The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced Wednesday the results of an independent investigation conducted by former federal prosecutor Kenneth Wainstein into past academic irregularities by the university.
The report focuses on two employees in the African and Afro-American Studies department that were responsible for offering hundreds of irregular classes at UNC-Chapel Hill between 1993 and 2011.
According to the findings, Julius Nyang'oro and Deborah Crowder created so- called "paper classes." In these classes that had no class attendance or faculty involvement, students wrote only a single research paper. The papers were graded by Crowder, who was not a professor. They typically earned an A or B grade.
Over the course of their 18-year existence, the paper classes affected 3,100 out of a total of 97,600 undergraduate students who were enrolled at the school during that time period. Student-athletes accounted for 47.6 percent of enrollments in the irregular classes.
Academic counselors in the Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes saw the paper classes and the artificially high grades they yielded as key to helping some student-athletes remain eligible. Academic advisors in the Office of Academic Advising also directed non-athlete students to these courses.
"Mr. Wainstein has found that the wrongdoing at Carolina lasted much longer and affected more students than previously known. The bad actions of a few and the inaction of others failed the University's students, faculty and alumni, and undermined the institution as a whole," said university chancellor Carol L. Folt. "This conduct could and should have been stopped much earlier by individuals in positions of influence and oversight, and others could have sounded the alarm more forcefully."
Crowder and Nyang'oro retired in 2009 and 2012, respectively. 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 Wainstein in exchange for Nyang'oro's cooperation.
Wainstein's report, conducted over eight months and which included 126 interviews, is the latest in a series of investigations into the scandal. In 2012, the NCAA imposed a one-year bowl ban for the Tar Hells football team.
On June 6 of this year, UNC men's basketball coach Roy Williams disputed comments made by former Tar Heels star Rashad McCants that Williams knew about potential academic fraud at the university.
McCants, in a story for ESPN's "Outside the Lines", said tutors wrote papers for him and that he rarely went to class during his time at North Carolina and remained eligible to play.
In addition, McCants said Williams knew about the "paper-class" system, in which players didn't have to attend class and were required to only submit one term paper to receive a grade.
McCants spent three seasons at North Carolina from 2002-05 and helped the 2004-05 squad capture the national championship.
[SportsNetwork.com]
