More info on UNC academic scandal

[BD80]

[I]The first entry was virtually identical to a passage on an education website written by four 11-year-olds for their peers.

... .

That should have tipped the prof off right there. A unc football player writing at a 6th grade level? Unheard of!

[miramar]

That should have tipped the prof off right there. A unc football player writing at a 6th grade level? Unheard of!

UNC administrators were very impressed that he had improved that much in only one semester.

[roywhite]

Attorney Stephen A. Miller is author of The NCAA Needs to Let Someone Else Enforce Its Rules

Among many examples of problems related to NCAA judgment and enforcement:

The capricious enforcement also extends to a failure to investigate certain cases that seem to cry out for an NCAA inquiry. For example, an internal investigation at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill recently revealed what a local newspaper called "the biggest case of academic fraud at UNC-CH in decades." Specifically, the probe discovered unauthorized grade changes by forged signatures and classes where no instruction took place in at least 54 classes within the Department of African and Afro-American Studies between 2007 and 2011; football and basketball players comprised approximately 40 percent of the students enrolled in these suspect classes. Shockingly, the NCAA and UNC issued a statement in August 2012 to make clear that any such cheating to boost eligibility of athletes did not violate any NCAA rules.

[-bdbd]

More ugly, ugly, ugly allegations of academic fraud.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/10/...ons-haunt.html



Highsmith was never suspended or disciplined at all by the UNC football team. Heck, he played against us last night.

-Jason "the article contains more incidents and blatant plagiarism involving other players too" Evans

...and the plagiarism is getting national atttention...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon...olina/1653359/

They really need to add a course called, "Plagiarism 101," because this is just getting pathetic. Copying almost word-for-word from a website for 11-year-olds. Can't you be at least a little more creative than that. Really funny that the writing style of the 5th and 6th graders was believable as being that of a UNC FB "scholar." Wow, they have really sunk to new lows. But as Jason points out, he just keeps on playin'. Too incredible for words.

[CameronBornAndBred]

What's more damning to unc is not that the player cheated, but that he was caught and then reported by his own teacher; one who was actually worried about the scandals going on around the school. And Carolina's answer was to sweep it under the rug. Since this happened while they were being investigated, I'm thinking it might majorly bite them in the azz.

[moonpie23]

can we just stop? please....NOTHING...repeat...NOTHING more is going to happen to unc over any of this....

the noise from this "scandal" is DEAFENING....yet the NCAA is closing their doors so they don't have to hear it... Sorry to be negative nellie, but they are going to skate on all of this...


does anyone have ANY LEGITIMATE proof otherwise?

stms

[CameronBlue]

...Copying almost word-for-word from a website for 11-year-olds. Can't you be at least a little more creative than that. Really funny that the writing style of the 5th and 6th graders was believable as being that of a UNC FB "scholar." Wow, they have really sunk to new lows. But as Jason points out, he just keeps on playin'. Too incredible for words.

Can we just ease up on Highsmith for a moment? I've watched a couple of episodes of "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader" on Fox. Some of the contestants were quite impressive. (Apparently the show is a fertile source for their news anchors as well.) No surprise Highsmith thought stealing from 5th graders was a good idea. Minimal risk of litigation or copyright infringement and as Art Linkletter once opined, "kids say the darnedest things."

Wonder what the going rate for a UNC degree on E-Bay is these days. Good freakin lord.

[mgtr]

can we just stop? please....NOTHING...repeat...NOTHING more is going to happen to unc over any of this....

Can't we all just get along?

[devildeac]

Sent to me today noting a USA Today headline:

"Did UNC's Highsmith seriously plagiarize 11-year-olds?"

It just keeps getting better. Wonder if the ncaa office/s read the article...


http://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon...olina/1653359/

[BD80]

... Wonder what the going rate for a UNC degree on E-Bay is these days. Good freakin lord.

I think eBay has a type of obscenity filter which prohibits the sale of such scatological items

[Devil549]

can we just stop? please....NOTHING...repeat...NOTHING more is going to happen to unc over any of this....

the noise from this "scandal" is DEAFENING....yet the NCAA is closing their doors so they don't have to hear it... Sorry to be negative nellie, but they are going to skate on all of this...


does anyone have ANY LEGITIMATE proof otherwise?

stms

I agree nothing will be done about any of this by NCAA, they will say agree with self sanctions Unc comes up with. Now if Unc does not self sanction could be different story but they will. The NCAA does not want to get into the mess over in Chapel Thrill then Dean Smith and John Swofford will be exposed.

[sagegrouse]

I think eBay has a type of obscenity filter which prohibits the sale of such scatological items

Warning: if you park on Franklin St., someone may slap a UNC diploma on your windshield.

sage

[cowetarock]

That should have tipped the prof off right there. A unc football player writing at a 6th grade level? Unheard of!

I always thought when it came to recruiting unc got the best pupil athletes.

[alteran]

can we just stop? please....NOTHING...repeat...NOTHING more is going to happen to unc over any of this....

the noise from this "scandal" is DEAFENING....yet the NCAA is closing their doors so they don't have to hear it... Sorry to be negative nellie, but they are going to skate on all of this...


does anyone have ANY LEGITIMATE proof otherwise?

stms

This constant drip-drip-drip of well-documented malfeasance is causing real damage to UNC. I'd feel guilty about enjoying it so much if it were not a bed entirely of UNC's own making-- from the stonewalling administration to the complicit student-atheletes all the way down to the excuse-making fans.

I'd love to replay history and see which would be more damaging both to the university and their athletic programs-- 1) stonewalling like they did and getting people riled enough to dig, or 2) coming clean, facing the penalties, and killing the story. At the outset, this was about Marvin Austin and a few ill-advised tweets / junkets. As UNC tried to dodge the consequences around Marvin, the N&O got riled up, people (okay, NCSU fans) started digging themselves, and we got the John Blake shenanigans, the tutor fiasco, the parking tickets, Butch Davis' alternate cell phone, the AFAM scandal, and now, the institutionally-ignored athletic plagiarism.

Did I leave anything out?

Some of the stories might have become big deals if UNC had come clean immediately, but many would not have. Their once stellar reputation-- deserved or not-- is now a joke. At the football game Saturday, whenever they tried to chant, "Tar! Heels!" all we had to do was add "cheat!" in the gap, and they shut up after a few rounds.

UNC's reputation a punch line... and their fans know it.

Hell, UNC's got an ex-GOVERNOR doing the investigation, and nobody's going to believe anything that comes out of it that isn't highly negative about UNC-- anything that exonerates UNC at all is going to be laughed at.

While I tend to agree with you that the NCAA wants to ignore this and may very well do so, UNC's scandal is tainting them as well. Maybe nothing will happen-- but it ain't over yet.

[dukeofcalabash]

Attorney Stephen A. Miller is author of The NCAA Needs to Let Someone Else Enforce Its Rules

Among many examples of problems related to NCAA judgment and enforcement:

As much as I do not like UNC athletics, I find it hard to believe that they are the only college in America who is not pandering to those football and basketball players who should not even be in college. How man of these young men are led to a degree program that will only accomplish one thing ---- eligibility! Only wish the NCAA would come down on them (as in all of them), but I guess that would be asking too much wouldn't it?

[Native]

Hmpf. They cheat about as well as they play football, then.

[dukeofcalabash]

Can we just ease up on Highsmith for a moment? I've watched a couple of episodes of "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader" on Fox. Some of the contestants were quite impressive. (Apparently the show is a fertile source for their news anchors as well.) No surprise Highsmith thought stealing from 5th graders was a good idea. Minimal risk of litigation or copyright infringement and as Art Linkletter once opined, "kids say the darnedest things."

Wonder what the going rate for a UNC degree on E-Bay is these days. Good freakin lord.

It sounds like you are saying the he "looks" up to the work of fifth graders?

[bedeviled]

I don’t have any legal wherewithal and wonder if the plagiarism, advising department steering, and bogus classes/diplomas are actually illegal or simply bad taste. Please advise.

As we know, the SBI’s investigation is the only one with subpoena power to prevent cover-ups, resignations, and the prevailing general muteness. And, the SBI is the only one interested in the past besides Martin who denied interest in the system of plagiarism. Would the SBI extend its investigation from Nyang’oro, individually, to include the more recent goings-on? Is there any criminal behavior there?

Is the use of academic fraud for scholarship money simply a within-university issue? Note that the tax-payers were subsidizing out-of-state athletic scholarships for some of the period in question, meaning cheaters weren’t just defrauding the university and booster club (but the specific victim shouldn’t matter anyway if it is a criminal act, right?). Wouldn’t this constitute a criminal fraud by the athlete – they know they are cheating and are doing so specifically to maintain their scholarships? Is the signed Honor Code legally binding or do other scholarship documents attest to academic integrity?
-- An admittedly dissimilar comparison: the Harvard conman, Wheeler, was charged with crimes for various acts, one of which (from my understanding) was larceny for plagiarizing scholarship/grant applications to obtain scholarship money.
-- Another dissimilar comparison: the players in the Norby Walters scandal were court-ordered to provide restitution (repaying their scholarships) and community service after they were found to have defrauded the institutions by playing their seasons after covertly signing with agents and claiming to be eligible for NCAA play.
(I don’t know if the tax-payer subsidies for out-of-state athletes ended before or after the suspensions in 2010 or if that even matters, but I do wonder if they paid back their scholarships).

Does the use of academic fraud (plagiarism, steering toward ghost classes) and cover-up by Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes for purposes of sports revenue or job security constitute a prosecutable fraud?

The bottom line is that there was fraud (at least academic fraud) and money and jobs exchanged hands based on that fraud. But, I don't know if any of it is illegal or of interest to the SBI.

[FerryFor50]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...hp_ref=college

[OldPhiKap]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...hp_ref=college

To be fair, it was the collaborative work of FOUR eleven-year-olds. So that's like fourty four or something.