Most Eye-Catching Paragraphs In UNC’s Wainstein Academic Fraud Report

After years of suspicion and private investigation, this report, led by former U.S. Justice Department Official Kenneth Wainstein, was released Wednesday, detailing the pervasive academic fraud that’s plagued the University of North Carolina’s athletic program for the last 20-plus years. 

In a nut shell, two UNC administrators, Dept. of African and Afro-American Studies administrator Deborah Crowder and former chairman Julius Nyang’oro, were behind the scheme that included “paper classes,” in which students received high grades with no class attendance and sub-par work, to say the least. The fraud has involved hundreds of athletes spanning over two decades and the entire UNC athletic program could face serious sanctions from the NCAA.

I looked over the 136 page report. Here are the most eye-popping paragraphs. 


“Paper Classes”

Specifically, she designed and offered what are called “paper classes.” These were classes

that were taught on an independent study basis for students and student-athletes whom Crowder

selected. Like traditional independent studies at Chapel Hill or any other campus, these classes

entailed no class attendance and required only the submission of a single research paper. Unlike

traditional independent studies, however, there was no faculty member involved in managing the

course and overseeing the student’s research and writing process. In fact, the students never had a

single interaction with a faculty member; their only interaction was with Crowder, the Student

Services Manager who was not a member of the University faculty.

No Actual Instruction

Crowder provided the students with no actual instruction, but she managed the whole

course from beginning to end. She registered the selected students for the classes; she assigned

them their paper topics; she received their completed papers at the end of the semester; she graded

the papers; and she recorded the students’ final class grades on the grade rolls. When Crowder

graded the papers, she did so generously – typically with As or high Bs – and largely without regard

to the quality of the papers. The result was that thousands of Chapel Hill students received high

grades, a large number of whom did not earn those high grades with high quality work.

Targeting Football and Basketball

These paper classes were taken by students of all types, but were especially popular among

student-athletes, particularly those who played the “revenue” sports of football and men’s

basketball. Many of these student-athletes were referred to these classes by academic counselors in

the Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes (“ASPSA”) who were always under pressure to

maintain student-athlete eligibility and saw these classes – and their artificially high grades – as key to

helping academically-challenged student-athletes remain eligible and on the playing field.

Fake Lectures

Due to curricular changes and limits on the number of independent studies per student,

Crowder modified her approach in the late 1990s and started offering these paper classes under the

guise of traditional lecture classes. Despite their lecture designation on the schedule, these classes

continued to operate in the same fashion.

UNC’s Ignorance

Despite the fact that these classes involved thousands of students and coordination between

Crowder and numerous University employees, the Chapel Hill administration never scrutinized

AFAM’s operations or the academic integrity of their course offerings. It was only when media

reports raised questions about AFAM classes in 2011 that administration officials took a hard look

at the AFAM Department. They were shocked with what they found.

That’s A Lot Of Fraud

Over the 18 years these classes existed, Crowder and Nyang’oro were

responsible for offering 188 different lecture classes as well as hundreds of

individual independent studies in the “paper class” format – with no class

attendance or faculty involvement, and with Crowder managing the class and

liberally grading the papers. Through this scheme, over 3,100 students

received one or more semesters of deficient instruction and were awarded

high grades that often had little relationship to the quality of their work.

“Football Counselors” Wanted To Keep The Scheme Going

Several of the ASPSA football counselors grew dependent on the paper

classes and were very concerned when Crowder announced her upcoming

retirement. They immediately took steps to prepare for the end of the paper

classes. They instructed players to submit their papers before Crowder’s

departure to receive the benefit of her liberal grading; they warned the

football coaches that with Crowder’s retirement they no longer had access to

classes “that met degree requirements in which [the football players] didn’t

go to class…didn’t take notes [or] have to stay awake…didn’t have to meet

with professors [and] didn’t have to pay attention or necessarily engage with

the material;” and they undertook an effort to persuade Nyang’oro to

continue the paper classes. They succeeded in getting Nyang’oro to offer a

few classes, but not before the football team’s GPA fell to its lowest point in

ten years.

Crowder Is a Fanatic

Crowder was also passionate about Carolina athletics. Her affinity for Chapel Hill’s teams –

and particularly the men’s basketball team – was well known. She kept the men’s basketball

calendars on her office walls; her office was a regular gathering place for the players; and according

to several faculty members, she cared so much about the fortunes of the basketball team that she

was occasionally unable to come to work for a day or two after the Tar Heels lost a basketball game.

Swahili = English 

One particularly popular class was the third level of Swahili, which was offered in this

irregular format specifically so that students – and particularly student-athletes – who struggled in

lower levels of Swahili could satisfy their foreign language requirement by writing a paper about

Swahili culture in English rather completing a regular Swahili 3 paper class in Swahili. Eighteen

students were enrolled in these Swahili 3 paper classes, including 12 student-athletes.

Related: Homeless Football Player Can’t Get Help Thanks To NCAA

When The Frats Found Out

Others were simply attracted to the ease with which one could satisfy the paper requirement and

obtain a high grade for very little work. Members of certain fraternities, for example, started to sign

up for these paper classes, causing Crowder to bemoan to one assistant dean in 2005 that word

about them had “gotten into the frat circuit.”

The Dean’s Direction Nearly 10 Years Ago

The only other questions about the AFAM classes were raised by Senior Associate Dean for

Undergraduate Education Roberta “Bobbi” Owen. In 2005 or 2006, Dean Owen had lunch with

Nyang’oro and complained to him about the extremely high number of independent studies he was

handling (sometimes more than 300 per academic year). She directed him to reduce that number

and to “get [Crowder] under control,” suggesting that Crowder was somehow behind the high

numbers of independent studies in the AFAM Department. When Nyang’oro returned from lunch

that day, he told Crowder that Owen was watching the independent studies enrollments and

instructed her to scale them back. Crowder did as instructed, and the number of independent

studies enrollments immediately went down. Owen noticed the decline in enrollments, and in

November 2006 she sent Nyang’oro an email entitled “Ind Studies,” noting that “it has gotten

quieter from your side of campus,” and conveying her thanks.19

This Slide (with text)

The Rate Of These Fraudulent Classes In Graph Form

Did UNC Know and Approve?

Perceived Affirmation of the Paper Classes by the Administration: Both Crowder and

Nyang’oro indicated their belief that the Chapel Hill administration wanted them to provide this

assistance to the student-athletes. When we asked about the basis for this belief, both cited the

administration’s inaction throughout the years as evidence of its acquiescence in the classes. In

addition, Nyang’oro cited several comments he received over the years from administrators and

faculty suggesting an awareness and approval of the AFAM Department’s efforts on behalf of

student-athletes.

Rashad McCants’ Interview Looks Even More Legit Now

“I didn’t write any papers. I didn’t write any papers, but I know that

the tutors did help guys write papers – as far as help them through

the grammar, the structure, paragraphs, so on and so forth. But, for

some of the premier players, we didn’t write our papers. It was very

simple. When it was time to turn in our papers for our “paper classes,” we would get a call from our tutors, we would all pack up in

one big car, or pack up in two cars, and ride over to the tutor’s house,

pick up our papers and go about our business.

Spike of Fraud Under Roy Williams

Chapel Hill had four different head men’s basketball coaches during the period in which the

AFAM paper courses were offered. During the Dean Smith era (1961-1997), there were 54

basketball player enrollments in AFAM independent studies.137 In the three years of Coach Bill

Guthridge’s tenure (1997-2000), there were 17 basketball enrollments in paper classes. There were

42 enrollments in paper classes under Coach Matt Doherty (2000-2003) and 167 under Coach Roy

Williams (2003-present).


 

The rest of the report goes into greater detail as to how the academic fraud took place, who they interviewed and how they uncovered the information and what the University did during their private investigation to find the truth for themselves. 

It is yet to be discovered how the NCAA will react to this official report. 

Josh Helmuth is the editor of CraveOnline Sports.

Photo Credit: Getty

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