3 Paper Classes: The University of North Carolina Academic-Athletic Scandal

Introduction

A senior football player from the University of North Carolina (UNC) urgently needed to improve his grade point average to be eligible for playing football in the fall season at UNC. By taking easy classes, the player made it over the required GPA of 1.5. However, when the fall semester came around, the player had a schedule of many challenging classes which were required for him to graduate. In the UNC athletic program, many student athletes are advised by the program to take easy classes throughout their semesters to maintain the grade point average to stay eligible.

The university had no problems in accepting athletes who lacked academic ability or exhibited a lack of enthusiasm in attending classes (Smith & Willingham, 2015). In addition, the university provided opportunities for athletes to become eligible for academic programmes, which enabled them to continue competing in their sports. These qualifying routes, which at first caused mild breaches of academic integrity,  eventually resulted in overt corruption (Smith & Willingham, 2015).  To ensure they could continue to participate, many of these athletes, especially those in popular sports like basketball and football were guided into fictitious classes (Smith & Willingham, 2015). This case delves into the part played by academic advisers, coaches, and officials at UNC in facilitating fraudulent academic work. It calls into doubt the legitimacy of the university and the decision to put athletic achievement ahead of the integrity of education.

“Paper classes”

Julius Nyang’oro was the chairman of the department of African and Afro-American studies at the University of North Carolina between 1997-2011.  One of the first courses introduced by him was Swahili 001. This course met the foreign language requirements of UNC and was able to be completed asynchronously due to the small nature of the class. This class from 1997 was investigated and found to be essentially non-existent, as there were no instructors or lecture meetings (Smith & Willingham, 2015). This and other courses came to be known as “paper classes.” Athletes began to enroll in these classes because of what they had heard about the ease of them as well as being prompted by academic advisors to take them if their GPA was dipping too much. Academic advisors were placing UNC athletes into these classes knowing that they would be meeting their class requirements.

The most prominent example was that of Julius Peppers, who was a student athlete at UNC for football and basketball.  Peppers did not have a great GPA and was on the cusp of being ineligible to play for UNC as he was below the 1.5 average needed.  Luckily for Peppers, his ability on the basketball court and football field proved good enough to convince Nyang’oro and his academic counselors to have him put in a multitude of paper classes (Smith & Willingham, 2015).  With his boosted GPA letting him be eligible for his respective sport seasons, Peppers lacked almost any stress related to education and could focus primarily on excelling in his sports, especially football, as he was later scouted to go to the NFL.

Peppers’ entire time at UNC saw him purposely be put into these “self-directed” classes in order to prevent his GPA from dropping from the actual courses that would have bee required for him to graduate (Smith & Willingham, 2015).  These self-directed classes were done at the student’s own pace and most of the time involved only a few items that were submitted for grading throughout the term; however, the grades were all inflated dramatically by the instructors.  Peppers was also involved in a multitude of classes within the African and Afro-American studies department and he even was in a few courses “taught” by Nyang’oro which he did very well in.  His GPA would always conveniently grow just before the sport seasons started.

Conclusion

In reaction to the controversy, UNC hired outside assessors and carried out a number of its own investigations to determine the scope of academic dishonesty at the institution. These inquiries uncovered instances in which student-athletes received special consideration and exposed pervasive anomalies in the AFAM division.

Nyang’oro was investigated and hit with a $12, 000 fraud charge for being involved in creating a class for the summer term in 2011 that he did not end up teaching. UNC was satisfied with the amount of information Nyang’oro provided about the special treatment student athletes were receiving from his courses and the various academic counselors, so they just pushed for him to resign from his position as chairman (Sims & Summers, 2014).  This investigation also led to further details concerning the fabrication of non-existent classes for UNC athletes and paved a way for further research to be done into who was working together to ensure athletes had an easier course load than the average student.

Discussion Questions

1. Do you think that the jury dropping the charges against Nyong’oro was a fair finale to the UNC scandal?
2. What kind of ethical considerations did the academic counselors have to deal with?
3. What measures could universities implement to prevent academic fraud and ensure the academic integrity of student-athletes?
4. Do student athletes owe anything to their universities in terms of graduating? Is there a need to finish their education if they are aiming to go pro in their respective sport?

References

Sims, J., & Summers, E. (2014, July 3). Fraud charge dropped against UNC’s Nyang’oro. WRAL.com.https://www.wral.com/story/unc-prof-nyang-oro-sees-fraud-charge-dropped/13786227/

Smith J. M., & Willingham, M. (2015). Cheated : The unc scandal, the education of athletes, and the future of big-time college sports. Potomac Books.