Businessweek cover story this week on UNC academic scandal
February 27th, 2014 at 12:43 PM ^
I could have believed many other things involving the athletic dept/boosters with improper benefits, but not significant academic fraud involving the broader university.
February 27th, 2014 at 1:39 PM ^
It's been years now and my old brain is foggy...but back when B1G expansion was first going on, didn't some folks endorse adding UNC to the B1G due to their accademics?
February 27th, 2014 at 8:10 PM ^
pride in comparison to the SEC for example. UNC specifically has been neck and neck with Michigan in the USN&WR rankings. So yeah.
To me, what was going on at UNC was clearly fraudulent, and very embarrassing for the broader university. However, as we saw with the Oklahoma State series, the list of easy classes at Stanford, Everett Golson, and even the Ann Arbor News expose years back, there are varying degrees of "keeping players eligible" going on everywhere. Schools like UNC, Stanford and Michigan have it that much harder because the players entering furthest behind have to compete against a higher curve.
Personally, until the NCAA finds a way to actually deliver a real education "mission" to these athletes, particularly in preparation for entering school and post playing career, and take care of their sport related health issues, the entire discussion around student-athlete is shameful.
February 27th, 2014 at 12:53 PM ^
Is it just me or are UNC athletics in a perpetual state of slightly under-the-radar scandal?
February 27th, 2014 at 1:16 PM ^
I would say the cover of Business Week qualifies for on the radar, not slightly under it.
February 27th, 2014 at 2:04 PM ^
It does seem like they are perpetually in the news for these types of things. Either they are really that bad, or they are simply unable to cover it up like most other schools.
February 27th, 2014 at 12:52 PM ^
during the Dean Smith era. These allegations are disgusting, and I applaud Mary Willingham for taking a stand and doing the right thing.
February 27th, 2014 at 12:55 PM ^
There's a graphic in there showing the majors that players chose. Rasheed Wallace was a philosophy major. Makes so much sense.
February 27th, 2014 at 1:02 PM ^
There is a certain fatalistc profundity to "Ball don't lie."
February 27th, 2014 at 1:37 PM ^
Didn't he quote that from Nietzsche?
February 27th, 2014 at 1:18 PM ^
I highly recommend it to those who have never read it or haven't read it since the Bloomberg takeover. IMO it's the best current events weekly. In economics and business coverage, it easily beats The Economist, which is far too formulaic and really more of a political magazine.
It seems to me that nearly all the magazine content is available free online, but if you subscribe, you do get the weekly audio coverage, which is pretty entertaining.
February 27th, 2014 at 1:35 PM ^
It really is a great magazine. I get it every week and really enjoy it when I actually read it -- however, it is nearly impossible for me to keep up with it every week. They just pile up and then I will read a few at a time while I travel. I think I have at least 20 in the queue waiting to be read.
February 27th, 2014 at 1:27 PM ^
It's easy to read this and wonder what the hell is going on at Carolina but I want to know what the hell is going on in elementary schools, junior highs and high schools. Unreal.
February 27th, 2014 at 1:43 PM ^
February 27th, 2014 at 1:45 PM ^
When she asked more experienced colleagues how to handle their lagging charges, she was told not to lose any sleep. Willingham became, in effect, “an eligibility specialist,” she says, “knowing just how much I could get away with in helping these guys, without actually doing the work for them.”
Reading that passage made the whole thing even more sad really because this seems to hint it was accepted by some perhaps, and the rest turned away because, as WIllingham found out, there was no support system for those who raised concerns.
Dan Kane of the News & Observer down in North Carolina has follow the scandal for a few years now and has written extensive articles on it as well. Last week, in fact, there was an update story that gave some information on transcripts of current professional players who went to UNC-Chapel Hill and had been in the known "no-show" courses. Julius Peppers was mentioned, among others - great grades in the fraudulent courses, near failing or failing in everything else.
February 27th, 2014 at 2:11 PM ^
The almuni, including my wife, don't want to talk about it. It means nothing either. NCAA just let this all fly for the most part.
February 27th, 2014 at 2:06 PM ^
It surprises me that a pretty good school like UNC would get caught doing this while I'm sure most schools have similar issues and you almost never see them. Yeah, FSU had a big blow-up years ago, but I'd suspect most of the SEC has an academic situation at least as bad as this at UNC. I guess those schools just have better internal controls on it and don't allow news to reach the outside world of it.
February 27th, 2014 at 8:22 PM ^
The SAT, ACT, high school GPAs, class ranks ect. for UNC and Michigan and then compare them to Alabama and Auburn. It is harder for a player with a lesser academic background to stay eligible at the two top 30 schools, or at #86 and 91?
February 27th, 2014 at 2:08 PM ^
UNC's problem is that they, like UM, struggle with the idea of athletics and how it compromises the mission of the university, BUT they are southern and love to cheat. So they will catch occasionally themselves cheating rather than create a culture that doesn't allow it. That, friends, is the Carolina Way.
February 27th, 2014 at 2:46 PM ^
The Chairman of Bloomberg (owner of Businessweek) is a UNC alum and member of the UNC Board of Trustees. I have to imagine he knew this was coming and supported it which speaks pretty highly of him if that is the case.
February 27th, 2014 at 6:57 PM ^
“I was part of something that I came to be ashamed of,” says Willingham. “We weren’t serving the kids. We weren’t educating them properly. We were pushing them toward graduation, and that’s not the same as giving them an education.”
I've suspected this kind of thing has been going on as well at schools like PSU that recruit academically borderline guys yet somehow have sky-high graduation rates. Logic dictates that a guy with a high school GPA well below the norm for the school, and who has to spend 40-some hours a week doing his sport, is not likely to succeed at school. And yet almost everyone graduates from PSU somehow.
February 27th, 2014 at 9:23 PM ^