The Jewel in the Crown
When the scandal broke five years ago – after a ‘tweet’ by a tackle on the football team – the wise men at UNC faced a choice: Fess-up or cover-up.
They covered-up.
And eight media organizations sued because they wouldn’t make public records available to the press.
Three months later, skating on thinner and thinner ice, the wise men offered up a sacrificial lamb: A tutor to the football team. Who was fired.
Next they offered up an assistant football coach – who was also fired. Star football players started falling left and right and, then, the thread ran straight to Julius Nyang’oro – the Chairman of the African American Studies Department at UNC.
The football coach was fired.
And the next day the Athletic Director resigned.
Nyang’oro resigned as head of the African-American Studies Department but remained as a professor.
Mary Willingham, a whistle blower, reported she’d tutored football players who could only read at a 4th grade level and a basketball player, Rashad McCants, told ESPN he rarely went to class and tutors wrote his papers.
UNC attacked Willingham.
And the Chancellor resigned.
Battered and bruised UNC began its second investigation – The Wainstein Report. Nyang’oro cut a deal to cooperate with Wainstein and resigned. And Nyang’oro’s assistant (who’d already retired) cut a deal too.
When Wainstein was done he reported three thousand UNC students had taken phony classes over the last two decades.
Jan Boxill, head of the Faculty Committee and the Parr Center for Ethics, resigned.
And Mary Willingham, the whistle blower, received a $335,000 out of court settlement from UNC.
SACS – the accrediting agency – put UNC on one year probation. The new Chancellor reassured the community that wasn’t so bad. And said reforms would fix all the problems – but what the reforms are isn’t so clear.
And after two decades of giving students phony classes, UNC’s still proclaiming itself one of the finest universities on earth – and the jewel in the crown of the state.
The Jewel in the Crown
When the scandal broke five years ago – after a ‘tweet’ by a tackle on the football team – the wise men at UNC faced a choice: Fess-up or cover-up.
They covered-up.
And eight media organizations sued because they wouldn’t make public records available to the press.
Three months later, skating on thinner and thinner ice, the wise men offered up a sacrificial lamb: A tutor to the football team. Who was fired.
Next they offered up an assistant football coach – who was also fired. Star football players started falling left and right and, then, the thread ran straight to Julius Nyang’oro – the Chairman of the African American Studies Department at UNC.
The football coach was fired.
And the next day the Athletic Director resigned.
Nyang’oro resigned as head of the African-American Studies Department but remained as a professor.
Mary Willingham, a whistle blower, reported she’d tutored football players who could only read at a 4th grade level and a basketball player, Rashad McCants, told ESPN he rarely went to class and tutors wrote his papers.
UNC attacked Willingham.
And the Chancellor resigned.
Battered and bruised UNC began its second investigation – The Wainstein Report. Nyang’oro cut a deal to cooperate with Wainstein and resigned. And Nyang’oro’s assistant (who’d already retired) cut a deal too.
When Wainstein was done he reported three thousand UNC students had taken phony classes over the last two decades.
Jan Boxill, head of the Faculty Committee and the Parr Center for Ethics, resigned.
And Mary Willingham, the whistle blower, received a $335,000 out of court settlement from UNC.
SACS – the accrediting agency – put UNC on one year probation. The new Chancellor reassured the community that wasn’t so bad. And said reforms would fix all the problems – but what the reforms are isn’t so clear.
And after two decades of giving students phony classes, UNC’s still proclaiming itself one of the finest universities on earth – and the jewel in the crown of the state.