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

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Papa Sam

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NCAA charges UNC with five Level I violations in academic probe

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The NCAA has charged North Carolina with five violations connected to the school's long-running academic fraud scandal, including a lack of institutional control for poor oversight of an academic department popular with athletes.

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The five charges listed in the NCAA's notice are:

• There was a lack of institutional control in failing to "sufficiently monitor'' the AFAM department as well as the academic support department for athletes, noting athletes received "preferential access'' to the department's irregular courses.

• Academic counselors leveraged relationships from the fall semester in 2002 to the summer session of 2011 with AFAM department faculty and staff to provide athletes with benefits "not generally available to the student body.'' Those benefits included suggesting assignments to the department, turning in papers for athletes and recommending grades.

• Academic counselor Jan Boxill, who worked with women's basketball, provided improper assistance by sometimes adding content to athletes' papers. Also, in at least one case, she recommended a grade for submitted work.

• Former AFAM office administrator Deborah Crowder, one of two department staffers most directly linked to irregular courses in the department, didn't cooperate with NCAA investigators.

• Former AFAM department chairman Julius Nyang'oro, the other staffer most directly linked to the department's irregular courses, also declined to cooperate with the NCAA probe.

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December 14, 2014 – Interview transcript of Roy Williams (R. Williams),
head men's basketball coach. This includes, but is not limited to, R.
Williams' concern about the number of men's basketball student-athletes
majoring in AFRI/AFAM.
(RWilliams_TR_120414_NorthCarolina_00231)

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FI239: January 27, 2015 – Interview transcript of Butch Davis (Davis), former
head football coach. This includes, but is not limited to, Davis' description
of the relationship between ASPSA and the football program.
(BDavis_TR_012715_NorthCarolina_00231)

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FI5: July 22, 2010 – Email from Jan Boxill (Boxill), then philosophy instructor,
director of the Parr Center for Ethics, women's basketball athletic
academic counselor in ASPSA and chair of the faculty, to Travis Gore
(Gore), administrative support associate in the AFRI/AFAM department.
This includes, but is not limited to, recommending a grade on a paper for a
then student-athlete.
(Item1_BoxillToGore_072210_NorthCarolina)

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FI9: September 23, 2008 – Email from Boxill to Crowder. This includes, but is
not limited to, Boxill stating that a women's basketball student-athlete only
needs a D in an AFAM course.
(Item1_BoxillToCrowder_092308_NorthCarolina_00231)

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June 19, 2009 – Email from Reynolds to Andre Williams (A. Williams),
former director of football student-athlete development. This includes, but
is not limited to, Reynolds' statement that Crowder was retiring from the
AFRI/AFAM department and that the football student-athletes should
expect C's and D's if they failed to turn in papers before Crowder's
retirement.
(Item8_WilliamsFromReynolds_061909_NorthCarolina_00231)

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FI98: February 26, 2008 – Email from Crowder to Blanton. This includes, but is
not limited to, Crowder mentioning that she would deliver signed forms
for student-athletes quietly so as not to raise suspicion.
(Item5_BlantonFromCrowder_022608_NorthCarolina_00231)

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FI119: – Email from Crowder to , former football
student-athlete, and , former football student-athlete. This
includes, but is not limited to, Crowder expressing her disappointment that
the two student-athletes turned in the same paper, providing them with a
new assignment and pointing out how she usually gives them the benefit
of the doubt.
(Item2_CrowderTo _ _NorthCarolina_00231)

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FI252: PowerPoint drafted by Bridger for the football staff. This includes, but is
not limited to, Bridger pointing out that the staff put football studentathletes
into courses where they did not have to go to class, did not have to
meet with professors and did not have to pay attention or take notes.
(PowerPoint1_WainsteinSupplement_NorthCarolina_00231)

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Specifically, individuals in the academic administration on campus, particularly in
the college of arts and sciences, did not sufficiently monitor the AFRI/AFAM and
ASPSA departments or provide appropriate supervision for these academic units
and their staffs. The AFRI/AFAM department created anomalous courses that
went unchecked for 18 years.
This allowed individuals within ASPSA to use these
courses through special arrangements to maintain the eligibility of academically
at-risk student-athletes, particularly in the sports of football, men's basketball and
women's basketball.

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FI221: December 14, 2014 – Interview transcript of Roy Williams (R. Williams),
head men's basketball coach. This includes, but is not limited to, R.
Williams' concern about the number of men's basketball student-athletes
majoring in AFRI/AFAM.
(RWilliams_TR_120414_NorthCarolina_00231)

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FI240: November 5, 2014 – Interview transcript of Steve Robinson (Robinson),
assistant men's basketball coach. This includes, but is not limited to,
Robinson's description of how the men's basketball team handled
academic issues.

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Specifically, individuals in the academic administration on campus, particularly in the college of arts and sciences, did not sufficiently monitor the AFRI/AFAM and ASPSA departments or provide appropriate supervision for these academic units and their staffs. The AFRI/AFAM department created anomalous courses that went unchecked for 18 years. This allowed individuals within ASPSA to use these courses through special arrangements to maintain the eligibility of academically at-risk student-athletes, particularly in the sports of football, men's basketball and women's basketball

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I blame his "stall ball" for the eventual shot clock being employed to prevent it, yet they actually act like stall ball was good for college basketball because Dean Smith did it. Pete Correl @ Princeton controlled the ball but he did so with crisp passing, weaves, and backdoor cuts which at least made it fun to watch when run well, which Princeton did.

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Big fan of that offense.

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NCAA charges UNC with five Level I violations in academic probe

North Carolina's long-running academic fraud scandal now includes five NCAA charges, including a lack of institutional control for poor oversight of an academic department popular with athletes and the counselors who advised them.

The school released a 59-page notice of allegations Thursday from the NCAA, which uses the document to specify violations uncovered during an investigation. The charges were more broad-based than focused on individual sports, with the NCAA regarding academic irregularities in the formerly named African and Afro-American Studies department as potential improper benefits by saying athletes received access to courses and other assistance generally unavailable to non-athletes.

No coaches were named in the five allegations, though one dealt specifically with the conduct of a women's basketball adviser for providing too much help on research papers.

UNC must file a response to the NCAA within 90 days of receiving the notice, which would likely lead to a hearing with the infractions committee followed by a ruling weeks to months later.

"Everybody wants to bring closure to this," athletic director Bubba Cunningham said Thursday. "It's not a pleasant chapter in the history of the university."

The list of charges include counselors providing "special arrangements" to athletes by working with AFAM faculty and staff, such as requesting course offerings or obtaining assignments for athletes, over a roughly nine-year period starting in 2002.

In charging a lack of institutional control, the NCAA said the school didn't do enough to monitor the AFAM department or the academic support program for athletes. That allowed counselors to use the irregular courses to help keep at-risk athletes eligible, "particularly in the sports of football, men's basketball and women's basketball," according to the notice.

All five charges are considered potential Level I violations, described by the NCAA as a "severe breach of conduct." Cunningham said it is too early to speculate on potential sanctions the school could face.

"Everyone who loves Carolina is truly saddened by these allegations," Hall of Fame basketball coach Roy Williams said in a statement. "We aspire to and work toward meeting higher standards than the actions that warranted this notice. Our university and numerous outside groups have looked at every aspect of our academic and athletic life. As a result, Carolina has implemented scores of new processes and checks and balances that have undoubtedly made us a better university. Hopefully, we will never again receive such a notice."

The NCAA reopened its investigation last summer into academic misconduct, an offshoot of a 2010 investigation into the football program that led to sanctions in March 2012. The focus was on courses that were often treated as independent studies requiring no class time and one or two research papers, with many operating that way despite being scheduled as lecture classes.

An eight-month investigation conducted by former U.S. Justice Department official Kenneth Wainstein stated that office administrator Deborah Crowder -- not a faculty member -- typically handed out assignments and high grades after only a scan of the work.

Wainstein's October report found problems running from 1993 to 2011 and affecting more than 3,100 students, with athletes across numerous sports accounting for roughly half the enrollments in problem courses.

The five charges listed in the NCAA's notice are:

• There was a lack of institutional control in failing to "sufficiently monitor" the interactions between the AFAM and the academic support departments, and athletes received "preferential access" to AFAM's irregular courses.

• Academic counselors "leveraged" relationships from fall 2002 to summer 2011 with AFAM faculty and staff to provide athletes with benefits such as suggesting assignments, turning in papers for them and recommending grades. In addition, 10 athletes exceeded UNC's 12-hour limit of independent study credits countable toward graduation between fall 2006 and summer 2011 due to misidentified "paper classes."

• Women's basketball counselor Jan Boxill provided improper assistance by sometimes adding content to athletes' papers and recommended a grade for submitted work in at least one case.

• Crowder, one of two AFAM staffers most directly linked to the irregularities, didn't cooperate with NCAA investigators.

• Former AFAM department chairman Julius Nyang'oro, the other staffer most directly linked to the irregular courses, also declined to cooperate.

Both Crowder, who retired in 2009, and Nyang'oro cooperated with Wainstein's probe amid the backdrop of a criminal fraud investigation. Boxill resigned in February as a philosophy professor after the school informed her it planned to fire her after the release of Wainstein's report.

The fraud case has led to several lawsuits from former UNC athletes against the school or NCAA, as well as questions from UNC's accreditation agency.

The school announced May 22 it had received the NCAA's notice but didn't release the document publicly until Thursday to redact information to comply with privacy laws.

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NCAA's notice seems to have spared Roy Williams

https://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/13013267/north-carolina-tar-heels-notice-allegations-ncaa-looks-favorable-coach-roy-williams

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