“Clustering” at The Flagship?

Dan Kane isn’t letting up, referencing a report two years ago by the Indianapolis Star questioning “clustering” (or, as they say in Swahili, kuna tofauti za) at The Flagship (News & Observer):

The report notes that seven of the players on UNC-Chapel Hill’s 2005 championship team who had graduated by the time the story was published all received the same degree — a bachelor of arts in African and Afro-American Studies.

The Star interviewed Sean May, who was the center for the team, and his comments have a particular resonance today, with the university now acknowledging a major academic fraud case in that department involving classes with little or no instruction. Many of these classes have high enrollments of athletes in the two big money sports — basketball and football.

According to the Star: ‘May said he started as a double major with communications, but dropped it so he could graduate faster after leaving for the NBA.Afro-American and African studies, May said, offered “more independent electives, independent study. I could take a lot of classes during the season. Communications, I had to be there in the actual classroom. We just made sure all the classes I had to take, I could take during the summer.”‘

May left the school for the NBA following the 2005 championship, but collected his degree four years later. It’s unclear what classes he took or who taught them. The academic fraud centers on the former chairman, Julius Nyang’oro, who is being allowed to retire effective July 1.

More to come. Count on it. After all, it’s not Friday yet.

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UNC Scandal

48 Responses to “Clustering” at The Flagship?

  1. BlackHole91 06/20/2012 at 4:22 PM #

    Kane got the tip from a Pack Pride poster about that article.

  2. packof81 06/20/2012 at 4:55 PM #

    Yeah, it’s a cluster alright.

  3. wilmwolf80 06/20/2012 at 5:00 PM #

    You think Mr. Kane has a bodyguard? If he pokes around basketball enough, the people behind the curtain on the hill may try to make him disappear.

  4. PackMan97 06/20/2012 at 5:02 PM #

    BlackHole91, to be fair it looks like the article was posted to PackPride by a UK poster.

  5. tjfoose1 06/20/2012 at 5:05 PM #

    Isn’t “cluster” just the first word?

  6. highstick 06/20/2012 at 5:45 PM #

    If you go back and look, May hung around every summer “playing basketball” with all the new young recruits and team members..It was no secret, in fact, it was widely publicized. May was not the only one…so you’ve got potential NBA “runners” doing all sorts of things for these college players.

    That situation has always puzzled me as to why that’s not a “no no”!!

  7. backnine 06/20/2012 at 5:46 PM #

    The UK fan that provided that golden nugget can drink for free in Raleigh as long as I’m around.

    That’s significant info that the N&O will no doubt print in tomorrow’s paper given its already on Kane’s blog. I have to believe this is a stink bomb the UNC camp was NOT anticipating. By itself it doesn’t raise many eyebrows, but given what’s already been brought to light its damning evidence indeed!!!! And should justify the need for more digging and reviewing of records.

    Kudos to the N&O for getting this info online ASAP! At what point are WRAL and WTVD going to stop ignoring this story and actually report on it?? I think this saga has graduated (pun) into a mature scandal now that legitimately needs to be pontificated on similar to the Easley scandal. Ignoring it much longer is going to make those media outlets look unprofessional and/or collusive.

  8. wolfonthehill 06/20/2012 at 5:54 PM #

    I recall my wife bragging about how great it was when Jerry Stackhouse came back to “earn” his degree… and even at the time, I told her that I’d be ashamed of the extent to which it devalued a degree from unc-ch.

    And it turns out… *shocker* … that he claimed “a degree in African Amercian studies that he earned during summer school.”

    And he graduated with Antawn “Jamison, who also majored in African American studies.”

    link: http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/142525/

  9. wolfonthehill 06/20/2012 at 5:55 PM #

    Being completely serious – odds that 2 championships get vacated? They have to be rising… gonna suck for all those “Got Five?” championship t-shirts to have to get changed to “Got Three?”. I think I might make the shirts… strike out the five, change it to three.

  10. RickJ 06/20/2012 at 6:51 PM #

    Here’s another angle to this scandal. The below link is to UNC-Cheats U.S. News ranking of U.S. Universities:

    http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/unc-2974

    Student to faculty ratio is an important component in these rankings. The ranking shows a student to faculty ratio of 14 – 1 for the cheaters. This is the same for the private school of Boston College, better than UVA at 16 -1 and better than NC State’s 18 -1. I wonder how many classes BC, UVA & NC State have with one student enrolled, much less a basketball player.

  11. tuckerdorm1983 06/20/2012 at 7:06 PM #

    I don’t agree that there should be no African Studies major or that it is somehow not a valid degree. As a former professor at both UNC and NCSU I know that not everyone majors in the hard sciences or the applied sciences. I know that some people get degrees in humanities like Philosophy, English Literature and History or in the softer sciences like Sociology, Psychology or Political Science. I find these non-science degrees valid and worthwhile endeavors even if they don’t build bridges or land men on the moon.
    If you do get a degree that ends with “Studies” then that should be totally valid. I don’t have a problem with African-Studies or Queer Studies or University Studies or anything like that. What I do demand is a certain level of rigor. I expect students to read and do research and write and argue about these topics. The general college requirements should introduce a student to a broad range of topics in many fields in the first two years. In one’s last two years one begins to focus on some narrower topic of interest. Being educated is a process of thinking and reasoning with a broad exposure to many areas of study.
    The skills of thinking, analysis and criticism that one develops in undergrad will serve one well throughout life.
    How these players managed to bypass all of this is shocking. It had to be more than just the football coach and the athletic department. They should be ashamed. Of course now anyone with a African Studies degree from UNC has had it tainted. Shame, Shame, Shame. Thank God it was not in the Political Science department at UNC which is ranked in the top 10 in the nation.

    TUCKERDORM1983

    B.S. Philosophy NCSU
    B.S. Mechanical Engineering NCSU
    J.D. UNC-CH
    M.A. Political Science UNC-CH
    Ph.D.Political Science UNC-CH

  12. GAWolf 06/20/2012 at 7:12 PM #

    Tucker: I sure would hate to see your school loan bill, my friend.

  13. tuckerdorm1983 06/20/2012 at 7:27 PM #

    I borrowed not one red dime. Not one. All instate tuition. With help from my parents, who are very middle class, and me working it was all paid out of pocket. In the summers between law school I worked and made enough money to pay my tuition the next year. My tuition was paid in graduate school at UNC in return for me working as an instructor. I also had a job during graduate school and my wife worked. My wife and I lived in married student housing at UNC where the rent was 150 bucks a month. Remember in the 1980s instate tuition in North Carolina was not that bad. Not one red dime and damn proud of it. Debt is the devil!!!!

  14. Old MacDonald 06/20/2012 at 8:21 PM #

    I am unclear tuckerdorm. Did you borrow any money to get through school?

  15. Wolf74 06/20/2012 at 8:23 PM #

    tuckerdorm 1983; I agree as I also do not have a problem with any degree that is actually earned. I do not have a problem with any degree that has merit and don’t care if it is African American Studies. I do have problems with fake degrees. I have problems with any degree that is printed out before the kid even enrolls.

    I have a problem with this hypocritical bunch and their devaluing of a state university. They should be stripped of the last two national championships and their football team should receive the death penalty.

  16. blpack 06/20/2012 at 8:35 PM #

    They should just take down the 05 and 09 banners now and save everyone some time. Tainted degrees, ineligible players, fraudulent classes, appear to be just the beginning.

  17. tuckerdorm1983 06/20/2012 at 8:41 PM #

    glad you all agree. I did not(repeat did not) borrow any money for any of my education. No student loans of any kind. I went to the store and bought week old bread, store brand peanut butter, ramien noodles, hot dogs and sweet 16 doughnuts that were out of date and hard as bricks but tasted pretty good once you dunked them in store brand coffee. I have had tuna helper so often that I can’t even look at tuna. Rice a roni makes me puke. Don’t even get me started on Bologna or Spam. Mama used to send me care packages with homemade canned food she got out of the garden.

  18. tjfoose1 06/20/2012 at 8:42 PM #

    Tuckerdorm obviously cheated and stole from someone if he “earned” his own way through school with no help from Uncle Sam.

    Behold, the evil one percent.

  19. Old MacDonald 06/20/2012 at 8:58 PM #

    So tucker borrowed no money to get through college and grad school?

  20. NCSU88 06/20/2012 at 9:04 PM #

    I can’t wait to see the class action lawsuit that will hit UNX as degrees are devalued or, even better, if one of the AFRAM Studies graduates cries foul.

  21. tuckerdorm1983 06/20/2012 at 9:29 PM #

    sometimes the government is not the answer but the problem

  22. ryebread 06/20/2012 at 9:52 PM #

    Yes Roy, this has ALWAYS been about basketball……..

  23. tuckerdorm1983 06/20/2012 at 10:08 PM #

    goll durnit and dag nabbit. Roy want be happy til he gets his bb gun and shoots a couple duke or state fans. My mama would say to us boys “you boys ain’t gonna be happy til you put somebody’s eye out with that bb gun”. Well we never put anybody’s eye out and we were very happy. go figure??

  24. bTHEredterror 06/20/2012 at 10:09 PM #

    “Here’s another angle to this scandal. The below link is to UNC-Cheats U.S. News ranking of U.S. Universities”

    Someone probably mentioned this, but what about UNx academic progress rates, which are artificially high? They were released for the league today and our football team is close to penalty range in (of course pointed out by Glenn Dave’s rag) and I remember the Withers comments. You know, where he acts as if these numbers are valid despite rampant cheating and tries to throw salt.

    How many ineligible players have played due to scholorships that should not have been available, avoided through systemic, prolific rulebreaking?

    Seems time for the NCAA’s Enola Gay to take a flight over the ol’ Nose Dome.

  25. Alpha Wolf 06/20/2012 at 11:02 PM #

    The local electronic media is really taking a black eye in their lack of coverage of this as far as I am concerned. Chapel Hill’s reputation is being burned to the ground right in front of them by real reporters from and the only thing we hear here in the Raleigh-Durham media market is the sound of crickets on a hot summer’s night.

    Good job WRAL. Not even a peep on your WRAL.COM website you pimp out 53 times per half hour newscast! (But at least we got to see pictures of Tara Lynn’s new puppy. That’s REAL news!)

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