Ovies: North Carolina’s NCAA gift that keeps on giving (updated with commentary 3:49 pm)

Big Four Rivals UNC Scandal52

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While a sports related scandal exposed possible fraud within the African and Afro-American Studies department, the issue goes well beyond athletics. It eats at the core of what a university is all about. North Carolina prides itself in national academic recognition. That’s why public comments from chancellor Holden Thorp and UNC system president Tom Ross are rather curious. They appear more interested in damage control.

In July of 2011, when Michael McAdoo’s plagiarized paper had gone viral, Thorp wanted the focus to be on the honor court’s handling of the situation rather than asking out loud why nobody bothered to read the paper in the first place. In an interview with the N&O, Thorp said he was not going to dig into Nyang’oro’s handling of the paper. “It’s very unfortunate what happened here, but I don’t get into grading for faculty members,” he said.

In a statement on Monday, Ross wasn’t interested in digging deeper. “I believe that this was an isolated situation and that the campus has taken appropriate steps to correct problems and put additional safeguards in place,” he said.

Ross only believes the case of Nyang’oro is isolated, but how does he know that? Wouldn’t it behoove the president of the entire university system to make sure everything at a flagship institution is kosher? At the very least that seems like a reasonable request.

Independent investigation anyone?

I wish I had the time to blog on topics such as this, but I just don’t anymore. Ovies is hitting my idea for a long, long entry about how during this entire process UNC has been avoiding the truth while at the same time investigating specific issues only scratching the surface and/or only in response to issues discovered by the media.

Look at this latest investigation by UNC. Without McAdoo’s lawsuit, the infamous Swahili paper never becomes public, the blatant plagiarism is never discovered, and the N&O likely never breaks the Swahili prong of this multi-pronged scandal. Once the paper became public, then the whole world knew that none of the people at UNC had even read McAdoo’s paper prior to going in front of the NCAA in a ridiculous effort to get him reinstated. Did this happen by accident? Did these folks really think they didn’t need to look at the work prior to the NCAA hearing? Or were they simply avoiding reading the paper in fear of discovering the plagiarism themselves knowing that once it was discovered they may be forced to dig further into academic improprieties?

Most importantly you have to remember Chancellor Thorp stating he doesn’t get involved with grading by faculty. Well, I can certainly see why he wanted to stay out of it this time.

Then Marvin Austin’s partial transcript is published by the N&O which leads to more questions about these Swahili courses and finally UNC’s hand is forced into investigating the African American department.

However, this investigation is limited to going back as far as 2007. Did they base the decision to limit the investigation for fear of what they might discover just like they may have when they chose not to read McAdoo’s paper?

With the massive amounts of fraud discovered, then why isn’t the investigation being expanded to go back further?

Now similar to Thorp’s stance that he doesn’t get involved with grading by faculty, we have the new head of the UNC System stating that he has heard enough, this was isolated, and it is time to move on. Nothing to see here. All is good.

The problem is that UNC has proven either incompetent to investigate themselves or unwilling to dig for the entire truth throughout the entirety of this investigation. How many instances of this incompetence or unwillingness to do a complete investigation have to occur before some adult somewhere in the UNC system or our state government stands up demands an independent investigation?

Big Four Rivals UNC Scandal

52 Responses to Ovies: North Carolina’s NCAA gift that keeps on giving (updated with commentary 3:49 pm)

  1. vtpackfan 05/08/2012 at 4:58 PM #

    What an ideal department program to have for students who quit school, uh..mean, leave early to become a professional, and still keep “working” on getting that degree. Nice trick to pull an APR scam.

    Also heard on the grapevine that Dr. Jules had written and been awarded an academic grant from Nike. Wait, forget that, even if it were factual there is no doubt the good Doctor wouldn’t waste time writing something other then his signature.

  2. FuquayWolf 05/08/2012 at 5:20 PM #

    Kane’s original story in the N&O has now been picked up by the Chicago Tribune.

    UNC football, basketball players 39 percent of suspect classes

    As I am not a computer whiz and lack the coding knowledge to create a link, feel free to edit my post to create a link. (Done…Alpha)

    Everyone should click on the Tribune story so that it gains popularity. Let’s get this thing national!

  3. Alpha Wolf 05/08/2012 at 5:38 PM #

    I would shudder if I were UNC and Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports started poking around. Hope he does.

    What astonishes me is the lack of outrage from the alumni and the faculty over there. Their degrees and their work respectively are being denigrated by the athletic department.

    And I always thought that athletics were just part of the university experience, not its raison d’être…guess I am an idealistic old fool.

  4. TruthBKnown Returns 05/08/2012 at 6:06 PM #

    Why do Carolina folks lie and misrepresent using cold, hard numbers? Don’t they know we State folks are math-oriented by nature, and will shoot holes in anything they say that is less than 100% honest?

    They must be dumber than even we thought!

  5. tjfoose1 05/08/2012 at 6:43 PM #

    What a gift Marvin Austin turned out to be.

    Finally exposing decades long corruption and hypocrisy.

    “The Carolina Way” is a national punch line.

  6. tjfoose1 05/08/2012 at 6:49 PM #

    UNC is making the SEC blush.

  7. virginiawolf 05/08/2012 at 7:10 PM #

    I just read roy williams’ “justification / defense” in the N&O …Oh my God … Williams, do you actually think before your speak? What an amazingingly stupid statement. The “it was there, so we used it” is not a justification for cheating. If you were not aware, you should have been. If you were aware … shame on you and the example that you set and continue to set for young players.

  8. phillypacker 05/08/2012 at 7:12 PM #

    I know for a fact, from personal knowledge that a party in the journalism school has been in communication with faculty who have been furious about the whole scam, dating from the handling of Butch and Black Santa, and expressing concern that this thing goes much wider.

    That is not heresay. That is from communication with UNC people in the j-school. It is amazing to me how substantial UNC faculty concerns about this have gotten no traction outside of conversations amongst them.

    Holden Thorpe is an embarrassment, as is Ross. You idiots should consult with the PR faculty in the j-school. They would tell you to call for an independent investigation and to turn over everything from Butch’s 216 calls to all information about classes. The current approach is embarrassing. The world sees right through all of this.

    UNC academics has been a jewel, as has State’s, for decades. I would say the same thing for the whole UNC system.

    The debacle over there is beneath the surface and a strong hand is being kept on it. It makes me sick to see the lie about academic integrity that is being perpetuated by the administration when the vast majority of UNC faculty are rigorous scholars with unquestionable integrity.

    Thorpe needs to resign for the good of the school, get out of the way, and let someone with some backbone and common sense handle this the way it should be. You monkeys are embarrassing our state.

  9. 1.21 Jigawatts 05/08/2012 at 7:27 PM #

    Can you say, “Diploma mill”?

    I knew you could.

  10. highstick 05/08/2012 at 8:51 PM #

    Billy Cunningham was not African American! History did not begin in 2007…Cheating at UnC began before the first African American set foot on campus! You guys are just finally figuring it out!

  11. gowolfpak 05/08/2012 at 8:56 PM #

    Can any of these classes or enrollees be tied to the academic record break in? I don’t remember if that was ever resolved.

  12. Hungwolf 05/08/2012 at 9:05 PM #

    The UNC cheating cover up is very similar to the SMU situation. Everyone just scratching the surface while the real truth/funk is covered up. A player/coach needs to come clean like what happened at SMU to start the real exposure of the corruption. Marvin Austin’s “Spill the Beans” comment no longer looks foolish, it has traction.

    Go back to ACC media day when Butch Davis announced he was going to release his phone records. Thorpe quickly moved to fire Davis after that. I would guess Davis personal phone records would not expose any Recruiting violations but would show he was talking to players all around the country when the School would show they were suppose to be in summer school getting an A for a class they never attended. A good reason not to have a sign out sheet and it would prove that academic fraud was rampant at UNC before Davis was hired. So Davis was playing the academic fraud card is my guess when he said he would release the phone records and protecting his $2 million a year. Davis held the school ransom for academic fraud, blames Black Santa (who always knew he would be the fall guy) and leaves with a big pay day. Thorpe had no choice but to fire Davis, cause if you remember the school reviewed Davis phone records so they know what they contain.

  13. Wufpacker 05/08/2012 at 9:20 PM #

    I bet a lot of folks with UNC ties are screening calls tonight.

  14. NCSU88 05/08/2012 at 9:42 PM #

    “… A corn fell from the sky.”

  15. turfpack 05/08/2012 at 10:11 PM #

    Me thinks -it may be a few more fridays before this stuff cools down.
    My wife(UNC grad) is pissed about all this.

  16. turfpack 05/08/2012 at 10:13 PM #

    Just to let you know popcorn sales sky rocketed in the area.

  17. Alpha Wolf 05/08/2012 at 10:29 PM #

    The Carolina faculty and alumni who are incensed need to start writing letters to the papers, to their legislators and to the school itself. Otherwise, this is America. Next week: “Look! Shiny!” and everyone’s attention will be diverted to the next news cycle.

  18. PackerInRussia 05/08/2012 at 11:10 PM #

    “We’re talking ethnic studies, and my educated guess is most of the students in question were African-American. In other words, all UNC has to do is trot out the “R” word”

    Didn’t His Whiteness, Tyler “The Moonwalker” Hansbrough take Swahili? (otherwise I agree with your assessment)

    As these athletes could no doubt tell us, Hakuna Matata, guys.

  19. runwiththepack 05/09/2012 at 5:32 AM #

    My smiling muscles are cramping from their exhausting over-use since this topic blew up in the media.

    Never thought i would see this day, when some folks (in places where their words matter) finally begin to question how athletes, some of them semi-literate, can make nearly all A’s and B’s at a self-described “public ivy”.

    I guess us commoners who studied in West Raleigh look a lot smarter now that everyone knows what we have long known. Thank God we aren’t UNC-R.

  20. wolfpacker 05/09/2012 at 6:22 AM #

    I am actually surprised they did their own internal investigation. I think it’s obvious that if there were an independent investigation that went back, oh – say 20 years there would likely be a LOT more uncovered. To read that the report was 10 pages is merely laughable.

    Since unc was not able to determine that McAdoo’s paper was NOT written by him, who gives them the authority to do any kind of investigation? Oh, their very kind – the BOG.

    Oh, but wait, maybe it was part of McAdoo’s assignment to see if he could put together work from others. This certainly would not be surprising, they are always copying what we do at NC STATE.

    This makes Roy’s comment about the players completing their assignments even more funny and suspicious. I guess this was going on when he was a student athlete there as well. He certainly seems to know how the ‘game of academic eligibility’ is played.

  21. PackAmy 05/09/2012 at 7:32 AM #

    They always say it is harder to get into Carolina, but harder to stay at State. Now I know why…

  22. TKEWOLF75 05/09/2012 at 11:04 AM #

    I notice Huckleberry parsed his words very carefully when he stated, “The players were eligible to be enrolled in those classes, as were non-student-athletes, and they did the work that was assigned to them.”

    Duh? You think! No teacher, no syllabus, no class, no supervision. Just what work was assigned to them? And who assigned it?

  23. baxter 05/09/2012 at 1:27 PM #

    Men’s basketball had 23 enrollments since 2007, what percentage is that of the actual number of players on the basketball team? I’d guess that would be a relatively high percentage of scholarship players, unless they count the walk ons as well (since their job is to boost the team GPA).

    I guess to be simple we could just say 5*13, so 23/65 players = 35% of the players on the basketball team were taking these classes. Realistically I’d assume they don’t take it all 4 seasons they are on the roster, they’ve had 28 players come in since 2005 … Hansborough was in that 2005 class, and he took these classes right? so 23/28 would be the worst case, or 82% of the scholarship guys were in those classes.

  24. triadwolf 05/09/2012 at 8:35 PM #

    If 39% of the students enrolled in these classes are from men’s basketball and football, how many of the remaining are “student” athletes from other sports?

  25. ldr of the pk 75 05/10/2012 at 1:22 AM #

    State has had it’s slide courses throughout the years, but not whole departments.

    But, perhaps the worst I’ve read lately is that Dr Nyang’oro is being allowed to retire at “full professor” at the expense of the taxpayers of NC. He should be prosecuted for fraud.

    Sadly, most of society gives a pass to these things today. A little handslapping is about all we can expect for punishment or discipline these days. We get what we deserve, mediocrity.

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