More info on UNC academic scandal

[ThePublisher]

“Academics are going to have to come first,” Thorp said. “And it’s clear that they haven’t to the extent that they should.”

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/09/...#storylink=cpy

Completely admitting they have let academics take a big back seat.

[oldnavy]

When the head of the university comes out and says that the climate at his university is such that academics took a back seat to athletics, would you not think that the NCAA would want to ask a few questions??? Especially since there is plenty of evidence of sham classes and faked grades given to athletes who's eligibility was in jepordy (Julius Peppers and who knows who else).

This is becoming a joke. The man admits to basing his own resignation on the difficulty of changing the culture at UNC, and not a peep out of the NCAA. This after the hammer and the anvil were dropped on PSU for having a culture where athletics trumped everything else (or at least that is what we were told).

How can the NCAA continue to ignore this comedy going on over on the hill?? Hopefully they are waiting on the Martin report and will step in then regardless of the findings... amazing.

[roywhite]

The N&O piece UNC players needed academic help, records show linked on the DBR front page is devastating.

The records develop a deeper picture about the academic fraud that has spawned four ongoing investigations and reviews on the Chapel Hill campus. They show that the athlete support program used the no-show classes to help keep student-athletes eligible to play.

[roywhite]

More from the N&O piece:

That support staff is large, and it is challenged. The university employs roughly 120 people in academic support for athletes, charged with tutoring and counseling nearly 800 athletes.

The challenge comes from working with a group of students who ordinarily wouldn’t have been admitted to one of the country’s best public universities. In the past five years, records show, 53 football players have been admitted as academic “exceptions.” The university has not provided numbers for basketball players, the other major revenue-producing sport.

Anecdotally, a local friend who knows the Wake Forest coaches well, has said they have been amazed at some of the players that UNC has recruited, indicating that Wake or most other ACC schools just couldn't get many of the players admitted.

Apparently, there was a system in place to keep such players eligible once they were admitted.

[oldnavy]

More from the N&O piece:



Anecdotally, a local friend who knows the Wake Forest coaches well, has said they have been amazed at some of the players that UNC has recruited, indicating that Wake or most other ACC schools just couldn't get many of the players admitted.

Apparently, there was a system in place to keep such players eligible once they were admitted.

Roy, you can be sure there was a system in place to keep these "student athletes" eligible. That to me is not even in question. The real question is why the NCAA doesn't seem to care about this. Maybe the NCAA will go back and investigate the high schools that graduated these unqualified players. They seem to be really interested in doing that based on the time they spent 'verifying' Purvis.

If this goes unchallenged by the NCAA, then the NCAA has given schools the template to avoid the APR penalties that UCONN was hit with. Simply set up a bogus set of classes where there is no work involved and funnel players into those classes. Then have tutors do the bulk of the paper that is required and give them all B's or better so that there GPA stays above the threshold. If anyone raises concerns within the department, or if tudors raise concerns, just have some faculty top cover to assure those with the concerns that 'this is to be expected'... and move on.

Amazing. It really has me wondering what UNC has on the NCAA that is keeping them away.

[howardlander]

Roy, you can be sure there was a system in place to keep these "student athletes" eligible. That to me is not even in question. The real question is why the NCAA doesn't seem to care about this.

Here's my guess as to why the NCAA doesn't seem to care about this: It's the same or worse at a LARGE number of NCAA football programs, If this is happening at UNC, what do you suppose is really happening at Alabama or LSU?

Howard

[sagegrouse]

[/B]

Roy, you can be sure there was a system in place to keep these "student athletes" eligible. That to me is not even in question. The real question is why the NCAA doesn't seem to care about this. Maybe the NCAA will go back and investigate the high schools that graduated these unqualified players. They seem to be really interested in doing that based on the time they spent 'verifying' Purvis.

Here's my guess as to why the NCAA doesn't seem to care about this: It's the same or worse at a LARGE number of NCAA football programs, If this is happening at UNC, what do you suppose is really happening at Alabama or LSU?

Howard

Exactly, Howard. The NCAA is an association run by the major athletic institutions. UNC's approach to academics and athletics, while pathetic in the light of day, is hardly unique. "People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones," as they say. And they won't.

sagegrouse

[BD80]

Exactly, Howard. The NCAA is an association run by the major athletic institutions. UNC's approach to academics and athletics, while pathetic in the light of day, is hardly unique. "People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones," as they say. And they won't.

sagegrouse

PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!

If we say we are educational institutions, then that is what we are. Next question.

[miramar]

According to the latest article from the N&O, "[T]he work largely consisted of papers stitched together with passages from the required reading materials that were then, in some instances, 'paraphrased' to avoid plagiarism concerns."

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/09/...#storylink=cpy

1) That's precisely how I got through junior high, back when they were called junior highs, so it's not necessarily a bad way to go.

2) Nevertheless, paraphrasing is considered an indirect quotation, so if it's not properly cited it's still plagiarism. In other words, all of these students should have flunked these so-called courses. At least if you follow the rules:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/577/01/

[camion]

According to the latest article from the N&O, "[T]he work largely consisted of papers stitched together with passages from the required reading materials that were then, in some instances, 'paraphrased' to avoid plagiarism concerns."

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/09/...#storylink=cpy

1) That's precisely how I got through junior high, back when they were called junior highs, so it's not necessarily a bad way to go.

2) Nevertheless, paraphrasing is considered an indirect quotation, so if it's not properly cited it's still plagiarism. In other words, all of these students should have flunked these so-called courses. At least if you follow the rules:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/577/01/

Apparently many of the athletes couldn't do this junior high work and the tutors had to do much of it for them. I am shocked, but no longer surprised by this.

[roywhite]

Exactly, Howard. The NCAA is an association run by the major athletic institutions. UNC's approach to academics and athletics, while pathetic in the light of day, is hardly unique. "People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones," as they say. And they won't.

sagegrouse

Perhaps you're right. Generally, I have viewed the NCAA as having some standards with regards to "student/athletes" if only to preserve some fig leaf to it's member institutions, and that it would act when major evidence of academic fraud is obvious.

No action taken here is pretty much no fig-leaf, and admitting that the emperor has no clothes.

Might as well establish a minor league system (with schools as sponsors) and skip classroom requirements altogether? Just my own take, but I hope we're not at that point, and specifically, that UNC gets whacked big-time for their transgressions.

[ForkFondler]

Here's my guess as to why the NCAA doesn't seem to care about this: It's the same or worse at a LARGE number of NCAA football programs, If this is happening at UNC, what do you suppose is really happening at Alabama or LSU?

Howard

The academic standards at Alabama and LSU are much lower to begin with, so some of the same athletes can be admitted and kept eligible by lowering their standards a bit for athletes -- which is surely something just about all schools do. But UNC has been taking athletes no one else would touch, and graduating them just the same. They didn't just lower their supposedly high standards, they abandoned them altogether.

Swofford really needs to resign. Weather he was involved in all this or not, the ACC shouldn't have a former UNC AD as their commissioner at this point.

[oldnavy]

Yep, the NCAA thinks that ND Prep is a diploma mill according to the front page story. Funny how they can be so concerned about the HS, while they seem to have no interest in the member institutions.

I would say that the goings on at UNC define diploma mill. But then of course ND Prep doesn't bring in millions of dollars like UNC does, so I guess it is situational.

[dpslaw]

Love this anecdote from the N&O story:

Reports that Read wrote about some study sessions showed how little some football players cared about their classwork.

“People were just rude,” Read wrote about a SWAH 112 study session. That class was held in the first summer session of 2010, and was not a no-show class. “...people farting, watching videos on their computers, talking back, complaining, rapping, not paying attention.”

SWAH 112 combines the first two Swahili language classes into one intensive six-credit-hour course. Those who pass it and the intermediate-level Swahili class have fulfilled their language requirement at the university. Records show Swahili and Portuguese are popular languages for basketball and football players. Unlike Spanish and other language courses taught more broadly at UNC, there is no additional language lab required.

Let the fart jokes begin!

[ricks68]

Swofford really needs to resign. Weather he was involved in all this or not, the ACC shouldn't have a former UNC AD as their commissioner at this point.

Sounds logical to me.

ricks

[alteran]

Swofford really needs to resign. Weather he was involved in all this or not, the ACC shouldn't have a former UNC AD as their commissioner at this point.

Agreed. Just makes it look like the conference doesn't care whether it's associated with obvious cheaters.

[dukeofcalabash]

Agreed. Just makes it look like the conference doesn't care whether it's associated with obvious cheaters.

If any did care then they would not be a part of the conference .... would they? I don't hear much from anyone in any conference complaining about another member.

[JTH]

At least it appears that the NCAA has not completely closed the books on the academic fraud at unc.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebask...academic-fraud

[moonpie23]

"continue to monitor"...


this is so laughable were it not so ridiculous....

[BD80]

"continue to monitor"...


this is so laughable were it not so ridiculous....

Standard NCAA speak.

It means we will continue to cash the checks.