UNC classes under review in wake of NCAA Probe(N&O)

General UNC Scandal18

Full article here.

Independent study classes are courses in which no class sessions are held, but students are typically required to produce an end-of-term project, usually a paper. They have been tied to numerous athletic scandals at top college football programs such as Auburn University and the University of Michigan. The classes are open to abuse because of the absence of class time and little oversight of the course work produced.

According to data produced by UNC in response to a News & Observer records request, football players accounted for 68 of the 327 enrollments in independent study courses offered by the department over the last five years. One men’s basketball player accounted for one of the 327 enrollments.

In that same time period, UNC football players accounted for 724 enrollments in all classes offered by the Department of African and Afro-American Studies, with independent studies courses representing 9 percent of that total.

Of the independent study courses taken by Tar Heels football players, university records indicate that Nyang’oro taught 32, or nearly half of the football enrollments. The rest were largely spread among several other faculty members.

Interesting stuff from Dan Kane of the N&O as UNC continues its investigation into academic irregularities in the African American department at UNC.

After 9 major violations and a 12 month+ investigation by UNC and the NCAA into other issues, it makes you wonder just how deep the corruption in Chapel Hill really goes. This latest news from the N&O seems to imply that there was a coordinated effort by the football program to steer its players towards courses in the AFAM department. More specifically the information suggests that the players were steered towards courses, including independent study courses, taught by Julius Nyang’oro who recently stepped down as the department head.

This past summer, athletes accounted for nine of the 10 independent study enrollments under Nyang’oro.

Remember there is already a documented case of Marvin Austin taking a level 400 course of Nyang’oro’s as his very 1st course at UNC despite needing a remedial writing course. Then you have the McAdoo plagiarism case where UNC can’t produce a syllabus and according to another N&O article couldn’t verify when or where the class ever met. Considering the missed plagiarism by Nyang’oro and the possibility that non-independent study classes didn’t even meet, then one can imagine why players “arroved” conveniently in his sections.

What I found interesting is the distinction made between the number of independent study courses taken by football players and basketball players. Naturally, with 85 scholarship players in football and only 13 in basketball one would expect a higher number of enrollments by football players. With scholarship ratios in the two program being 6.5:1, the fact that football players accounted for 32 enrollments while basketball players accounted for only 1 seems out of line.

Interesting.

I am of the opinion that this part of the investigation in Chapel Hill could lead to the most serious issues yet discovered. Also, it could lead to the most severe “penalties” UNC football will face in the future as the difficulty of keeping kids eligible and graduating players could become a lot more difficult.

You have to give the N&O credit for developing the Swahili prong since the discovery of McAdoo’s plagiarism. The plagiarism led the N&O in the “Swahili” direction and they have systematically attacked this prong since.

In the end, UNC might discover massive cheating by student-athletes in 1 athletic program, potential assistance by at least one professor(one case already with the McAdoo plagiarism case Nyang’oro failed to discover), combined with said athletic program steering players to this particular professor and his department in general.

Combine that with the already 9 major violations and you have one of the biggest scandals in the history of the college athletics. Remember, UNC has already set a precedent by having a runner for an agent on their payroll as the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator.

Of course, one has to ask with the corruption already discovered, then why isn’t there some type of independent body handling the latest investigation? If UNC couldn’t be trusted to police itself, then how can they be trusted to investigate themselves when Nyang’oro, Baddour, and UNC attorneys have already shown incapable of discovering blatant plagiarism?

If anyone missed this piece by long-time UNC writer Art Chansky, then he suggests that former assistant Tommy Thigpen found out that Blake was working as a runner for Gary Wichard:

The response includes facts that support the story about Thigpen, who supposedly found out that John Blake was acting as a defacto agent for the late Gary Wichard, accepting money Blake said were “personal loans” but steering players inside and outside the UNC program toward Wichard’s agency, Pro Tech Management, before they were drafted by the NFL.

Thigpen has not talked publicly while the NCAA probe went on, and continues that stance, largely because he loves his alma mater and despite his success at Auburn wants to return to Chapel Hill some day. But the story goes that Thigpen knew what Blake was up to, confronted Blake and eventually went to Davis.

Read the full link here. More very interesting stuff to contemplate.

Can you imagine the outrage from the media, public, state government, Board of Governors, etc…that would have occurred if this had happened at NC State?

General UNC Scandal

18 Responses to UNC classes under review in wake of NCAA Probe(N&O)

  1. Pack78 09/22/2011 at 6:57 AM #

    In the UGA football academic scandal years ago, IIRC FB players were enrolled in bogus course work to remain eligible after they had run into academic trouble. At the hole, the powers that be have headed that approach off: these mental midgets are enrolled in bogus course work from the get-go so that these pesky eligibility issues never arise…

  2. albunde6 09/22/2011 at 7:04 AM #

    “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” Glad to see N&O getting into the game, little late, but in the game.

  3. Prowling Woofie 09/22/2011 at 7:55 AM #

    From the N&O article:

    “Are we going to continue to have undergraduate students serve as tutors in this program?” Gardner asked.

    “We hope that number is going to go down,” said Bobbi Owen, the senior associate dean of undergraduate education in the College of Arts and Sciences.

    I think a big part of the problem was that Wiley was already going down…

  4. blpack 09/22/2011 at 8:18 AM #

    Give away grades, keep the players eligible. Win at all costs.

  5. primacyone 09/22/2011 at 9:16 AM #

    Is it just me, or does this really seem to be as bad as selling a couple pairs of sneakers and some tickets?

  6. Hungwolf 09/22/2011 at 9:20 AM #

    The BOG is on the case with hard hitting questions into the UNC scandal let us not forgot them bringing in the head football coach, AD, and Thorpe to ask the all important fact finding question: “How’s recruiting going coach?”

    The BOG has no ethics and has no intention of investiagating UNC-CHeat!

  7. primacyone 09/22/2011 at 9:21 AM #

    Any yes.

    PROPS TO THE N&O.

    Good work.

  8. Old School Wolf 09/22/2011 at 10:40 AM #

    An active agent as part of the department’s faculty – how special is that?

  9. itskinseyboo 09/22/2011 at 10:53 AM #

    From the N&O:

    “University officials have had difficulties producing syllabuses for some classes within the African Studies department, including the one in which McAdoo submitted a plagiarized paper. University officials said that has been a longstanding concern across all departments that they began looking into before the NCAA investigation.”

    This was in another N&O article last week. I find it really disturbing that university officials can’t produce these records. Is it that they were never submitted (rogue professor theory) or that they, the officials, are so disorganized that they’ve been misplaced? Either way, someone here is incredibly incompetent.

  10. ppack3 09/22/2011 at 11:18 AM #

    In all of the praise for the N&O, I would like to throw one thing out there. There is now a faction of UNC’ers that are against the Football Program and everything it represents. They, too, have influence over the media and the coverage that this scandal recieves. Case in Point, Art Chansky continues to prod at his former employer. And, with each article, he digs the wound open a little further. Now, the N&O has taken over Swahili-gate. I wonder why. Why now? I think that it has to do with UNC’s refusal to cooperate with the media, and the faction of UNC that are on the Anti-Butch side of the fence in this Family Feud.

    Much like our Administration and Athletics Department (along with the fanbase) were splintered in the late 1990’s, so too is the situation at UNC today. I’m simply saying that it’s a bitch when the shoe is on the other foot, especially when your other foot is the one that’s out to get you.

  11. Hungwolf 09/22/2011 at 12:16 PM #

    Excellent point ppack3. Our splintered fan base, self imposed restrictions, media campaign against NCSU, and unrealistic “changing by the day” academic standards placed on the bball program gave us no chance of success afte V was let go. I still greatly admire Les Robinson for even taking a job, that no one else wanted knowing full well the job had failure written all over, showed how much he really loved NCSU. I hope todays UNC-CHeat scandle gives our younger fans a glimpse of what we went through, although the media was all over NCSU, The BOG had appointed an independent investigation, a rogue book was being paraded around, even ABC ran a bogus story that players were fixing games, and we had the SBI investigating our coach. All over what ended up being only some shoes and tickets were sold. If anyone had found any of the things going on in Chapel Hill at NCSU at the time, the BOG would probably have suspended bball at NCSU.

  12. ncsu1987 09/22/2011 at 12:28 PM #

    The case has been made over and over for an independent investigation. The bumbling and effectless “team” at UNX has shown itself to be both incompetent and arrogant beyond belief. The case has been made, and couldn’t be any clearer.

    So the question remains: why the silence from the BOG? Could it be a procedural thing? Do they have to wait until the NCAA rules? What was the timeline when everything went down at NCSU? At what point did the BOG call for the independent investigation?

    Hopefully somebody remembers better than I do….?

    I wish that just once the mushroom cloud would show up somewhere other than SFN.

  13. NCStatePride 09/22/2011 at 1:45 PM #

    I don’t have inside knowledge, but you would think the BOG would wait to see where the cards lay after the NCAA hearing, then they will determine what they need to do.

  14. TruthBKnown Returns 09/22/2011 at 4:49 PM #

    Can you imagine the outrage from the media, public, state government, Board of Governors, etc…that would have occurred if this had happened at NC State?

    Can you imagine the deafening calls for an independent investigation from all of the above? There would be no reason to ask for one. It would have already been completed by now, if this were NC State.

  15. TruthBKnown Returns 09/22/2011 at 4:53 PM #

    Did the BoG wait for State to finish their NCAA dealings before ordering up an independent investigation? I really don’t remember, because the independent investigation pretty much revealed NOTHING in our case.

    And before I praise the N&O, they’ll have to call LOUDLY for an independent investigation. Once the local media does that, it will be harder for the BoG to duck the calls for one.

  16. NCStatePride 09/22/2011 at 5:02 PM #

    Good point, TBK. The media has obviously done their job here recently, but it’s sort of like disciplining a child… do you give them a reward each time they don’t hit their sister in the head with a baseball bat? All the N&O did was… well… their job. They have a lot of ground to make-up before they’re back to par…

  17. pack76 09/22/2011 at 7:21 PM #

    This just keep getting better! Did I read that there was “one” basketball player who took the course. Sounds like the investigation needs to go deeper! Sorry Roy!!!!

  18. the reality 09/25/2011 at 9:39 AM #

    Love???…for the N & O…??? No way.

    They are ONLY NOW beginning to put two and two together for their readers. They are being reactionaries and only tagging along in the wake of an NCAA investigation. OTOH, and every other time, when it isn’t involving UNC that is, they are well out front, leading the charge, inflaming the masses at every opportunity, drumming it up out of thin air when necessary, while dragging anyone and everyone that they possibly can, into “their” own Raleigh-centric fray.

    They suck. Always have. Always will.

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