Investigation: UNC Has Paper Classes That Are Paper Tigers

((HT: ABC11 Raleigh))

The HQ saw them and took part in them in our college days...

There was always the class that was an easy, athlete class that was supposed to be an easy "A."

For us it was things like Family and Child Development, Geology, Theatre, and Freshman-level Public Speaking in our senior year. We know of athletes that took correspondence classes to stay eligible. So, the idea that there is steering of athletes to easier classes to maintain their eligibility isn't all that new...

But the scope of what happened at the University of North Carolina might be the issue this time around. In the wake of the African-American Families major that was attached to a lot of Tarheels athletes and the idea that they were (gasp) given preferential treatment in those classes was the subject of an investigation that went back 18 years on campus.

What the former federal prosecutor Kenneth Wainstein found was just "a lot..."


Here's the full report should you want to read it

Former department chairman Julius Nyang'oro and former student services manager Deborah Crowder were at the center of the investigation and, as the math tells, almost 48-percent of the students in the AFAM-major classes were athletes in the 18-year period.

Employees at UNC-CH were disciplined as a result of the investigation and, apparently, AD Dick Baddour and then-head football coach Butch Davis were aware of AFAM. Baddour allegedly didn't pry and Davis denied knowing of the steering.

The HQ thinks this is far from over in the long-term...

UNC Athletes Take Class That Has No Instructor

((HT: Raleigh News and Observer/Kane, Carter))

Not that this is a surprise in light of the whole Tarheels NCAA investigation that ended up decimating the football team and coaching staff...

BUT...

Kane and Carter have discovered that the "AFAM 280: Blacks in North Carolina" class was attended by 19 students- 18 of them players on the football team, the other a former player. Advisers helped the players enroll in the class, which is the subject of a criminal investigation.

The advisers also knew that there would be no instruction and the class itself ws added just days before the 2011 summer session.

So, this begs the HQ's question of: "Who knew what when and how far does the knowledge go in this case...?" The HQ would surmise pretty far up, and the end result of the investigation will be interesting...

54 UNC classes are in question over the full four years of the school investigation and center around the head of the department.

Here's the early word on the investigation in the Afro-American Studies Department before it involved the current enrollment involving football players...
((HT: WRAL-TV))


And here as well...