UNC Admits Academic Fraud: Lack Of Institutional Controls, *NCAA Issues 3rd NOA

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They should have gotten Penn State type penalties or the death penalty.

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As a graduate student at UNC-Greensboro, Willingham researched the reading levels of 183 UNC-Chapel Hill athletes who played football or basketball from 2004 to 2012. She found that 60% read between fourth- and eighth-grade levels. Between 8% and 10% read below a third-grade level.

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From Mary Willingham's research, based on Scholastic Aptitude Test for Adults:

-- Of 183 athletes in revenue-generating sports admitted to UNC between 2004 and 2012:

-- About 60% were reading between the fourth and eighth grade reading levels.

-- Between 8% and 10% were reading below a third grade level.

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We asked UNC to comment specifically on Mary Willingham's research and they told us they were not aware of it, and that it wasn't part of her job to do research. But then we showed them emails between Willingham and university officials that show she had approval to conduct the research and shared her findings with university officials. UNC then told CNN they plan to meet with her to discuss what she found.

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In public remarks at a Board of Trustees meeting Thursday, Folt said the university accepts responsibility and is “absolutely” accountable for years of bogus African studies courses that were significantly populated by athletes. And, Folt said, the university must “fully acknowledge and accept lessons of our past” before moving toward meaningful athletic and academic reform.

Until Thursday, Folt had been comfortable letting Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham and Provost Jim Dean do most of the talking about the scandals.

But Folt stepped forward after more than a week of explosive headlines and national news coverage about the literacy levels of UNC basketball and football players.

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The University of North Carolina academic fraud scandal has entered its Tom Wolfe phase, revealing a racial subtext of the uniquely ironic and bitter American variety.

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In a statement dated Feb. 1, the Carolina Black Caucus, a campus group, declared: “We stand united for black Americans, both enslaved and free, who built this university and who were also barred from its doors.” The caucus added that it stands united for “black athletes who face stereotype, threat, and are targets of ridicule”; “the Department of African, African American and Diaspora Studies, which has been unfairly attacked, overly investigated, and whose legitimacy has been repeatedly questioned”; [and] “courageous administrators, faculty, staff, and students who press on despite impatience, media inaccuracies, gossip, and public attacks on our institution.”

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The sordid affair hasn’t been “overly investigated.” To the contrary, UNC has resisted getting to the bottom of it—especially the degree of culpability of the Tar Heels Athletic Department. Appointed last summer, Chancellor Carol Folt belatedly has admitted that UNC still hasn’t gotten its arms around a scandal that forced her predecessor to step down in humiliation. This is not a made-up controversy based on “media inaccuracies” or “gossip.”

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Thankfully, Phillip Jackson, executive director of a Chicago education reform group called the Black Star Project, has stepped up to set matters straight. In a Feb. 3 letter thst he has sent to dozens of newspapers in North Carolina, Jackson wrote: “As a black man in America, I find it appalling that the University of North Carolina’s Black Caucus would choose to issue a declaration of support to defend UNC even after the university admitted that it cheated young black men out of the best education possible on its campus.” Jackson, a former corporate executive and public servant who has served Chicago in roles such as chief of education and assistant city budget director, added: “Maybe these esteemed faculty and staff of the UNC Black Caucus don’t realize that their university students are not just competing among themselves in the big cities and small towns of North Carolina. Maybe they don’t understand that being globally competent is a way ‘bigger game’ than football or basketball!”

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