The University of North Carolina academic-athletic scandal involved alleged fraud and academic dishonesty committed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). [1] Following a lesser scandal that began in 2010 involving academic fraud and improper benefits with the university's football program, two hundred questionable classes offered by the university's African and Afro-American Studies department (commonly known as AFAM) came to light. As a result, the university was placed on probation by its accrediting agency.
An internal investigation by the university released in 2011 and another investigation commissioned by former North Carolina governor Jim Martin in 2012 found numerous academic and ethical issues with the AFAM department, including unauthorized grade changes and faculty signatures, a disproportionate number of independent study class offerings relative to other departments, and an over-representation of student-athletes enrolled in such classes. In 2014, a series of charges and counter-charges began between university officials and former learning specialist Mary Willingham, including disputes about statistics and methods of analysis by Willingham alleging that certain student-athletes were not academically qualified for college. [2] As a result of these revelations, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools placed the university on probation for one year, endangering the university's regional accreditation. Losing accreditation would have resulted in the loss of any federal funding or support.
The university introduced new standards, protocols and rules to prevent misadministration within academic departments in the future. As a result, UNC exited probation and regained full standing by June 2016. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) then completed its own investigation in October 2017, finding no violations of its rules, largely due to the fact that the NCAA does not have oversight authority for university academic programs. [3]
The controversy sparked debate as to whether the university educated some of its student-athletes improperly and called into question the role of NCAA Division I athletics relative to the academic mission of NCAA-member colleges and universities. [4]
Greg Barnes of Inside Carolina initially broke the scandal with ESPN following closely behind. On July 15, 2010, ESPN reported that the NCAA interviewed several North Carolina football players over alleged gifts, extra benefits, and sports agent involvement. [5] Reportedly, the investigation began after North Carolina defensive tackle Marvin Austin made a post on Twitter on May 29, 2010, containing a reference to a nightclub in Miami in which a sports agent's party had taken place two months earlier. [6] The university later suspended Austin and over ten other football players from the team. [7] [8] On October 11, 2010, Austin was dismissed from the football team, and the NCAA declared wide receiver Greg Little and defensive end Robert Quinn "permanently ineligible" due to receiving improper benefits. [7]
On August 26, 2010, the NCAA began a separate investigation of North Carolina football that involved possible academic fraud involving a tutor in the university's academic support program. The tutor was later identified as Jennifer Wiley (as of 2013 [update] known as Jennifer Wiley Thompson due to marriage). [9] [10] Another source familiar with the investigation said that Wiley was accused of "inappropriate help on papers that football players were required to write for classes." [9] However, Baddour said on September 24 that Wiley declined to cooperate with the NCAA. [9]
Because the university felt that the NCAA investigation was extremely embarrassing to its reputation, North Carolina fired football head coach Butch Davis on July 27, 2011. [11] The next day, athletic director Dick Baddour announced that he would resign and allow chancellor Holden Thorp to hire a new football head coach. [12]
On March 12, 2012, the NCAA issued formal sanctions against North Carolina football: a postseason ban for the 2012 season, reductions of 15 scholarships, and 3 years of probation. [13] The NCAA found North Carolina guilty of multiple infractions, including academic fraud and failure to monitor the football program. [13] However, the NCAA did not find more serious violations amounting to what would constitute a lack of institutional control, explaining that the university "educated its tutors regarding academic improprieties and its coaches regarding outside athletically related income ... self-discovered the academic fraud and took decisive action ... cooperated fully, is not a repeat violator and ... exhibited appropriate control over its athletics program." [14] In November 2013, the university sent a letter of disassociation to Austin, Little, and Quinn. [15]
The crux of the alleged irregularities proceeded from the UNC Department of African and Afro-American Studies. Over approximately fifteen years, the department offered two hundred independent study courses, many without full adherence to University procedure for course provisioning or sufficient professorial oversight. The irregularities called into question the department's academic integrity and led to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools putting the university on academic probation for one year, a rare action against a major research university. [16]
A basic charge by critics was that UNC did not live up to its end of the bargain by not sufficiently educating some of its student-athletes. [2] Rebecca Schuman of Slate.com accused the university of "abjectly failing some of its students" by keeping them "functionally illiterate." [17]
Gerald Gurney, president of the Drake Group for Academic Integrity in College Sport, called UNC "the mother of all academic fraud violations" because of "cooperation of friendly faculty and [a] cover-up." [18] Paul M. Barrett, in a cover story for the March 3, 2014 edition of Bloomberg Businessweek magazine, wrote: "... rather than seriously investigate the connection between sports and classroom corruption, top university administrators used vague committee reports to obfuscate the issue." [2] Reporter Dan Kane of the News & Observer was part of a three-person investigative team that exposed the scandal, causing UNC fans and some faculty to accuse Kane of conducting a witch hunt for a conspiracy that did not exist. [19]
In a 2021 article about the scandal, journalist and UNC alum Andy Thomason concluded that no nefarious individuals could be blamed for the scandal, but instead the substandard classes were the result of a series of decisions by multiple people, mostly well-intentioned, operating for years under the powerful forces of money-making college athletics. [20]
Suspicions about the UNC Department of African and Afro-American Studies were raised as early as 2011. UNC defensive end Michael McAdoo filed a lawsuit against the NCAA on July 1, 2011, seeking reinstatement to the football team. [21] The NCAA declared McAdoo ineligible for accepting improper benefits and committing academic fraud, based on the UNC Undergraduate Honor Court finding that McAdoo committed academic dishonesty by having Jennifer Wiley complete a bibliography and works-cited section on a research paper for an AFAM class. [21] From this lawsuit, McAdoo was forced to make public the paper; an analysis by Dan Kane of the Raleigh News & Observer found that the Honor Court failed to find multiple instances of plagiarism in McAdoo's paper. [22] On July 13, a North Carolina Superior Court judge in Durham refused to grant an injunction against the NCAA, thus upholding ineligibility for McAdoo. [22]
Then in August, Dan Kane reported that football player Marvin Austin took a 400-level course in the department the summer before his freshman fall semester. According to an academic adviser at the university, "it is unusual for any freshman to begin his or her college education with a 400 level course." [23] On September 1, 2011, just over a week after Kane's article about Austin's transcript was published, AFAM department chair Julius Nyang'oro resigned from his executive position but remained on faculty. [24]
More controversy for AFAM came after the transcript of former North Carolina football and basketball player Julius Peppers was found under a University of North Carolina web address (www.unc.edu) by members of PackPride, a Scout.com community for fans of rival school NC State. [25] [26] A university staffer originally posted the transcript with Peppers's identifying information removed on a secure UNC server as a test record in 2001. Six years later, another staffer mistakenly moved the test record to an unsecured server. [26] The transcript showed a cumulative grade point average of 1.82 from the summer 1998 to spring 2001 terms with 11 grades of D or F. [25] Additionally, Peppers's grades for AFAM classes were on average higher than for non-AFAM classes, and Peppers was never academically ineligible for athletic competition despite his grades. [27] Through his agent, Peppers confirmed that the transcript was his and stated that there was "no academic fraud." [28] University chancellor Holden Thorp later apologized to Peppers. [26]
On May 2, 2012, UNC released the results of an internal investigation into AFAM courses commissioned by Jonathan Hartlyn, senior associate dean for social sciences and global programs, and William L. Andrews, senior associate dean for fine arts and humanities. [29] The report examined AFAM classes from the summer 2007 to summer 2011 sessions. [30] Among the findings in the Hartlyn-Andrews report:
On December 19, 2012, UNC released a report, commissioned by former North Carolina governor Jim Martin, in collaboration with accounting firm Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP. The report examined data back to the 1990s. Among its findings:
There were felony fraud charges brought against Nyang'oro for being paid $12,000 to teach a non-existent class, but these charges were dropped by the Orange County district attorney based on recommendations from Kenneth Wainstein in exchange for Nyang'oro's cooperation. [18]
The athletic scholarship is just a lottery ticket with room and board, and a few concussions. Or, if you like Willy Wonka, it's the golden ticket to win a tour here at our factory – where, by the way, you might get injured, or damaged. And there's no insurance, no worker's comp and no salary for your labor.
— Mary Willingham, in 2014 [36]
One of the academic tutors assigned to help student-athletes was Mary Willingham, who was hired by the university in 2003 to assist student-athletes with their academic work. [37] Willingham's 2009 Master of Arts thesis for the University of North Carolina at Greensboro was titled Academics & athletics - a clash of cultures: Division I football programs and asserted in part: "While admission standards are on the rise at major public universities, many under-prepared student-athletes (football) are admitted each year because they are the 'best' player in the state/country, creating academic disparities." [38] In a November 2012 interview with Dan Kane of The News & Observer , Willingham made her initial claims about the university helping student-athletes stay eligible via improper assistance. [2] [37] In 2013, the Drake Group gave Willingham the Robert Maynard Hutchins Award for being "a university faculty or staff member who defends the institution's academic integrity in the face of college athletics." [36] [39]
In early 2014, Willingham approached national media to express her concerns about the university. In interviews with Sara Ganim of CNN in January and Paul M. Barrett of Bloomberg Businessweek in March, Willingham alleged:
In response to Willingham's claims about student-athlete literacy, UNC released another report by a board of educational experts outside the university that examined data between 2004 and 2012. That report found that there were 341 men's and women's basketball players and football players during these years; of this group, 34 students did not meet CNN's threshold of being "college literate", which meant a minimum SAT reading score of 400 or an ACT score of 16; essentially, the university suggested that of its athletes, ten percent had academic issues. [40] This is in contrast with the allegation by Mary Willingham, based on her personal investigations, that 60% of college athletes were not "college literate". [40] In another of her analyses, she found that 150 to 200 of 400 student-athletes were "underperforming", some "badly underperforming", with the last group being mostly made of men's and women's players of basketball and football. [2] One view suggested that the university's response to these and other allegations was to try to change the focus away from wrongdoing, in part by challenging Willingham's assertions and research. [41] The review board disputed her findings on the grounds that her methodology was not appropriate. [40]
Willingham was also interviewed by Bernard Goldberg in a report for HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel that was broadcast on March 25, 2014. The report was a general look at how some top NCAA Division I schools hire learning specialists like Willingham to help keep student-athletes eligible. [42] A representative for UNC stated in response that HBO reported on "information that has previously been reported and discussed." [43]
A segment by ESPN's Outside the Lines from March 25, 2014 [44] drew attention because Willingham showed a 146-word essay about Rosa Parks and claimed that an unnamed student-athlete at UNC earned an A-minus in an AFAM class for turning that essay in. However, according to Slate.com , the paper shown by Willingham "was most likely a draft of one piece of a take-home final for a legitimate introductory course." [45] The News & Observer stated in a clarification note to a story that mentioned that essay: "It is unclear what grade the student received for the essay. Willingham said it was a class that met, and had other assignments." [46]
In April 2014, Willingham announced her resignation. [47] In June 2014, Willingham filed a lawsuit against UNC. [48]
In August 2014, citing posts in the Scout.com UNC message board Inside Carolina, Dan Kane reported in The News & Observer that passages in Willingham's 2009 master's thesis appeared to be plagiarized. [49]
North Carolina guard Rashad McCants is required to go to class, to show up on time for practice and to attend study hall. He has very little of the freedom most college students take for granted.
When you get to college, you don't go to class, you don't do nothing, you just show up and play ... That's exactly how it was, you know, and I think that was the tradition of college basketball, or college, period, any sport. You're not there to get an education, though they tell you that.
The question is what are we talking about, honestly. I mean I have a check being written to me from the University of North Carolina for over $10 million due to the exploitation of me as a player and the lack of education that I received. The NCAA has a check for me for over $300 million to help me facilitate these sports education programs across the country. These are things that's in the works.
— Rashad McCants, speaking on Mark Packers' Sirius XM radio show in 2014 [51]
On June 6, 2014, the ESPN program Outside the Lines broadcast an interview with Rashad McCants, who was a starter on the North Carolina basketball team that won the 2005 NCAA championship, in which McCants claimed to have taken phony classes and had tutors write his classwork. [32] [52] However, all sixteen other members of the 2005 team released a statement which disputed McCants's account. [52] Additionally, coach Roy Williams, separately interviewed by the same program, disputed McCants's claims. [53] In contrast, in a noted 2004 interview with television station WRAL, McCants compared attending UNC with being in jail. [50] [54]
Interviewed again on Outside the Lines on June 11, McCants stood by his claims about his academic experience at North Carolina. He also called on his fellow members of the 2004–05 basketball team to release their university transcripts because, in his opinion, "the truth is there in the transcripts" regarding bogus classes. [55]
University officials contacted McCants via mail and text message in the days following ESPN's initial interview with McCants, because McCants expressed "knowledge of potential NCAA rule violations involving the University of North Carolina," according to a letter signed by the athletics director of compliance. [56] However, McCants had not responded as of July 7, nor had he discussed his claims with the NCAA, according to the Associated Press. [57] Investigators for the Wainstein Report, released in October 2014, also noted that no evidence had been produced by McCants that substantiated his claims. [58]
In February 2014, the university hired Kenneth L. Wainstein, a former official in the United States Department of Justice, to conduct an independent investigation. [59] [60]
Our goal is to create an academic success program that is one of the best, if not the leader, among peer universities.
— Joel Curran, UNC vice chancellor of communications [60]
On October 22, 2014, the report was released reporting that for 18 years, at least 3,100 students enrolled in what were described as "paper" classes, which were independent study classes that had no faculty involvement. [61] The report conveyed that "counselors saw the paper classes and the artificially high grades they yielded as key to helping some student-athletes remain eligible." The report named both Julius Nyang'oro and Debbie Crowder as facilitators of the practice. [62] [63] [64]
More than 70 reforms have been instituted. These included better governance standards, more accountability for support programs for student-athletes, new department structures, and more classroom audits and oversight of courses, according to a university source. [60] Employees called checkers were sent to classes to see whether, in fact, they were being held, as part of an improved auditing system. [33] Further, university officials made statements which affirmed that they were proud of the accomplishments of their sports programs and varsity teams. [33] An athletics director spoke highly of the university's scholarship program; one said most of their student-athletes graduate and have successful careers. [33] Some officials criticized the allegations; for example, a basketball coach objected that the allegations had slandered the "moral character of his players." [2]
The NCAA scholarships that students have been awarded for the past 50 years are the best scholarship program ever created with the possible exception of the GI Bill. While they're not perfect, sports scholarships certainly provide great opportunities for an awful lot of students.
On October 13, 2017, the NCAA announced it would not levy penalties against North Carolina, saying it "could not conclude that the University of North Carolina violated N.C.A.A. academic rules." [65] [66] [67] In their defense, North Carolina cited cases where Auburn and Michigan had similar misconduct and the NCAA did not act. [65] It was ultimately concluded by the panel that the courses were for the entire student body, not just the student-athletes. [67] The panel did conclude that since Nyang'oro did not cooperate with the investigation he was issued a five-year show-cause period as punishment for him, "any NCAA member school employing the [Nyang'oro] must show cause why he should not have restrictions on athletically related activity." [67]
Committee on Infractions head for the NCAA, Greg Sankey, stated "While student-athletes likely benefited from the so-called 'paper courses' offered by North Carolina, the information available in the record did not establish that the courses were solely created, offered and maintained as an orchestrated effort to benefit student-athletes." [65] North Carolina chancellor Carol Folt commented on the resolution of the case when she said "I believe we have done everything possible to correct and move beyond the past academic irregularities and have established very robust processes to prevent them from recurring." [65] Tyrone P. Thomas, a lawyer for Mintz Levin and does work with colleges and universities, felt the ruling was "... a massive loophole, and from the P.R. side it looks horrible — these athletes can do what they do, and it looks horrible. But guess what? Maybe that's not the N.C.A.A.'s job. This is something the schools have always self-regulated." [65]
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolling students in 1795, making it one of the oldest public universities in the United States.
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte is a public research university in Charlotte, North Carolina. UNC Charlotte offers 24 doctoral, 66 master's, and 79 bachelor's degree programs through nine colleges. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
Rashad Dion McCants is an American former professional basketball player who has played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as well as overseas. He played for Trilogy in the BIG3 three-on-three league.
Paul Hilton "Butch" Davis Jr. is an American football coach. He was most recently the head football coach at Florida International University. After graduating from the University of Arkansas, he became an assistant college football coach at Oklahoma State University and the University of Miami before becoming the defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He was head coach of the University of Miami's Hurricanes football team from 1995 to 2000 and the NFL's Cleveland Browns from 2001 to 2004. Davis served as the head coach of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) Tar Heels football team from 2007 until the summer of 2011, when a series of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) investigations resulted in his dismissal. He was hired by the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an advisor in February 2012.
Herbert Holden Thorp is an American chemist, professor and entrepreneur. He is a professor of chemistry at George Washington University. He was the tenth chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, assuming the position on July 1, 2008, succeeding James Moeser, and, at age 43, was noted as being among the youngest leaders of a university in the United States. At the time of his selection as chancellor, Thorp was the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a Kenan Professor of chemistry at the university. Thorp is a 1986 graduate of UNC; he later earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from California Institute of Technology, and was a postdoctoral associate at Yale University.
The 2010 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a member of Coastal Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) during the 2010 NCAA Division I FBS football season. Led by fourth-year head coach Butch Davis, the Tar Heels played their home games at Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. North Carolina finished the season 8–5 overall and 4–4 in ACC play to tie for third in the Coastal Division. They were invited to the Music City Bowl, where they defeated Tennessee, 30–27, in two overtimes.
James Michael Ray McAdoo is an American professional basketball player for the Sun Rockers Shibuya of the B.League in Japan. He played college basketball for the North Carolina Tar Heels, and twice earned second-team all-conference honors in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). McAdoo won two NBA championships with the Golden State Warriors. He has also played in various international leagues, including the EuroCup, Turkish Basketball Super League (BSL), and ABA League.
Michael McAdoo is an American former professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football for the North Carolina Tar Heels. He was signed by the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent in 2011.
Sara Elizabeth Ganim is an American journalist and podcast host. She is the current Hearst Journalism Fellow at the University of Florida's Brechner Center for Freedom of Information and the James Madison Visiting Professor on First Amendment Issues at the Columbia Journalism School. Previously, she was a correspondent for CNN. In 2011 and 2012, she was a reporter for The Patriot-News, a daily newspaper in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. There she broke the story that featured the Sandusky scandal and the Second Mile charity. For the Sandusky/Penn State coverage, "Sara Ganim and members of The Patriot-News Staff" won a number of national awards including the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, making Ganim the third-youngest winner of a Pulitzer. The award cited "courageously revealing and adeptly covering the explosive Sandusky sex scandal involving former football coach Jerry Sandusky."
The 1998 Western Athletic Conference Mustangs football team represented Southern Methodist University (SMU) as a member of the Mountain Division of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) during the 1998 NCAA Division I-A football season. Led by second-year head coach Mike Cavan, the Mustangs finished the season with an overall record of 5–7 and a mark of 4–4 in conference play, tying for fifth place in the WAC's Mountain Division. However, SMU vacated 10 games after Steve Malin was found to have been ineligible due to academic fraud. The Mustangs played their home games at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
Carol Lynn Folt is an American academic administrator who is the 12th president of the University of Southern California. She is also the first female president in the university’s 142-year history. She assumed her duties on July 1, 2019. She was previously the 11th chancellor, and the 29th chief executive, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, being the first woman to hold the post. Prior to that, she was provost and interim president of Dartmouth College. On January 14, 2019, she announced her resignation as UNC chancellor.
The University of Minnesota basketball scandal involved National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules violations, most notably academic dishonesty, committed by the University of Minnesota men's basketball program. The story broke the day before the 1999 NCAA Tournament, when the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that Minnesota academic counseling office manager Jan Gangelhoff had done coursework for at least 20 Minnesota basketball players since 1993.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill football scandal is an incident in which the football program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was investigated and punished for multiple violations of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules and regulations, including academic fraud and improper benefits to student-athletes from sports agents. The NCAA investigation found that a tutor had completed coursework for several football players, among other improper services. Additionally, the investigation found that seven football players received thousands of dollars in valuables from sports agents or people associated with agents. The NCAA sanctions led to a postseason ban, a reduction of 15 scholarships, and three years of probation. It was the second major infraction case in North Carolina's history and the first since the men's basketball program was sanctioned in 1960 for recruiting violations.
Daniel Paul Kane is an American news reporter and investigative journalist for the Raleigh, North Carolina newspaper The News & Observer, notable for uncovering and exposing the academics scandal at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Kane is credited for unearthing substantive academic fraud in conjunction with whistleblower Mary Willingham regarding student-athletes who were directed towards phony classes, according to allegations. According to The New York Times, Kane was subjected to "violent threats, angry screeds, and Twitter flame campaigns" in response to his reporting. He "first uncovered a pattern of lax oversight and risibly easy or nonexistent classes disproportionately benefiting athletes".
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Jeanette Marie Boxill is an American academic who was Senior Lecturer in Philosophy (ethics) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was also Chair of the Faculty and Director of Parr Center for Ethics. Her writing and teaching relate broadly with ethical issues in social conduct, social and political philosophy, feminist theory, and ethics in sports. She is editor of Sports Ethics: An Anthology and Issues in Race and Gender. She is past president of the International Association for Philosophy in Sport, serves on the board of the NCAA Scholarly Colloquium Committee, and chairs both the 2011 NCAA Scholarly Colloquium and the Education Outreach Program for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). For 25 years, Boxill was the public address announcer for UNC women's basketball and field hockey. She is a member of numerous professional associations and has won a number of awards for teaching and professional contributions. She resigned from UNC in 2015 in the wake of the UNC Chapel Hill academics-athletics scandal.
The Syracuse University athletics scandal involved violations of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules by the Syracuse University men's basketball and football programs.
Julius Nyang'oro is a writer, political scientist and legal scholar. He was the chairman of the Department of African and African-American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for over ten years, before resigning in the wake of an academic fraud scandal in 2011.
... rather than educating its recruited athletes, UNC was playing a shell game ...
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)... UNC ... working to keep these students functionally illiterate, rather than imperil a winning team..
... Kane ... member of a three-person investigative team ... helped unearth, often against serious university resistance, many of the most shocking examples of malfeasance. ...
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)The academic scandal that has tainted the University of North Carolina athletics department is disgusting, despicable and altogether not surprising.
... The review of UNC's academic irregularities found professors not showing up to hold classes..
... several examples in which her wording either mirrors or closely resembles other sources ... cites sources but doesn't put their information in quotes ... not cite the source ...