Another Outrage Surfaces at UNC

Friday, August 17, 2012

Voices crying in the wilderness have long been warning about the corrupting effect that the obsession with collegiate sports can have on scholastic integrity.

For years now, one of the most compelling of those voices has been that of Bill Friday, the long-retired former president of the University of North Carolina system. He once held forth eloquently on the subject as the lunch speaker at a Pilot newsroom retreat.

Ironically, Friday must now be finding it hard not to go running around yelling, "I told you so!"

The reason: The proud flagship of that UNC system, the Chapel Hill campus, now finds itself having to endure nationwide exposure and embarrassment as a result of just the kind of sports/academic scandal that Friday and others have warned about. And it seems to get worse every day.

The Peppers Transcript

There has already been much media coverage - and comment in this space - about the horrendous compromising of anything resembling professional standards that took place at Chapel Hill, centered on the university's Department of African and Afro-American Studies.

Under the leadership (or lack thereof) of the since-resigned Dr. Julius Nyang'oro, students - almost all of whom were in sports - got grades for dozens of academic "courses" that seem to have involved little or nothing in the way of things like actual lectures, class meetings and homework.

Now comes the icing on the cake, or at least the latest spicy layer. It seems that football star Julius Peppers, who brought UNC fame and fortune while a so-called "student-athlete" from 1998 till 2001, was virtually all athlete and no student during that -period, racking up 11 D's and F's.

The only counterbalancing grades he got were seven B's from - you guessed it - the Department of African and Afro-American Studies. And no one, apparently, batted an eyelash or expressed a qualm. Clearly, this kind of thing was going on well before 2007, which is as far back as the current investigation has chosen to go.

No Longer Tolerable

We have learned about this latest outrage as a result of yet another impressive bit of investigative reporting by The News & Observer of Raleigh. But this time around, it seems, N&O reporter Dan Kane might never have found out about the new/old angle if some N.C. State fans hadn't gotten ahold of Peppers' transcript on the UNC website and gleefully made maximum hay out of it.

Why were a former student's supposedly confidential academic records available on the Internet in the first place? The university owes us all an explanation on that one. In the meantime, though, of greater importance is the question of what we can learn from this sorry experience.

This much is obvious: It is past time to admit that "student-athletes" are all too often students in name only, with their "institutions of higher learning" all too often looking the other way while their standards are dragged through the mud for the sake of income and prestige.

Maybe there was a time when that could be tolerated with a wink. But in this day, when the U.S. is in danger of falling further behind other countries in the global academic race, it is a luxury we can no longer afford.

More like this story

Newton 9 months ago

In Jesuit parlance, "The ends justify the means". Officials at UNC evidently bought into this concept. For UNC to restore its integrity, they must:

Go all the way up to the top and start lopping off heads. Harry Truman had a sign on his desk, "the buck stops here". Senior UNC officials need to go.
Minimum admissions standards need to be set and need to be quantifiable. Minimum standards should be set at a floor of either lowest quartile or decile of all admitted students at UNC.
Quantifiable measures such as "progress towards degree" should be published semi-annually. Minimum standards should be set in this area.
Floors should be set in terms of graduation rates that exceed those required by NCAA standards.
Published reports on specific majors (without names of student athletes) for ALL UNC student athletes by team should be disclosed annually. This disclosure would negate the issue of athletes majoring in "underwater basket weaving" and the current flavor of the day, black studies etc.
Coaches should be held accountable (no incentive comp) and also rewarded (bonuses) by the academic performance of their student athletes.
The Southern Alliance of Colleges and Schools should become more involved with all academic and athletic issues as opposed to the NCAA. As in the case of Penn State, the threat of pulling their accreditation would keep all universities in line.

As the handling of the much more egregious Penn St.scandal, UNC must be held to a significantly higher standard to once again gain the trust of NC taxpayers. Enough is enough.

In full disclosure:

GO VIRGINIA TECH HOKIES!!!!!

lakeview 9 months ago

I can tell you exactly where Virginia Tech Dookies can go.

Courseaire 9 months ago

Here Newton has provided sage advice to the people of NC, yet because he is a Hokie, he and his ilk are attacked by what I expect is one of those cheat'n TarHeels. In full disclosure:

GO MARYLAND TERPS!!!!!

lakeview 9 months ago

Great, a Twerp! I hate them more than Va Tech.

: )

Newton 9 months ago

@lakeview

Addressing a few issues:

I have the right to criticize a state run institution that I support as a taxpayer.
I would back fixes like the ones listed above at most all universities (although I believe that UNC should be held to a higher standard due to the scandal)
I believe your referring to dookies as those from Duke. Either a miss-spelling or you met some other institution of higher learning that is not embroiled in a scandal.

Best,

Newton

Courseaire 9 months ago

Jealousy because we were once considered the UCLA of the East and never had to buy an ACC Title or National Championship.

Newton 9 months ago

@Courseaire

Interesting as you used past tense.

Also, even factoring the earning power of so-called student athletes, other ACC school grads out earn UNC. See the link below from a story on ABC-11 this week. You'll note that NCSU outpaces our "flagship school" by quite a bit.

I love the way all you UNC grads live in a bubble. All you NCSU grads out there take note, you are more highly prized than UNC grads. Almost all ACC grads make more than UNC. UVA, the school that UNC compared itself to, public ivy, their grads earn substantially more. I doubt there is much jealousy on payday.

http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/top-state-universities.asp

Thatcher 9 months ago

Everyone has a right to be proud of their alma mater, and I don't want to seem too boastful here, but this type of scandal would never happen at Faber College. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8psQi7ScQQ. Cheers!

debsalomon 9 months ago

I would never raise the name of my alma mater in this case because I get enough thrashing as its defender/promoter/spokesperson during basketball season. But since someone else misidentified the Va.Tech "Dookies" then maybe the real Dookies should be examined and, in most cases, emulated. Seems to me the coach sets the standards and enforces them. Coach K may be ridiculed for his rat face and imperious attitude...but he seems to uphold academic standards. Yikes! Could it be that those arrogant Yankess are doing something right?

Newton 9 months ago

@debsalomon

I must be going completely psychotic but I have to agree with you here. Institutions like Duke, Stanford, Notre Dame and Boston College uphold their academic standards very well while at the same time being highly competitive in 1A.

I'll cough up a ditto here.

debsalomon 9 months ago

Whew! Thanks, Newton. I'll put away my bullet-proof vest for now. It's one thing to provide athletes tutors in their regular classes because time is an issue -- quite another to invent classes to suit athlete's schedules. Doing the right thing is not impossible: several recent UNC basketball players have been academic all-stars. Like I said....the coach sets the standards. Let's hope imporvement is nigh.

Newton 9 months ago

Problems with student athlete academic performance is systemic and typically runs all the way to the top. Being a first round draft pick and graduation should not be mutually exclusive. David Wilson from VA Tech graduated prior to his fourth football season and was a No. 1 pick.

debsalomon 9 months ago

From time to time, I hear rumblings about making college athletics into professional sports: hire the athletes -- all they need to do is practice, play and win. Maybe let them audit a few courses if they had the interest and time. Because it is unrealistic to expect a student who is attending a college to PLAY, first and foremost -- isn't that what a football/basketball/baseball scholarship is for?--- to concentrate on studies. There just isn't time. Or, perhaps student-athletes could attend summer session and out-of-season (for their sport) semesters. And, if only the NBA wouldn't take freshmen and sophomores. This just underlines why players attend college...free, no less. They want the millions ASAP, never mind letting down fans and supporters. Oh well... in a perfect world.

Comments No Longer Accepted

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
28	29	30	1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31	1