, no post season play for some teams during the 2014-15 season, and the vacation of wins and records achieved by offending athletes and teams they competed for. The academic eligibility violations involve 40 athletes in 9 UAF sports, between 2007 and 2011.
The NCAA eligibility violations were self reported by UAF in 2011 and 2012. Chancellor Rogers attributed them to UAF failing to fully understand, and identify issues for student athletes.
Among the numerous NCAA penalties, is a requirement that UAF develop a program to educate staff on eligibility certification and advising practices, something Athletic Director Gary Gray says the university has already implemented.
"That has been in place now for quite sometime. We continue to educate folks and employees in the registrar's office, advising, ect.," Rogers said. "We meet with them monthly; we have a great process, it works, it's well documented and I would hold it up as a model process. So we've completed that requirement."
UAF has also has hired an academic adviser for student athletes, and designated staff to manage their records.
The NCAA is requiring the university to file an annual compliance report, including a review by an outside consultant.] Gray says UAF will now figure out what records need to be vacated as a result of the NCAA penalties.
Paltry numbers...years-wise and players-wise...compared to unx. UAF still vacated games. Self-reported too.
UNC-CHeat
Elephant in the room...
Faculty Progressive Network needles Wainstein report
...the problem is much bigger than paper classes.
The group, composed of around 100 unc faculty members, was founded in the 1990s to further causes of economic and social justice and have been vocal with their criticism of the Wainstein report
...but it reveals much larger questions of the institutional culture,"
Cravey read the group's statement about the report at the "Real Wainstein Report" rally held by the Real Silent Sam Coalition last week.
...the problem is the system.
"It's a much more complicated picture than the picture that the administration wanted to put out before," he said. "It's a very hierarchical institution. All the people that are being singled out for blame are powerless."
This is something that Wainstein did not take into account during his investigation, he said.
...the hierarchical nature of the University is cause for concern.
"One of our concerns is that the one department has been blamed and that people who don't have job protections have been blamed," he said.
This goes hand-in-hand with the racialization of the scandal, he said.
"We can blame black student-athletes. We can blame black scholars. We can blame black students that take those classes. I think that's the easy narrative," Cravey said. "But why not look at all the responsibility for the institutional and systemic failures of 20 years letting this go on?"
Wing said he believes the blame should be directed towards the University, which exploits athletes and undervalues their education.
The current hierarchy makes it hard for faculty members to speak up, fearing repercussions and even job loss, he said.
"There's no place to criticize the University on campus. That has to change."
UNC-CHeat
Faculty Progressive Network needles Wainstein report
...the problem is much bigger than paper classes.
The group, composed of around 100 unc faculty members, was founded in the 1990s to further causes of economic and social justice and have been vocal with their criticism of the Wainstein report
...but it reveals much larger questions of the institutional culture,"
Cravey read the group's statement about the report at the "Real Wainstein Report" rally held by the Real Silent Sam Coalition last week.
...the problem is the system.
"It's a much more complicated picture than the picture that the administration wanted to put out before," he said. "It's a very hierarchical institution. All the people that are being singled out for blame are powerless."
This is something that Wainstein did not take into account during his investigation, he said.
...the hierarchical nature of the University is cause for concern.
"One of our concerns is that the one department has been blamed and that people who don't have job protections have been blamed," he said.
This goes hand-in-hand with the racialization of the scandal, he said.
"We can blame black student-athletes. We can blame black scholars. We can blame black students that take those classes. I think that's the easy narrative," Cravey said. "But why not look at all the responsibility for the institutional and systemic failures of 20 years letting this go on?"
Wing said he believes the blame should be directed towards the University, which exploits athletes and undervalues their education.
The current hierarchy makes it hard for faculty members to speak up, fearing repercussions and even job loss, he said.
"There's no place to criticize the University on campus. That has to change."
UNC-CHeat
Like Roy , Sylvia can't lie worth a damn either. And wassup with that "We were 13-0-1 in every sport. I bet you there's not a school in the country that can say that except (unc)" comment? Hey Sylvia...the cheating your school has done to acquire wins is on display for the entire world to see. Hardly the appropriate forum to spout off about a successful won/loss record. Unless , of course , you're like most at unx who prioritize athletic feats over academic integrity. #carolinaway....
Sylvia Hatchell mum on Wainstein report after first women's basketball game
Sylvia Hatchell ran from questions about the Wainstein report as quickly as her players transitioned down the court in Carmichael Arena Wednesday.
"I don't want to talk about that tonight," Hatchell said. "I mean, I don't really know what to say about it to be honest with you.
"It's really hard for me to believe."
...women's basketball players enrolled in fake classes 114 times beginning in 1986. Hatchell remained tight-lipped.
"You know, I had no clue about any of that, and it's just really hard for me to even believe it," Hatchell said after the game. "I'm not saying it's not true, but it's hard for me to read it because I didn't know any of that."
Hatchell said in the report that she knew Jan Boxill, the former academic adviser for the women's basketball team, was working closely with secretary Deborah Crowder to enroll players in African and Afro-American studies classes. Though she was aware many of her players were enrolling in African and Afro-American studies classes, Hatchell didn't see the extent of the ongoing academic fraud.
Whether Hatchell knew about the classes or Boxill's involvement, she didn't linger on the facts for long.
Instead, the coach ranted.
"Until Saturday, we had three weekends where nobody lost at all," Hatchell said. "We were 13-0-1 in every sport."
"I bet you there's not a school in the country that can say that except (unc)."
That was the end of the rant. No more Wainstein, no more questions.
UNC-CHeat
Sylvia Hatchell mum on Wainstein report after first women's basketball game
Sylvia Hatchell ran from questions about the Wainstein report as quickly as her players transitioned down the court in Carmichael Arena Wednesday.
"I don't want to talk about that tonight," Hatchell said. "I mean, I don't really know what to say about it to be honest with you.
"It's really hard for me to believe."
...women's basketball players enrolled in fake classes 114 times beginning in 1986. Hatchell remained tight-lipped.
"You know, I had no clue about any of that, and it's just really hard for me to even believe it," Hatchell said after the game. "I'm not saying it's not true, but it's hard for me to read it because I didn't know any of that."
Hatchell said in the report that she knew Jan Boxill, the former academic adviser for the women's basketball team, was working closely with secretary Deborah Crowder to enroll players in African and Afro-American studies classes. Though she was aware many of her players were enrolling in African and Afro-American studies classes, Hatchell didn't see the extent of the ongoing academic fraud.
Whether Hatchell knew about the classes or Boxill's involvement, she didn't linger on the facts for long.
Instead, the coach ranted.
"Until Saturday, we had three weekends where nobody lost at all," Hatchell said. "We were 13-0-1 in every sport."
"I bet you there's not a school in the country that can say that except (unc)."
That was the end of the rant. No more Wainstein, no more questions.
UNC-CHeat
unc Af-Am chair avoided peer, departmental review
Harry L. Watson, professor of history, said the length of Nyang'oro's term should have been the first red flag.
"I don't know how Professor Nyang'oro got reappointed as chair over and over and over again for 20 years when the normal term for a chair is five years," Watson said.
"I'm absolutely convinced that administrators were able to find out if they had taken the initiative," Watson said. "The idea that everybody who could have known did know, I think is a stretch."
Nyang'oro, like every tenured member of the unc-CH faculty, would have been subject to peer review, too, but Wainstein found that never happened.
"They thought that would be awkward," Wainstein told the board. "So for 20 years, 19 or 20 years, that Nyang'oro was the chair, he was never reviewed by his peers."
University leadership says more than 70 initiatives are already in place.
"We have already gone deeply into transforming our culture and our policies from the top down and bottom up," Folt said.
Still, some faculty wonder.
"How do we know that what we are putting in place is enough?" asked Beth Moracco, associated professor of Health and Behavior.
"Awkward?" Yeah , it woulda been. Athletics was callin' the shots so anyone looking sideways at AFAM or Nyangoro would definitely be targeted for an azzload of "awkward." Amazing that after "70 initiatives" a football player can still drive drunk and get a one-game suspension when a regular student would get a semester. Still cheating. #carolinaway
UNC-CHeat
Harry L. Watson, professor of history, said the length of Nyang'oro's term should have been the first red flag.
"I don't know how Professor Nyang'oro got reappointed as chair over and over and over again for 20 years when the normal term for a chair is five years," Watson said.
"I'm absolutely convinced that administrators were able to find out if they had taken the initiative," Watson said. "The idea that everybody who could have known did know, I think is a stretch."
Nyang'oro, like every tenured member of the unc-CH faculty, would have been subject to peer review, too, but Wainstein found that never happened.
"They thought that would be awkward," Wainstein told the board. "So for 20 years, 19 or 20 years, that Nyang'oro was the chair, he was never reviewed by his peers."
University leadership says more than 70 initiatives are already in place.
"We have already gone deeply into transforming our culture and our policies from the top down and bottom up," Folt said.
Still, some faculty wonder.
"How do we know that what we are putting in place is enough?" asked Beth Moracco, associated professor of Health and Behavior.
"Awkward?" Yeah , it woulda been. Athletics was callin' the shots so anyone looking sideways at AFAM or Nyangoro would definitely be targeted for an azzload of "awkward." Amazing that after "70 initiatives" a football player can still drive drunk and get a one-game suspension when a regular student would get a semester. Still cheating. #carolinaway
UNC-CHeat
Another self-report too....
Arkansas Pine Bluff improperly certified student-athletes
Over five academic years, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff failed to monitor and control the administration of its athletics program, according to a decision issued by a Division I Committee on Infractions panel. The university wrongly certified 124 student-athletes for competition, including nine student-athletes that competed before the NCAA Eligibility Center certified their amateur status. The university learned of deficiencies in its eligibility certification process in 2009, but failed to correct the deficiencies, which allowed ineligible student-athletes to continue to compete until 2012.
Penalties include five years of probation; a postseason ban for the football, men's and women's basketball and baseball teams; a vacation of all wins in which ineligible student-athletes participated; and scholarship reductions for 11 of the university's teams.
This case was resolved through the summary disposition process, a cooperative effort where the involved parties collectively submit the case to the Committee on Infractions in written form. The NCAA enforcement staff, university and involved individuals must agree to the facts of the case in order for this process to be utilized instead of having a formal hearing. An expedited penalty hearing was held because the university did not agree to all of the proposed penalties.
The university did not correctly apply progress-toward-degree, degree credit hour, nonqualifier status and two-year transfer requirements when certifying student-athletes as eligible for competition. During the five years, 124 student-athletes practiced, competed or received athletics aid while ineligible, and a majority also received impermissible travel expenses.
From 2007-08 through 2009-10, 19 student-athletes from various teams competed when they did not appear on the official squad lists, contrary to NCAA rules. During the same time period, the university provided books to 15 student-athletes who did not have a book scholarship..
The university did not provide adequate NCAA rules education and training to staff members responsible for certifying student-athlete eligibility. The lack of education and training contributed to the improper eligibility certifications and resulted in ineligible student-athletes participating in hundreds of contests. It also did not establish a proper system to ensure compliance with NCAA eligibility rules. Because of this and the full scope of the violations, the university lacked institutional control and failed to monitor the administration of its athletics program.
Penalties and corrective measures include:
Public reprimand and censure.
Five years of probation from November 5, 2014 through November 4, 2019.
A 2014-15 postseason ban for the football, men's and women's basketball and baseball teams.
A vacation of all wins in which ineligible student-athletes competed during the 2007-08 through 2011-12. The public report contains further details on the vacation.
A reduction in scholarships for baseball; women's and men's track and field; softball; women's soccer; men's golf; women's volleyball; men's and women's basketball; women's tennis; and football. The public report contains more details on the reductions.
A comprehensive compliance review by an outside agency with athletics compliance expertise.
Members of the Committee on Infractions are drawn from NCAA membership and members of the public. The members of the panel who reviewed this case are Greg Christopher, chief hearing officer and athletics director at Xavier University; Thomas Hill, senior vice president for student affairs at Iowa State University; Joel Maturi, former University of Minnesota athletics director; Jim O'Fallon, law professor and faculty athletics representative at the University of Oregon; and Greg Sankey, executive associate commissioner and chief operating officer for the Southeastern Conference.
UNC-CHeat
Arkansas Pine Bluff improperly certified student-athletes
Over five academic years, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff failed to monitor and control the administration of its athletics program, according to a decision issued by a Division I Committee on Infractions panel. The university wrongly certified 124 student-athletes for competition, including nine student-athletes that competed before the NCAA Eligibility Center certified their amateur status. The university learned of deficiencies in its eligibility certification process in 2009, but failed to correct the deficiencies, which allowed ineligible student-athletes to continue to compete until 2012.
Penalties include five years of probation; a postseason ban for the football, men's and women's basketball and baseball teams; a vacation of all wins in which ineligible student-athletes participated; and scholarship reductions for 11 of the university's teams.
This case was resolved through the summary disposition process, a cooperative effort where the involved parties collectively submit the case to the Committee on Infractions in written form. The NCAA enforcement staff, university and involved individuals must agree to the facts of the case in order for this process to be utilized instead of having a formal hearing. An expedited penalty hearing was held because the university did not agree to all of the proposed penalties.
The university did not correctly apply progress-toward-degree, degree credit hour, nonqualifier status and two-year transfer requirements when certifying student-athletes as eligible for competition. During the five years, 124 student-athletes practiced, competed or received athletics aid while ineligible, and a majority also received impermissible travel expenses.
From 2007-08 through 2009-10, 19 student-athletes from various teams competed when they did not appear on the official squad lists, contrary to NCAA rules. During the same time period, the university provided books to 15 student-athletes who did not have a book scholarship..
The university did not provide adequate NCAA rules education and training to staff members responsible for certifying student-athlete eligibility. The lack of education and training contributed to the improper eligibility certifications and resulted in ineligible student-athletes participating in hundreds of contests. It also did not establish a proper system to ensure compliance with NCAA eligibility rules. Because of this and the full scope of the violations, the university lacked institutional control and failed to monitor the administration of its athletics program.
Penalties and corrective measures include:
Public reprimand and censure.
Five years of probation from November 5, 2014 through November 4, 2019.
A 2014-15 postseason ban for the football, men's and women's basketball and baseball teams.
A vacation of all wins in which ineligible student-athletes competed during the 2007-08 through 2011-12. The public report contains further details on the vacation.
A reduction in scholarships for baseball; women's and men's track and field; softball; women's soccer; men's golf; women's volleyball; men's and women's basketball; women's tennis; and football. The public report contains more details on the reductions.
A comprehensive compliance review by an outside agency with athletics compliance expertise.
Members of the Committee on Infractions are drawn from NCAA membership and members of the public. The members of the panel who reviewed this case are Greg Christopher, chief hearing officer and athletics director at Xavier University; Thomas Hill, senior vice president for student affairs at Iowa State University; Joel Maturi, former University of Minnesota athletics director; Jim O'Fallon, law professor and faculty athletics representative at the University of Oregon; and Greg Sankey, executive associate commissioner and chief operating officer for the Southeastern Conference.
UNC-CHeat
Nice....
Former UNC athlete sues school over academic scandal[/B]
A former University of North Carolina football player has become the first to sue the university over an 18-year academic scandal that kept athletes eligible to play sports by taking classes that never met.[/B]
Mike McAdoo was a football player who lost his eligibility in 2011 when he was accused of getting too much help with a paper, and was one of the first athletes revealed to have taken part in "paper classes," for which the only requirement was completing a single paper.
Now he's suing the university in federal court, saying UNC broke its promise to give him an education in return for playing sports. His lawsuit is a class-action suit that the other 3,100 students who enrolled in the fake classes -- nearly half of whom are athletes -- could easily join.
"From selection of a major to selection of courses, the UNC football program controlled football student-athletes' academic track, with the sole purpose of ensuring that football student-athletes were eligible to participate in athletics, rather than actually educating them," says his lawsuit, filed Thursday by the law firms of Ferguson, Chambers & Sumter in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Mehri and Skalet in Washington, D.C.
"UNC has reaped substantial profits from football student-athletes' performance for the school, but it has not provided them a legitimate education in return. As such, UNC has breached its contract with Plaintiff and Class members, in violation of North Carolina common law," wrote his attorney, Jeremi Duru, who is also a professor of law at the Washington College of Law.
McAdoo's story
McAdoo, who spoke to CNN earlier this year, says he was recruited by many schools as a high school senior but chose UNC because he was promised a good education.
"When the coaches and academic staff came to my house all the way in Tennessee, you know they, they wasn't even talking football, they was talking academics," he told CNN earlier this year. "So they were saying, 'You know what, we can't promise your son that he's going to go to the NFL, but one thing that we can promise him is that he will get a college degree.'"
That didn't happen. McAdoo lost his eligibility and never graduated, caught up in the paper class scandal that was known to and used by about two dozen administrators, according to a scathing independent report released last month.
McAdoo was a pretty good student, but his grades and test scores fell much below the average student admitted to UNC, a top national public school with a reputation for rigorous academics and selective admission.
McAdoo's high school GPA was 2.9. Most admitted UNC students have high school GPAs between 3.6 and 4.3, according to the school's website.
The report last month by former federal prosecutor Ken Wainstein followed an eight-month investigation and confirmed what whistleblowers had been saying: Many student athletes were admitted to play sports when they were underprepared for college classes at UNC.
McAdoo told CNN earlier this year that he felt he was scapegoated in 2011, when he was kicked off the team for cheating.
Since 2011, when the fraud first came to light, the university has refused to acknowledge that members of the academic support staff knew about the paper classes and funneled athletes into them in the way that McAdoo described. He insisted they did know, and his story matched that of whistleblower Mary Willingham, who was also disregarded by the university administration for years and is also suing the school.
McAdoo told CNN he had expressed interest in studying criminal justice, but was told on his first day of scheduling that he had to pick from three majors that fit his football schedule -- Exercise and Sport Science, Communications, and African-American Studies, where the paper class scandal existed. McAdoo said his pre-determined schedule included some of the paper classes.
The report done by Wainstein, a partner with Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, found that many of the things McAdoo told CNN were true.
There were, the report said, nearly 30 staffers and administrators who knew about the paper classes, including McAdoo's academic advisor, Beth Bridger. Then-head football coach Butch Davis also acknowledged knowing about the scheme.
"I lost an education. I lost trust in the school -- someone I thought had my best interest. I definitely lost out on two seasons of football which would have put me in a better situation than I am now," McAdoo told CNN shortly after Wainstein's report was made public.
In the suit, Duru asks that a judge appoint someone to make sure that student athletes are no longer forced into certain majors as a condition of playing sports.
"We're not trying to vilify UNC, we're trying to restore one of its greatest traditions," Duru said.
It also seeks some kind of relief for the athletes like McAdoo who did not get the education they were promised.
"Now the key is trying to make it right for those student athletes who were done wrong," Duru said.
What this could mean
McAdoo's lawsuit could potentially uncover even more than the damning Wainstein investigation, which was by far the most thorough and provided a slew of information that had previously been discounted by UNC.
The difference is in the power of subpoena.
McAdoo's lawyers will be able to depose people who declined to talk to Wainstein -- potentially key participants whom Wainstein called out for refusing to cooperate, like the former director of football Cynthia Reynolds and the former interim head football coach Everett Withers.
Withers is now a coach at James Madison University and Reynolds is in academics at Cornell.
The former associate dean and director of the men's basketball team, Carolyn Cannon, and another counselor for football, Octavus Barnes, also refused to cooperate, according to the Wainstein report.
Willingham, who is suing UNC in a whistleblower-related lawsuit, said she also hopes to depose people who were not interviewed by Wainstein's team, such as members of the board of trustees.
"There's still a lot of denial, and Wainstein did not conduct his investigation with anyone under oath, nor did he have subpoena power," Willingham said.
UNC-CHeat
Former UNC athlete sues school over academic scandal[/B]
A former University of North Carolina football player has become the first to sue the university over an 18-year academic scandal that kept athletes eligible to play sports by taking classes that never met.[/B]
Mike McAdoo was a football player who lost his eligibility in 2011 when he was accused of getting too much help with a paper, and was one of the first athletes revealed to have taken part in "paper classes," for which the only requirement was completing a single paper.
Now he's suing the university in federal court, saying UNC broke its promise to give him an education in return for playing sports. His lawsuit is a class-action suit that the other 3,100 students who enrolled in the fake classes -- nearly half of whom are athletes -- could easily join.
"From selection of a major to selection of courses, the UNC football program controlled football student-athletes' academic track, with the sole purpose of ensuring that football student-athletes were eligible to participate in athletics, rather than actually educating them," says his lawsuit, filed Thursday by the law firms of Ferguson, Chambers & Sumter in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Mehri and Skalet in Washington, D.C.
"UNC has reaped substantial profits from football student-athletes' performance for the school, but it has not provided them a legitimate education in return. As such, UNC has breached its contract with Plaintiff and Class members, in violation of North Carolina common law," wrote his attorney, Jeremi Duru, who is also a professor of law at the Washington College of Law.
McAdoo's story
McAdoo, who spoke to CNN earlier this year, says he was recruited by many schools as a high school senior but chose UNC because he was promised a good education.
"When the coaches and academic staff came to my house all the way in Tennessee, you know they, they wasn't even talking football, they was talking academics," he told CNN earlier this year. "So they were saying, 'You know what, we can't promise your son that he's going to go to the NFL, but one thing that we can promise him is that he will get a college degree.'"
That didn't happen. McAdoo lost his eligibility and never graduated, caught up in the paper class scandal that was known to and used by about two dozen administrators, according to a scathing independent report released last month.
McAdoo was a pretty good student, but his grades and test scores fell much below the average student admitted to UNC, a top national public school with a reputation for rigorous academics and selective admission.
McAdoo's high school GPA was 2.9. Most admitted UNC students have high school GPAs between 3.6 and 4.3, according to the school's website.
The report last month by former federal prosecutor Ken Wainstein followed an eight-month investigation and confirmed what whistleblowers had been saying: Many student athletes were admitted to play sports when they were underprepared for college classes at UNC.
McAdoo told CNN earlier this year that he felt he was scapegoated in 2011, when he was kicked off the team for cheating.
Since 2011, when the fraud first came to light, the university has refused to acknowledge that members of the academic support staff knew about the paper classes and funneled athletes into them in the way that McAdoo described. He insisted they did know, and his story matched that of whistleblower Mary Willingham, who was also disregarded by the university administration for years and is also suing the school.
McAdoo told CNN he had expressed interest in studying criminal justice, but was told on his first day of scheduling that he had to pick from three majors that fit his football schedule -- Exercise and Sport Science, Communications, and African-American Studies, where the paper class scandal existed. McAdoo said his pre-determined schedule included some of the paper classes.
The report done by Wainstein, a partner with Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, found that many of the things McAdoo told CNN were true.
There were, the report said, nearly 30 staffers and administrators who knew about the paper classes, including McAdoo's academic advisor, Beth Bridger. Then-head football coach Butch Davis also acknowledged knowing about the scheme.
"I lost an education. I lost trust in the school -- someone I thought had my best interest. I definitely lost out on two seasons of football which would have put me in a better situation than I am now," McAdoo told CNN shortly after Wainstein's report was made public.
In the suit, Duru asks that a judge appoint someone to make sure that student athletes are no longer forced into certain majors as a condition of playing sports.
"We're not trying to vilify UNC, we're trying to restore one of its greatest traditions," Duru said.
It also seeks some kind of relief for the athletes like McAdoo who did not get the education they were promised.
"Now the key is trying to make it right for those student athletes who were done wrong," Duru said.
What this could mean
McAdoo's lawsuit could potentially uncover even more than the damning Wainstein investigation, which was by far the most thorough and provided a slew of information that had previously been discounted by UNC.
The difference is in the power of subpoena.
McAdoo's lawyers will be able to depose people who declined to talk to Wainstein -- potentially key participants whom Wainstein called out for refusing to cooperate, like the former director of football Cynthia Reynolds and the former interim head football coach Everett Withers.
Withers is now a coach at James Madison University and Reynolds is in academics at Cornell.
The former associate dean and director of the men's basketball team, Carolyn Cannon, and another counselor for football, Octavus Barnes, also refused to cooperate, according to the Wainstein report.
Willingham, who is suing UNC in a whistleblower-related lawsuit, said she also hopes to depose people who were not interviewed by Wainstein's team, such as members of the board of trustees.
"There's still a lot of denial, and Wainstein did not conduct his investigation with anyone under oath, nor did he have subpoena power," Willingham said.
UNC-CHeat
manalishi
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Posted: Today 6:11 AM
Re: McAdoo Class Action
This has been in the preparation stages for awhile; unc has been trying hard via back channels to keep it from finally happening, but to no avail.
Wainstein was the first time they REALLY came to realize that their money can't buy their way out of every single lie. The price tag on this particular buyout just went way up.
Still a couple of other airdrops to go, as well. If those come to fruition, then this McAdoo stuff will one day be looked back on as simply the advance force.
Finally: it will be interesting to see what kind of advice the PR mercs give the university now. And more amusingly, whether the school can figure out which one (or two?) of the 14 has essentially become part of a net.
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Posted: Today 6:11 AM
Re: McAdoo Class Action
This has been in the preparation stages for awhile; unc has been trying hard via back channels to keep it from finally happening, but to no avail.
Wainstein was the first time they REALLY came to realize that their money can't buy their way out of every single lie. The price tag on this particular buyout just went way up.
Still a couple of other airdrops to go, as well. If those come to fruition, then this McAdoo stuff will one day be looked back on as simply the advance force.
Finally: it will be interesting to see what kind of advice the PR mercs give the university now. And more amusingly, whether the school can figure out which one (or two?) of the 14 has essentially become part of a net.
NCAA should punish the University of North carolina for cheating scandal
The University of North carolina has acknowledged that a vast scheme of fake classes operated at the school for nearly two decades.
More than 3,000 students - about half of them athletes - got credit for classes that required no attendance or significant work and were not supervised by a professor. Hundreds of fraternity brothers enrolled in the courses, but the main beneficiaries were football and basketball players. Fake grades were written for fake courses to keep the players academically eligible to participate in North carolina Tar Heel sports.
According to a report recently released by the university, counselors steered athletes to the African Studies department, where one employee, identified as Deborah Crowder, created the fake classes. The chairman of the department, Julius Nyang'oro, reportedly became aware of the scheme. Both have left the university.
The quality of the work done by students was irrelevant. The courses existed solely to boost the grade point averages of struggling students. The extent of the scheme didn't become more broadly known at the university until Crowder retired in 2009 and football players' GPAs started dropping. The scam finally ended in 2011 when media reports spurred the administration to investigate.
How did the scheme last so long? The report blames a lack of scrutiny by administrators. When a university official noticed around 2005 that the department was responsible for supervising 300 independent study projects a year, the employee and the department's head scaled back the phony courses. Nobody asked how one professor could supervise 300 independent projects, each of which should have involved original research.
So the NCAA, which governs college athletics, faces a particular challenge. It has sanctioned universities for various kinds of rule-breaking in athletic recruitment and fraud in academics. It likely has never dealt with an academic fraud that was practiced so broadly and systematically for such a long period of time.
Should North carolina forfeit every victory in every sport for the nearly two-decade run of this fraud? Schools that competed against North carolina presumably played by the rules - athletes competed when those athletes were students in good standing.
The NCAA forced Southern Methodist University to cancel an entire season of football in the 1980s after the school was caught in an extended scheme of illicit payments to players. But the NCAA has not since then imposed the so-called death penalty, even in some truly scandalous cases.
The most damaging evidence here is that the North carolina phony course scheme carried on for so many years and involved so many students, yet didn't come to light until the, um, quarterback of the scheme quit her job. Every graduate who went to school during the phony-class era now faces the embarrassing question: How much of your degree did you really earn?
The NCAA should come down hard on North carolina.
UNC-CHeat
The University of North carolina has acknowledged that a vast scheme of fake classes operated at the school for nearly two decades.
More than 3,000 students - about half of them athletes - got credit for classes that required no attendance or significant work and were not supervised by a professor. Hundreds of fraternity brothers enrolled in the courses, but the main beneficiaries were football and basketball players. Fake grades were written for fake courses to keep the players academically eligible to participate in North carolina Tar Heel sports.
According to a report recently released by the university, counselors steered athletes to the African Studies department, where one employee, identified as Deborah Crowder, created the fake classes. The chairman of the department, Julius Nyang'oro, reportedly became aware of the scheme. Both have left the university.
The quality of the work done by students was irrelevant. The courses existed solely to boost the grade point averages of struggling students. The extent of the scheme didn't become more broadly known at the university until Crowder retired in 2009 and football players' GPAs started dropping. The scam finally ended in 2011 when media reports spurred the administration to investigate.
How did the scheme last so long? The report blames a lack of scrutiny by administrators. When a university official noticed around 2005 that the department was responsible for supervising 300 independent study projects a year, the employee and the department's head scaled back the phony courses. Nobody asked how one professor could supervise 300 independent projects, each of which should have involved original research.
So the NCAA, which governs college athletics, faces a particular challenge. It has sanctioned universities for various kinds of rule-breaking in athletic recruitment and fraud in academics. It likely has never dealt with an academic fraud that was practiced so broadly and systematically for such a long period of time.
Should North carolina forfeit every victory in every sport for the nearly two-decade run of this fraud? Schools that competed against North carolina presumably played by the rules - athletes competed when those athletes were students in good standing.
The NCAA forced Southern Methodist University to cancel an entire season of football in the 1980s after the school was caught in an extended scheme of illicit payments to players. But the NCAA has not since then imposed the so-called death penalty, even in some truly scandalous cases.
The most damaging evidence here is that the North carolina phony course scheme carried on for so many years and involved so many students, yet didn't come to light until the, um, quarterback of the scheme quit her job. Every graduate who went to school during the phony-class era now faces the embarrassing question: How much of your degree did you really earn?
The NCAA should come down hard on North carolina.
UNC-CHeat
Kane....
2005 UNC basketball champs: 2 semesters, 35 bogus 'paper' classes
During the season that the UNC men's basketball team made its run to the 2005 NCAA championship, its players accounted for 35 enrollments in classes that didn't meet and yielded easy, high grades awarded by the architect of the university's academic scandal.
The classes, some advertised as lectures but that never met and others listed as independent studies, were supervised by Deborah Crowder, a manager in African and Afro-American studies whoa report from former U.S. Justice Department official Kenneth Wainstein says graded required end-of-semester work leniently as part of a "paper class" scheme to keep athletes eligible. Crowder was not a professor and admitted to investigators that she assigned grades without reading the papers.
Of the 35 bogus class enrollments, nine came during the fall semester of 2004, when eligibility for the spring was determined. Twenty-six were during the spring semester, when the season climaxed with a victory over Illinois in St. Louis.
One of the basketball players, Rashad McCants, had previously told ESPN he took nothing but paper classes in the spring 2005 semester. His transcript showed he was in three independent studies plus one lecture class that had no instruction. He received straight A-minuses, making the dean's list.
The N&O reported in June that five members of the championship team, including four key players, had relied heavily on the paper classes: 52 enrollments during their time at UNC. The Wainstein documents, however, have more detail and show a heavy concentration during the spring semester of 2005, when the team was driving toward a national title.
That semester alone raises questions about whether the team enjoyed a competitive advantage, simply because players didn't have to attend many classes and were guaranteed high grades. At least five players took three bogus classes each, the Wainstein documents show.
In the preceding semester, fall 2004, the team accounted for nine enrollments in five bogus classes, including one with four players attending. Three players took at least one independent study, the records show.
At least half of the 2,500 independent studies generated by the department over the life of the scandal had no instructor and were created by Crowder, the Wainstein report found.
The new information is likely to draw scrutiny from the NCAA, which reopened its investigation this summer, shortly after ESPN and The N&O reported the heavy involvement in paper classes by the basketball team.
UNC Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham has said the NCAA is reviewing athlete transcripts as part of its investigation.
The Wainstein documents also reveal a friendly relationship between Crowder and Wayne Walden, coach Roy Williams' hand-picked academic counselor for the basketball team.
They show the two working together to get players into the classes and Walden providing tickets and other team freebies to Crowder.
Walden told investigators he was aware that Crowder was grading the papers, but he said he can't recall telling Williams.
Paper classes packed
The documents are among roughly 1,100 pages of supporting material released along with the 131-page report that UNC made public Oct. 22.
They illustrate the depths of an 18-year scandal that experts say is the biggest academic fraud in college athletics. Nearly half of the 3,100 students in the classes were athletes, and the report cites pressure from the Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes as a driver behind the classes.
The Wainstein report does not identify which athletes took how many paper classes, nor does it break out the number of athletes by sport who took them each semester. Wainstein said he was prohibited from releasing that information by the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a law that universities have repeatedly used to shield most education records.
But the report does show the number of enrollments by class and by semester for the three sports that used them the most: football, and men's and women's basketball. For a men's basketball team that typically includes about 15 players a year, the numbers are substantial.
In the 18 years of paper classes, men's basketball players accounted for 363 enrollments, an average of 20 enrollments per year.
The football team accounted for 1,377 enrollments during that period, but the football team has roughly nine times the number of athletes.
The Wainstein report shows that from 2000 through 2007, five or more basketball players were enrolled in each of 16 lecture-style classes that had been quietly converted into no-show classes. Twelve of them took place after Williams arrived at UNC in 2003 to coach the team.
Basketball players continued to enroll in sizable numbers until the spring 2008 semester. From there, the enrollments slowed to no more than five a semester.
Williams' changing story
The N&O's reporting revealed the scandal in 2011, but Williams, for a long time, provided little detail as to what he knew about the classes. Numerous times he said he was proud of the academic experience his players received.
"Our track record is pretty doggone good," Williams told a Charlotte radio station on Aug. 15, 2012. "And our track record has been pretty doggone good for 15 years at Kansas, nine years at North Carolina. And we know how much we emphasize the academic side in the basketball office. We know what our guys are majoring in. We know - every day we're in touch with those kids. So it's something, again, that I'm very proud of."
Four months later, at a press conference, an N&O reporter asked Williams why his players had stopped taking AFAM paper classes by the start of the fall 2009 semester. Was it because Crowder had retired, or did someone in the program notice something wrong?
Williams responded: "You say we either did something, or we didn't do something. Maybe guys, girls, just decided not to take certain classes."
The athletic department later adopted that same position, with spokesman Steve Kirschner saying in a statement on Nov. 16, 2012: "Different players have different interests."
When Wainstein's report came out, it included new information from Williams that provided a possible explanation why his players weren't enrolling in AFAM classes.
He told Wainstein's investigators that shortly after he arrived at UNC, he was concerned that so many of his athletes were majoring in AFAM; the 2005 team alone had 10 of 15 players with that major. He said he told one of his assistant coaches, Joe Holladay, to make sure they weren't being steered to the major.
The report also said Williams knew McCants took "three or four" independent study courses in the spring 2005 semester. McCants took three that were listed as an independent study. The fourth was identified as AFAM 65, Topics in Afro-American Studies. That, too, was a paper class. In the Wainstein report, Williams said he told Holladay to emphasize that his players should be in lecture classes instead of independent study.
After the Wainstein report came out, Williams said in two news conferences that he was concerned about his players clustering in a major. Records show they continued to cluster in another popular major, Communications, while many others were listed as undeclared.
Kirschner said in an email that Williams would not be made available for an interview. Kirschner stood by his November 2012 statement.
UNC spokesman Joel Curran said Friday that the university would not respond to questions until the NCAA investigation is completed.
Crowder helps Walden
Wayne Walden was the academic counselor for the basketball program when the team won the 2005 championship and another in 2009. Williams brought him from Kansas in 2003, where he held a similar position.
Walden told Wainstein he knew students enrolled in the AFAM classes had no contact with faculty, and he thought Crowder "probably was doing some of the grading."
But he said he saw nothing wrong with the classes because nonathletes also were enrolled. He said he also didn't recall telling Williams or Holladay.
Walden left UNC in 2009, about the same time Crowder retired. He married and moved to Texas to work for a health care company. In a short phone interview with The N&O in September 2011, Walden said he was unaware of any easy professors or easy classes within the AFAM department.
"No, I wouldn't say there's go-to classes or anything like that," Walden said.
The correspondence between Walden and Crowder shows numerous efforts to set up athletes in "independent studies." It is unclear how many of them are men's basketball players; Walden also counseled athletes in volleyball, swimming and diving.
In one email, Crowder seemed to be taking care to not have too many athletes in any one class. She wrote that she could place an athlete in an independent study because "I have added several non-athletic persons ..."
In another, from Sept. 20, 2005, Walden was seeking an independent study for a student who struggled to learn. Crowder put him in a paper class despite his lacking an introductory course from the department.
"We have a student with some diagnosed learning disabilities and we are trying to help him with his reading and writing skills while also tutoring him in his current courses," Walden wrote. "I sense that he is getting a little overwhelmed and wondered if there might be a course that you would recommend that he might still be able to add in order that he might drop one of his current courses."
Crowder agreed to enroll the student, even as she noted that "(w)e are getting pressure from on-high to reduce the numbers of independent study type courses."
The emails also show a tight relationship between Crowder and Walden. He offered her tickets to games, which she accepted, and he gave her team paraphernalia such as clothing, calendars and posters. Crowder told Walden in 2004 that his predecessor, Burgess McSwain, would drop off team calendars and posters for her to distribute.
They went, she wrote, to "some of the various and sundry people who helped keep these guys in school."[/B]
Geez Louise! Volleyball , swimming and diving too?! I realize that's not the big "takeaway" from that but it illustrates just how pervasive the fraud was. By my count , ya got those 3 plus football , men's/women's basketball , women's soccer , baseball and women's softball. Just burn it down. Seriously. Board the windows , chain the doors , nuke it from space and salt the earth. It's the only way to be sure.
UNC-CHeat
2005 UNC basketball champs: 2 semesters, 35 bogus 'paper' classes
During the season that the UNC men's basketball team made its run to the 2005 NCAA championship, its players accounted for 35 enrollments in classes that didn't meet and yielded easy, high grades awarded by the architect of the university's academic scandal.
The classes, some advertised as lectures but that never met and others listed as independent studies, were supervised by Deborah Crowder, a manager in African and Afro-American studies whoa report from former U.S. Justice Department official Kenneth Wainstein says graded required end-of-semester work leniently as part of a "paper class" scheme to keep athletes eligible. Crowder was not a professor and admitted to investigators that she assigned grades without reading the papers.
Of the 35 bogus class enrollments, nine came during the fall semester of 2004, when eligibility for the spring was determined. Twenty-six were during the spring semester, when the season climaxed with a victory over Illinois in St. Louis.
One of the basketball players, Rashad McCants, had previously told ESPN he took nothing but paper classes in the spring 2005 semester. His transcript showed he was in three independent studies plus one lecture class that had no instruction. He received straight A-minuses, making the dean's list.
The N&O reported in June that five members of the championship team, including four key players, had relied heavily on the paper classes: 52 enrollments during their time at UNC. The Wainstein documents, however, have more detail and show a heavy concentration during the spring semester of 2005, when the team was driving toward a national title.
That semester alone raises questions about whether the team enjoyed a competitive advantage, simply because players didn't have to attend many classes and were guaranteed high grades. At least five players took three bogus classes each, the Wainstein documents show.
In the preceding semester, fall 2004, the team accounted for nine enrollments in five bogus classes, including one with four players attending. Three players took at least one independent study, the records show.
At least half of the 2,500 independent studies generated by the department over the life of the scandal had no instructor and were created by Crowder, the Wainstein report found.
The new information is likely to draw scrutiny from the NCAA, which reopened its investigation this summer, shortly after ESPN and The N&O reported the heavy involvement in paper classes by the basketball team.
UNC Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham has said the NCAA is reviewing athlete transcripts as part of its investigation.
The Wainstein documents also reveal a friendly relationship between Crowder and Wayne Walden, coach Roy Williams' hand-picked academic counselor for the basketball team.
They show the two working together to get players into the classes and Walden providing tickets and other team freebies to Crowder.
Walden told investigators he was aware that Crowder was grading the papers, but he said he can't recall telling Williams.
Paper classes packed
The documents are among roughly 1,100 pages of supporting material released along with the 131-page report that UNC made public Oct. 22.
They illustrate the depths of an 18-year scandal that experts say is the biggest academic fraud in college athletics. Nearly half of the 3,100 students in the classes were athletes, and the report cites pressure from the Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes as a driver behind the classes.
The Wainstein report does not identify which athletes took how many paper classes, nor does it break out the number of athletes by sport who took them each semester. Wainstein said he was prohibited from releasing that information by the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a law that universities have repeatedly used to shield most education records.
But the report does show the number of enrollments by class and by semester for the three sports that used them the most: football, and men's and women's basketball. For a men's basketball team that typically includes about 15 players a year, the numbers are substantial.
In the 18 years of paper classes, men's basketball players accounted for 363 enrollments, an average of 20 enrollments per year.
The football team accounted for 1,377 enrollments during that period, but the football team has roughly nine times the number of athletes.
The Wainstein report shows that from 2000 through 2007, five or more basketball players were enrolled in each of 16 lecture-style classes that had been quietly converted into no-show classes. Twelve of them took place after Williams arrived at UNC in 2003 to coach the team.
Basketball players continued to enroll in sizable numbers until the spring 2008 semester. From there, the enrollments slowed to no more than five a semester.
Williams' changing story
The N&O's reporting revealed the scandal in 2011, but Williams, for a long time, provided little detail as to what he knew about the classes. Numerous times he said he was proud of the academic experience his players received.
"Our track record is pretty doggone good," Williams told a Charlotte radio station on Aug. 15, 2012. "And our track record has been pretty doggone good for 15 years at Kansas, nine years at North Carolina. And we know how much we emphasize the academic side in the basketball office. We know what our guys are majoring in. We know - every day we're in touch with those kids. So it's something, again, that I'm very proud of."
Four months later, at a press conference, an N&O reporter asked Williams why his players had stopped taking AFAM paper classes by the start of the fall 2009 semester. Was it because Crowder had retired, or did someone in the program notice something wrong?
Williams responded: "You say we either did something, or we didn't do something. Maybe guys, girls, just decided not to take certain classes."
The athletic department later adopted that same position, with spokesman Steve Kirschner saying in a statement on Nov. 16, 2012: "Different players have different interests."
When Wainstein's report came out, it included new information from Williams that provided a possible explanation why his players weren't enrolling in AFAM classes.
He told Wainstein's investigators that shortly after he arrived at UNC, he was concerned that so many of his athletes were majoring in AFAM; the 2005 team alone had 10 of 15 players with that major. He said he told one of his assistant coaches, Joe Holladay, to make sure they weren't being steered to the major.
The report also said Williams knew McCants took "three or four" independent study courses in the spring 2005 semester. McCants took three that were listed as an independent study. The fourth was identified as AFAM 65, Topics in Afro-American Studies. That, too, was a paper class. In the Wainstein report, Williams said he told Holladay to emphasize that his players should be in lecture classes instead of independent study.
After the Wainstein report came out, Williams said in two news conferences that he was concerned about his players clustering in a major. Records show they continued to cluster in another popular major, Communications, while many others were listed as undeclared.
Kirschner said in an email that Williams would not be made available for an interview. Kirschner stood by his November 2012 statement.
UNC spokesman Joel Curran said Friday that the university would not respond to questions until the NCAA investigation is completed.
Crowder helps Walden
Wayne Walden was the academic counselor for the basketball program when the team won the 2005 championship and another in 2009. Williams brought him from Kansas in 2003, where he held a similar position.
Walden told Wainstein he knew students enrolled in the AFAM classes had no contact with faculty, and he thought Crowder "probably was doing some of the grading."
But he said he saw nothing wrong with the classes because nonathletes also were enrolled. He said he also didn't recall telling Williams or Holladay.
Walden left UNC in 2009, about the same time Crowder retired. He married and moved to Texas to work for a health care company. In a short phone interview with The N&O in September 2011, Walden said he was unaware of any easy professors or easy classes within the AFAM department.
"No, I wouldn't say there's go-to classes or anything like that," Walden said.
The correspondence between Walden and Crowder shows numerous efforts to set up athletes in "independent studies." It is unclear how many of them are men's basketball players; Walden also counseled athletes in volleyball, swimming and diving.
In one email, Crowder seemed to be taking care to not have too many athletes in any one class. She wrote that she could place an athlete in an independent study because "I have added several non-athletic persons ..."
In another, from Sept. 20, 2005, Walden was seeking an independent study for a student who struggled to learn. Crowder put him in a paper class despite his lacking an introductory course from the department.
"We have a student with some diagnosed learning disabilities and we are trying to help him with his reading and writing skills while also tutoring him in his current courses," Walden wrote. "I sense that he is getting a little overwhelmed and wondered if there might be a course that you would recommend that he might still be able to add in order that he might drop one of his current courses."
Crowder agreed to enroll the student, even as she noted that "(w)e are getting pressure from on-high to reduce the numbers of independent study type courses."
The emails also show a tight relationship between Crowder and Walden. He offered her tickets to games, which she accepted, and he gave her team paraphernalia such as clothing, calendars and posters. Crowder told Walden in 2004 that his predecessor, Burgess McSwain, would drop off team calendars and posters for her to distribute.
They went, she wrote, to "some of the various and sundry people who helped keep these guys in school."[/B]
Geez Louise! Volleyball , swimming and diving too?! I realize that's not the big "takeaway" from that but it illustrates just how pervasive the fraud was. By my count , ya got those 3 plus football , men's/women's basketball , women's soccer , baseball and women's softball. Just burn it down. Seriously. Board the windows , chain the doors , nuke it from space and salt the earth. It's the only way to be sure.
UNC-CHeat
Gawd. Insufferable.....
I have constructed an exam that I am proposing all unc faculty members be required to pass before being permitted to comment on the Wainstein Report publicly. Misinformation hinders democratic participation because it undermines our ability to form sound opinions. Hodding Carter, Jay Smith, and Harry Watson have contributed to the spread of misinformation by pontificating on the implications of the Wainstein Report as if they had actually read it closely. I implore them and others to shut their mouths unless they can pass this exam, which, actually should not be difficult. I have made it very easy.
B-Rad's an idiot
I have constructed an exam that I am proposing all unc faculty members be required to pass before being permitted to comment on the Wainstein Report publicly. Misinformation hinders democratic participation because it undermines our ability to form sound opinions. Hodding Carter, Jay Smith, and Harry Watson have contributed to the spread of misinformation by pontificating on the implications of the Wainstein Report as if they had actually read it closely. I implore them and others to shut their mouths unless they can pass this exam, which, actually should not be difficult. I have made it very easy.
B-Rad's an idiot
Faculty needs to stand up for unc-CH's academic mission
While it is encouraging to see the faculty at unc-Chapel Hill engaged in a dialogue about the Wainstein report, it's frustrating that some faculty members see this as some sort of intellectual exercise.
Rather than jawboning the issue to death, faculty members should be strong and united behind a simple principle: The university must fix and hereafter protect the integrity of the academic mission no matter what the cost of that principle may be to the athletics program. Period.
Instead, some faculty members who attended a recent meeting to discuss the report wondered whether it's possible to bring the athletics beast, a multimillion-dollar enterprise, under control. Others blamed the academic scandal involving athletics on a culture that values winning above everything, suggesting the cause is too pervasive at unc-CH and elsewhere to eliminate.
Faculty rebuke
The faculty's lack of protest and action as the decades-long problem with phony classes began to emerge was appropriately challenged in April by some esteemed former faculty members. More than 30 of them signed a letter to The News & Observer stating in part that the current faculty seemed to have shirked its obligation to speak out.
"The failure to confront these questions suggests a faculty that has abdicated its responsibilities," the retired professors wrote.
That was an extraordinary rebuke, and should have gotten the attention of faculty members and administrators alike, but it made just a ripple.
There is a sad irony in the faculty's role in the scandal. Many faculty members who participated in meetings about athletics are tenured, their jobs protected. But the one person who courageously spoke out first and foremost about the academic abuses was Mary Willingham, a former academic adviser well down the totem pole of those who teach at unc-CH. The response from some of her colleagues in education was criticism, and perhaps even worse, silence.
Work called 'unworthy'
After Willingham told CNN that her research found some athletes reading and writing at an elementary school level, unc Provost Jim Dean attacked the quality of her work.
"Using this data set to say that our students can't read is a travesty and unworthy of this university," he told a faculty meeting in January, "These claims have been unfair to the students, unfair to the admissions officers, unfair to the university."
Dean owes Willingham an apology, as does Chancellor Carol Folt, who stood with Dean at that meeting. Willingham did not have the job protections that full-time senior faculty have, and yet she stood up and spoke truth.
Kenneth Wainstein, the Washington attorney who led a definitive probe of phony classes often taken by athletes, certified the extent and depth of the academic fraud that alarmed Willingham and drove her to speak out.
Now some faculty members are hedging on what stance they should take to take. They wonder if they have a role in setting academic standards for athletes or the power to make a difference. They do and they should.
In responding to the report, the faculty should now be as assertive as it was previously passive. It should insist that breaks for athletes be eliminated, that coaches be held accountable and that all faculty members fulfill their duty to be guardians of the university's academic integrity.
UNC-CHeat
While it is encouraging to see the faculty at unc-Chapel Hill engaged in a dialogue about the Wainstein report, it's frustrating that some faculty members see this as some sort of intellectual exercise.
Rather than jawboning the issue to death, faculty members should be strong and united behind a simple principle: The university must fix and hereafter protect the integrity of the academic mission no matter what the cost of that principle may be to the athletics program. Period.
Instead, some faculty members who attended a recent meeting to discuss the report wondered whether it's possible to bring the athletics beast, a multimillion-dollar enterprise, under control. Others blamed the academic scandal involving athletics on a culture that values winning above everything, suggesting the cause is too pervasive at unc-CH and elsewhere to eliminate.
Faculty rebuke
The faculty's lack of protest and action as the decades-long problem with phony classes began to emerge was appropriately challenged in April by some esteemed former faculty members. More than 30 of them signed a letter to The News & Observer stating in part that the current faculty seemed to have shirked its obligation to speak out.
"The failure to confront these questions suggests a faculty that has abdicated its responsibilities," the retired professors wrote.
That was an extraordinary rebuke, and should have gotten the attention of faculty members and administrators alike, but it made just a ripple.
There is a sad irony in the faculty's role in the scandal. Many faculty members who participated in meetings about athletics are tenured, their jobs protected. But the one person who courageously spoke out first and foremost about the academic abuses was Mary Willingham, a former academic adviser well down the totem pole of those who teach at unc-CH. The response from some of her colleagues in education was criticism, and perhaps even worse, silence.
Work called 'unworthy'
After Willingham told CNN that her research found some athletes reading and writing at an elementary school level, unc Provost Jim Dean attacked the quality of her work.
"Using this data set to say that our students can't read is a travesty and unworthy of this university," he told a faculty meeting in January, "These claims have been unfair to the students, unfair to the admissions officers, unfair to the university."
Dean owes Willingham an apology, as does Chancellor Carol Folt, who stood with Dean at that meeting. Willingham did not have the job protections that full-time senior faculty have, and yet she stood up and spoke truth.
Kenneth Wainstein, the Washington attorney who led a definitive probe of phony classes often taken by athletes, certified the extent and depth of the academic fraud that alarmed Willingham and drove her to speak out.
Now some faculty members are hedging on what stance they should take to take. They wonder if they have a role in setting academic standards for athletes or the power to make a difference. They do and they should.
In responding to the report, the faculty should now be as assertive as it was previously passive. It should insist that breaks for athletes be eliminated, that coaches be held accountable and that all faculty members fulfill their duty to be guardians of the university's academic integrity.
UNC-CHeat
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