More info on UNC academic scandal

[Nepos]

I stumbled across this article, it tells some anecdotes of UNC players and their "academic" requirements and then poses a larger question of what schools should do about the paradox of the very concept of the student-athlete.

link

Yes, yes, yes. Combining pro-level athletics with college-level academics is inherently problematic, and the largest problems arise because of not being honest about this. Establishing and supporting majors in areas that are meaningful to athletes would go a long way to achieving honesty and eliminating some of the issues generated by the current dishonesty. A "pre-pro athlete" major could include meaningful and helpful courses in phys ed, coaching, communications, sports psych, sports soc/history, personal finances, etc. Obviously, lots of athletes would choose other majors, but this major would exist for those who are primarily at the school to advance their athletic credentials.

I did not participate in athletics at Duke and am just a spectator in this game. However, about a year ago I did discuss this issue with a friend who was one of the most prominent "scholar-athlete" in my class (a starter on a visible varsity sport who attended Duke on an academic scholarship), and he was equally upset by the dishonesty in college sports and in favor of reform like that mentioned in the NY Times column.

Why can't this type of reform happen? It would allow the big money for schools, coaches, leagues, and athletic departments to remain, so it would not threaten the golden goose. The threat would be to the pristine academic image of the ivory tower, but one would hope that academic types would want to embrace the truth of the current system (there's a lot that is far from pristine right now) and establish a more honest environment in which to embed big-time athletics in a setting that also focuses on big-time academics.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Someone asked Heather Dinich on her blog about the NCAA's and for the most part the media's lack of interest in the latest findings at Carolina. Her response was interesting.

A big reason I don't think it's getting a lot of attention, though, is because the NCAA doesn't seem too interested in it. The bigger question is why isn't the NCAA interested anymore? Well, maybe because it's hard to prove that athletes were the target of these classes? I have no idea, but if the NCAA were nosing around, I don't doubt the media would suddenly become more interested. Right now it seems more academic than athletic. That doesn't mean that perception is correct.

http://espn.go.com/blog/acc/post/_/i...ay-mailblog-84

[ForkFondler]

A similar Michigan story:

http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/acad...is_genera.html

But still, I don't see any instances of star football players taking an upper level course in order to become eligible as a freshman. That is taking academic fraud to a whole new level. In fact it might be a two level jump.

[allenmurray]

Before we cast stones, make sure we remember the ESPN report that a large number of Duke basketball players get degrees in Sociology. I don't recall the numbers, but there appears to be at least some "clustering" here at Duke too.

Sure there are some easy courses in most sociology departments, but as someone who has an undergraduate major in sociology, from a university with a sociology department that takes itself seriously, I engaged in more challenging reading and use of original source materials than most of my friends in any other social science. As a sociology major at a university less prestigious than Duke I was expected as an undergraduate to be familiar with the works and theories of C. Wright Mills, Max Weber, Claude Levi-Straus, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, Margaret Mead, Peter Berger, Robert Merton, and on and on. Why people joke about athletes majoring in sociology, rather than communications, or journalism, or general studies, or other majors has always escaped me. People who had a major in sociology (rather than just a course or two) are incredibly well read and quite prepared for graduate study in many fields (I have two graduate degrees - neither required anything as challenging as reading social theorsts). Because of the quantitiative emphasis over the last three decades, the statistical requirements for folks in sociology often exceed that of any other social science, including economics (which as we all know is just a sub-genre of sociology).

There are many less challenging majors than sociology, but it seems everyone likes to call it out as the "easy route" for an athlete. I've never understood that.

[ForkFondler]

Every school has some easier courses, easier majors, and easier paths to graduation. Those paths are, of course, more likely to be taken by athletes who not admitted because they are superior students. But that's not the stuff academic fraud is made of. Rather it's about fake courses and fake coursework (tutor-generated papers). Regardless of exactly what blurry line you care to draw that defines a "real course", the UNC athletic curriculum crossed it and kept going. For example, did McAdoo really plagiarize other sources pages at a time, or did someone else do it for him?

[grit74]

Sure there are some easy courses in most sociology departments, but as someone who has an undergraduate major in sociology, from a university with a sociology department that takes itself seriously, I engaged in more challenging reading and use of original source materials than most of my friends in any other social science. As a sociology major at a university less prestigious than Duke I was expected as an undergraduate to be familiar with the works and theories of C. Wright Mills, Max Weber, Claude Levi-Straus, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, Margaret Mead, Peter Berger, Robert Merton, and on and on. Why people joke about athletes majoring in sociology, rather than communications, or journalism, or general studies, or other majors has always escaped me. People who had a major in sociology (rather than just a course or two) are incredibly well read and quite prepared for graduate study in many fields (I have two graduate degrees - neither required anything as challenging as reading social theorsts). Because of the quantitiative emphasis over the last three decades, the statistical requirements for folks in sociology often exceed that of any other social science, including economics (which as we all know is just a sub-genre of sociology).

There are many less challenging majors than sociology, but it seems everyone likes to call it out as the "easy route" for an athlete. I've never understood that.

great post!

[Jderf]

Not sure if this has been posted elsewhere or not, but Hakeem Nicks has been retroactively declared ineligible for his senior season (2008).

[CameronBornAndBred]

OUCH!!!!!

In a report released Thursday, a faculty subcommittee at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that Tar Heel athletes told interviewers that they were directed to classes in the African and Afro-American Studies Department by staffers in the Academic Support Program for Student Athletes.

Further interviews suggested that athletic advisers were discouraged from contacting faculty to discuss courses offered and were instead guided to the associate directors at the Loudermilk Center – those whose salaries are paid by the athletics department.
The findings also present a continued sense of secrecy coming out of the athletics department and the subcommittee’s report calls for more transparency throughout the university.

http://www.wral.com/news/education/story/11361189/

[CameronBornAndBred]

After Penn State, it is not the best time for reports to be coming out highlighting "secrecy" within your athletic department.

[Newton_14]

After Penn State, it is not the best time for reports to be coming out highlighting "secrecy" within your athletic department.

Agreed. UNC keeps this up, and it is going to bite them big time in the end. Emmert seems to mean business and at some point will turn his attention to UNC. Thanks for linking the article. Looks like WRAL is joining The News & Observer in the effort to keep the pressure on UNC. I have said from the beginning that UNC needs to drop all this Carolina Way nonsense, put all the cards on the table, accept blame, and make a true effort to clean it up. Anything short of that will only make things worse.

[OldPhiKap]

OUCH!!!!!


http://www.wral.com/news/education/story/11361189/

The issue boils down to what the report calls, “an absence of systematic or regular communication between the athletic department and the university as a whole.”

Sounds like an absence of institutional control.

In any event, though, it does not sound like there is any planned follow-up on the report as to past transgressions.

[Newton_14]

OUCH!!!!!


http://www.wral.com/news/education/story/11361189/

Sounds like an absence of institutional control.

In any event, though, it does not sound like there is any planned follow-up on the report as to past transgressions.

Here is yet another article from WRAL. 54 suspect classes going back to 2006-07.

"UNC leaders say that, in some cases, students turned in work with no supervision. In other situations, instructors’ names may have been forged on documents and grades changed."

Full Article

[OldPhiKap]

Here is yet another article from WRAL. 54 suspect classes going back to 2006-07.

"UNC leaders say that, in some cases, students turned in work with no supervision. In other situations, instructors’ names may have been forged on documents and grades changed."

Full Article

Members of the Tar Heels football and basketball teams made up nearly 40 percent of the enrollees in those classes; nearly another 20 percent were student-athletes in other sports.

Could get juicy . . . .

The report is also likely to recommend an outside consultant look at how athletics and academics intersect at UNC. Chancellor Holden Thorp said the outside consultant will likely be a former chancellor or university president.

. . . but it will get swept under the rug. . . .

The State Bureau of Investigation is also looking what happened to see if there was any criminal activity going on, such as a possible conspiracy to conceal a crime.

. . . unless these people are real, I don't know anything about that office's impartiality. Hopefully better than the former Durham County DA.

[Gewebe14]

Wasn't Hansbro's mom hired at unc too? Perhaps its time to re-look into that. Wonder if she was an adjunct Swahili professor.

[OldPhiKap]

Wasn't Hansbro's mom hired at unc too? Perhaps its time to re-look into that. Wonder if she was an adjunct Swahili professor.

Never heard that, but don't know. I think his father is a doctor, so I don't think side money was an object.

[moonpie23]

more blather...

http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/07/...lty-calls.html

[oldnavy]

Agreed. UNC keeps this up, and it is going to bite them big time in the end. Emmert seems to mean business and at some point will turn his attention to UNC. Thanks for linking the article. Looks like WRAL is joining The News & Observer in the effort to keep the pressure on UNC. I have said from the beginning that UNC needs to drop all this Carolina Way nonsense, put all the cards on the table, accept blame, and make a true effort to clean it up. Anything short of that will only make things worse.

Newton_14, I totally agree with you, but I don't think that it is possible for them to drop the "Carolina Way" nonsense, because I honestly believe that they believe it. It is a part of their makeup and they can no more "drop it" than you or I could fly to the top of Duke Chapel by flapping our arms.... they do not live in the same reality that the rest of us do.

And I think you are correct, this is what will get them, IF they are to be got... I still don't think anything will come of this, I hope that they get burned, but I guess I want it too much to believe that it will actually happen....

[BD80]

Sounds like an absence of institutional control. ...

Actually, sounds like too much control ... by the athletic department

[CameronBornAndBred]

more blather...

http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/07/...lty-calls.html

“This reporting system is ambiguous, lacks clarity, and is likely not to be very productive,” the report said

They left off the end of that sentence. The one that says "just the way our bosses like it".

[hood7]

http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcspor...demic-scandal/

UNC really needs to rip off this bandaid ASAP. The more they try to spin, distract, and cloud the truth, the worse it's going to get. Internal reviews of its own internal investigations of its own internal misdeeds, at each level performed by UNC insiders - they think the public cannot see that this is a whole lot of bluster with absolutely no intent to discover, uncover, or publicize the truth? Oh, don't worry, the foxes are reviewing other foxes' investigations of other foxes' deeds... concluding that there was just a couple 'rogue' foxes and nothing else to see here...just a bunch of innocent hens in the house.

And if it was really just a rogue advisor (Crowder) and a rogue prof (Nyang'oro), then how come the scam was still going strong in the summer of 2011 when Crowder was retired and the prof was out of town, unavailable for comment, in Africa (but still apparently "teaching" some classes)...?