A Closer Look at UNC’s NOA

General UNC Scandal94

Does anyone else think that it is funny that McAdoo’s plagiarism on a paper where he had already been found guilty of cheating received more press coverage than an NOA with nine major violations?   Oh well, at least some in the press finally realized what the rest of us have known for the last 12 months…things are rotten in CH and the so-called adults are clueless.

While the media storm over plagiarizing is funny to watch, it doesn’t really have much to do with UNC’s hearing with the NCAA in October.   So let’s take a closer look at the NOA and see what is really there and what it could potentially mean to UNC when the penalty phase rolls around.   Also since some of the comments that I’ve read from both ends of the RTP have been based in some alternate reality, let’s see if we can ground the discussion in something closer to the real world.

Cheating, Round 1

Violation #1 documents cheating by three different athletes from April 2008 through Summer 2009.   The names have been redacted, but we can be pretty sure that part (c) covers McAdoo (unless multiple UNC players were cheating on Swahili papers).    On the one hand, this list is pretty small since UNC was able to sweep most of the cheating to the Honor Court.   But on the other hand, we have a recent precedent from FSU on the penalties for academic fraud.

For those that might have forgotten, FSU had 60+ athletes in several sports that were caught cheating in an on-line class.    Now for the good part…FSU had to forfeit every game in any sport that any of those athletes participated in.   So if UNC receives the same penalty for the same offense, then expect wins from 2008 and 2009 to start disappearing.

Based on the report at ncaa.org, it appears to me that FSU did all of the investigating of their academic scandal and forwarded their findings to the NCAA.   It would be interesting to know how much, if any, the NCAA investigated the academic issues at UNC.

PS to UNC fans…If you want to go to war against the NCAA, then I would recommend finding a better horse than McAdoo to ride into battle.

Cheating, Round 2

At first, I was surprised that the NCAA was letting UNC exploit a loophole in the NCAA’s dividing line for determining when cheating by an athlete was an NCAA offense and when it had to be handled by the university.   But then the NCAA surprised me with Violation #2 by declaring all of the “tutoring” done by Wiley after she was fired from the athletic department (and being paid by Butch) as an improper benefit.  (Nice save by the NCAA.)    So now follow this line of logic:

  • Athletes that accept “impermissible benefits” are ineligible from the moment they accept the “benefit”.
  • Their eligibility can only be restored by the NCAA.
  • The standard penalty for small, impermissible benefits is missing 30% of the season and a donation to charity equal in value to the impermissible benefit.

So who were the nine athletes and how many are still left on the team?   From THF’s Blog, here are the players that were investigated for one reason or another (reorganized):

Agent Prong:

* DT Marvin Austin(SR): Dismissed for receiving $10-13K in improper benefits; ethical conduct violation.
* DE Robert Quinn(JR): Permanently ineligible for receiving $5K in improper benefits, ethical conduct violation.
* WR Greg Little(SR): Permanently ineligible for receiving $5K in improper benefits, ethical conduct violation.
* S Deunta Williams(SR): Suspended four games for improper benefits totaling approximately $1400; became eligible for Clemson game.
* CB Kendric Burney(SR): Suspended six games for improper benefits totaling approximately $1300; suspension complete.

Honor Court Appearance:

* RB Ryan Houston(SR): Cleared following honor court date prior to UVa game. Redshirted 2010 season. Will have one season of eligibility remaining.
* DE Linwan Euwell(JR): Cleared following honor court date prior to UVa game. (missing 5 games)
* CB Kendric Burney(SR): Penalized by honor court with reduction of grade in one class. Resulted in loss of credit towards graduation an ineligibility under NCAA rules. UNC applied to the NCAA for waiver which was granted. Cleared for William & Mary game.  (missing 7 games)
* S Jonathan Smith: Declared ineligible for season following honor court date. Redshirt.
* CB Brian Gupton(JR): Declared ineligible for season following honor court date. Eligible next season.
* CB Charles Brown(SR): Declared ineligible for season following honor court date. Received two semesters probation. Redshirt.
* DE Michael McAdoo(JR): Permanently ineligible for improper academic assistance from tutor Jennifer Wiley while she was at UNC. Appeal to NCAA denied in February 2011.
* FB Devon Ramsay(JR): Initially ruled permanently ineligible for improper academic assistance from tutor Jennifer Wiley while she was at UNC. Initial ruling was overturned in February 2011. Ramsay was cleared and will have one season of eligibility remaining.

Cleared without Honor Court:

* LB Bruce Carter(SR): Cleared on academic issues for LSU game  (missing 0 games)
* LB Quan Sturdivant(SR): Cleared on academics issues  for LSU game  (missing 0 games)
* RB Shaun Draughn(SR): Cleared on academic issues for Georgia Tech game  (missing 1 game)
* S Da’Norris Searcy(SR): Cleared on academic issues for ECU game  (missing 3 games)

(Emphasis and games missed added)

It seems logical to conclude that 8 of the 9 athletes with free “tutoring” (NCAA violation) were the ones that were sent to the UNC Honor Court for cheating.   (We don’t know who the ninth player is, but I’ll take “Greg Little” if we’re taking bets.)  These eight players met the first part of the standard penalty for academic fraud by sitting out at least 30% of the schedule (4 games).    But as far as I know, UNC has not declared any players ineligible for taking impermissible benefits from Wiley nor have they appealed to the NCAA to have their eligibility reinstated.   

Unless I’m missing something, UNC will want to get this issue resolved well before their October meeting with the NCAA.    They went to a lot of effort last year to make sure that the players on the field were actually eligible.   It would be silly to abandon that process now.

On the one hand, getting free tutoring isn’t the most serious issue that UNC faces.   However, did the players go to Wiley for free tutoring or free cheating?   It’s hard to argue that there is a logical, ethical reason to bypass department tutors and go to someone who was fired from that capacity.   Of course we shouldn’t forget that this tutor was hired by Butch AFTER being fired OR that Butch was paying her while she was helping his players cheat.   In the end, it will be interesting to hear what the NCAA has to say about this whole sordid issue.

 

They won’t talk to us

Violation #3 (Wiley) and #8 (Blake) won’t talk to the NCAA.    It seems to me that this puts both the NCAA and UNC in a hard sport.   Neither group has subpoena authority and thus can’t make anyone talk that doesn’t want to.    The NCAA can’t afford to let this pass because they depend on cooperation from its member institutions.    Without the ability to obtain subpoenas, the NCAA really can’t operate without that cooperation.   Making the gross assumption that UNC really wanted those two to talk, they also have no way of compelling either individual to talk. 

So do these two violations really mean anything?  It’s hard to say for sure and I expect that we will still be uncertain after the penalties are announced.   Unless the NCAA includes something specific in the final report, I suspect that these two violations are more smoke than substance.

Agents, Round 1

Violation #4 is seven athletes receiving from $54 to $13,507 from agents and others (not including Wiley’s largesse).    Other than noting that none of the referenced instances go back before 2009, I think that this point has been adequately dissected over the last year.

Lying to the NCAA

Yea, like that was hard to predict.   The instances from Violation #5 sound like they can all be attributed to little ole Marvin.   My guess is that this won’t blow back on UNC.   However in Violation #8, John Blake, assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator, lied to the NCAA while he was still employed by UNC.    This will definitely blow back on UNC come this October.

Agents, Round 2

Violations #6 and #7:   John Blake worked for and received money from Wichard while he was also employed by UNC.    This issue could be a key point in the penalties levied by the NCAA.  But for some reason, I keep hearing well known theme music playing in the background and the following lines from one of my favorite TV shows:

As always, should you or any of your IM force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good luck, Jim. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds.

Blake was hired to do a job and he knew the risks going into it.   He did what he did willingly and it’s unlikely that we will ever know the full extent of his violations.   A number of people have claimed that UNC threw Blake under the bus in an attempt to save Davis and the school.   But in reality, everyone involved knew what would happen if Blake got caught…just like Jim Phelps.

The Rogue Coach Defense

I expect that UNC will argue that Blake operated behind everyone’s back and that there is no way that anyone at UNC could have known.   Even if we ignore Blake’s reputation, this defense doesn’t stand up to any sort of examination.   Follow this line of logic and see if you can spot any weaknesses:

  • A number of different universities have self-reported secondary violations for contact with recruits during mandated “quiet” periods.
  • These violations were uncovered by examining phone records from the coaching staffs.
  • Blake used his university supplied phone to carry on many, many conversations with Wichard (sports agent and “former” employer).

This leaves us with the following possibilities:

  • UNC never audited Blake’s (ie the recruiting coordinator’s) phone.
  • UNC audited Blake’s phone, but didn’t detect that he was talking to an agent that he used to work for.
  • UNC knew that he was talking to Wichard, but didn’t care.

In other words, UNC knew or should have known that Blake was carrying on nearly-continuous communication with a sport’s agent.   Unfortunately, phone records were not included in the NOA’s examples in Violation #9 for failure to monitor.   So we’ll just have to wait and see what the NCAA has to say about Mr. Blake.   (But if I were a UNC fan, I would be very, very worried about this point.)

Failure to Monitor

Violation #9 can be translated as:    Those silly kids were blabbing all over the World Wide Web and there weren’t any adults in Chapel Hill that ever bothered to look.

The real question is what is the NCAA going to do about it?    There is almost no doubt that the final penalties will drone on and on about how terrible this is.   But are there specific penalties associated with sleeping at the switch?    

Who Cares About Forfeited Wins?

There might be more than old W/L records at stake.  Let’s look at the following questions:

  • How many seasons were ineligible players used to qualify for a bowl game?
  • How many bowl games did ineligible players participate in?

When the NCAA looked over these issues for USC, they decided some payback was in order.   I believe that the NCAA used a 1:1 correlation to establish USC’s bowl ban.   Obviously there are no guarantees, but it’s something to look for.

So What’s Next?

I’m betting on:

  • October hearing
  • UNC’s self-imposed penalties (Quit laughing…I wasn’t joking.)
  • NCAA’s penalties

There are several SFN authors that disagree with me, but I believe that the NCAA concluded their investigations before issuing the NOA.   All of the projections about upcoming pain and agony from rotating license tags, 216 cell phones, and academic investigations sound to me like just more noise from message boards.   I believe that the NCAA has either looked at these issues or were not interested.   Don’t forget that just because UNC didn’t release something to the media, this doesn’t mean that they didn’t release it to the NCAA.   (Remember that the NCAA found out that Wiley paid for $1,800 worth of parking tickets.)

Unlike Dave Glenn, the NCAA convicts on facts not smoke.   While I don’t believe that they have found everything, I believe that they have completed their work unless some other issue comes to light.

About VaWolf82

Engineer living in Central Va. and senior curmudgeon amongst SFN authors One wife, two kids, one dog, four vehicles on insurance, and four phones on cell plan...looking forward to empty nest status. Graduated 1982

General UNC Scandal

94 Responses to A Closer Look at UNC’s NOA

  1. VaWolf82 07/21/2011 at 10:32 AM #

    I’m not convinced the NCAA already has the 216 phone records. Because, if Butch didn’t confess to using that phone, would they even know to ask for them?

    I don’t know what the NCAA has on Davis’ phone calls, but he had no phone calls on any university-paid phone. Do you really think that the NCAA didn’t notice?

  2. db321 07/21/2011 at 10:33 AM #

    Yes, the biggest thing about the McAdoo plagarism is it uncovered a professor handing out good grades undeservingly to at least one football player. Again, it is unbelievable that this professor wasn’t asked to look at this work again a second time and he missed it twice??? No way…he “missed it” on purpose. And this guy isn’t just any professor, he is the head of the infamous African Studies Department. How many other football or basketball players did he look the other way and let them slide through? This plagarism uncovered that UNC has a department head illegally assisting players and it also uncovered that UNC did not do a thorough investigation. That’s why the McAdoo plagarism discovery has opened up so many other questions.

    The problem now is UNC can’t be trusted to do an investigation because they proved they aren’t competent enough or are trying to cover it up by not digging deep enough to find anything. It is going to require an independent investigation if the truth is ever to known. UNC should want that to clear their name. Otherwise, it is clear they are/were covering things up and are guilty as hell.

  3. VaWolf82 07/21/2011 at 10:34 AM #

    Also, don’t you think the McAdoo matter has caused the NCAA to go look at the African Studies program (and more general questions about preferred treatment for unc athletes in academic matters) in very close detail?

    No

    I very seriously doubt that the NCAA wants to take on the issue of majors created solely for the benefit of keeping athletes eligible or how those classes are run. The answers wouldn’t be pretty for anyone in Division 1.

    Plus, if the NCAA was still investigating, then why would they issue the NOA? The NCAA is through with UNC until something else turns up.

  4. GAWolf 07/21/2011 at 10:46 AM #

    I don’t understand the lyrics.

    I agree that the media is likely going to inappropriately point to this tardy reaction as them being fair impartial to UNC. That’s garbage. The stink is so bad they just couldn’t ignore it anymore and hold on to any journalistic integrity whatsoever.

    The media reports just bolster the NCAA as” not the bad guy” here which is the UNC party line, at least up to now. We haven’t heard their stance now that this was exposed. The law suit….that’s what is going to be an issue.

  5. TruthBKnown Returns 07/21/2011 at 10:50 AM #

    I don’t know what the NCAA has on Davis’ phone calls, but he had no phone calls on any university-paid phone. Do you really think that the NCAA didn’t notice?

    I’m not saying they didn’t notice. But that doesn’t automatically imply that they have his 216 phone records. That NOA arrived soon after these records were released and people were able to dig through them. I think it’s possible, if not likely, that a lot more eyes were able to figure out a lot more about those records than the small handful of NCAA people reviewing them. Did they see those 216 calls in Blake’s phone records and figure out it was Butch’s phone? Hard to say. We don’t really know because the NCAA hasn’t announced to us what they have and don’t have.

    But it’s also possible that they do have Butch’s 216 phone records and there’s nothing in them because he was smart enough to use another throw-away phone to do his dirty dealing.

  6. packhammer 07/21/2011 at 10:51 AM #

    Wow. Ok I respect that! On the otherhand, they issued the NOA before the McAdoo case was filed or heard. But you certainly could be right.

    On a more positive note, along the lines of your reference to blue on black, it strikes me that yes the world now knows what is what at UNC right now. I sure wouldn’t want my kid playing football in that program if he has other good options. They are going to need more than a match on a fire to change that reality.

    Again it makes me proud of what Tom O’Brien is doing. He is building a quality program with young men of quality. He is walking the walk when he says champions in the class, community, and on the field. No championships yet but I feel like he has it on track.

  7. VaWolf82 07/21/2011 at 10:54 AM #

    You mention that the NCAA knows that Wiley paid off $1,800 worth of parking fines. I don’t see how this is covered in the NOA?

    It’s in Violation 2a

    Wiley paid $150 for an airline ticket in May 2010, and $1789 in parking violation expenses on August 20, 2010, for then football student-athlete _______________.

  8. db321 07/21/2011 at 10:55 AM #

    Maybe the NCAA doesn’t want to take on “majors solely created to keep players eligible”, but what about teachers handing out undeserved passing grades by allowing blatant cheating in their class. They have to care about that or the NCAA is a joke. They’ve also shown they care about that as proven in the former FSU music class and UGA’s bogus class.

    If the NCAA doesn’t investigate this and understand exactly what is going on in that class, then they are essentially turning a blind eye to it which will encourage more classes like them. Schools will just quit worrying about getting all these tutors and just employ some unethical professors to shuffle these players through. They can’t allow that to happen and have to punish that if it is happening and this case screams institutional cheating.

    You would think the NCAA would want to investigate this for two reasons. First, to discover if UNC has a professor rubbers stamping work for players. And second, to discover if UNC tried to cover up this fact. Again, how can you say you had a thorough investigation if you don’t take these papers back to the original professor and review them with him? I guarantee UNC went back to discuss these papers with the professor and the fact that the professor turned a blind eye a second time clearly points to institutional cheating and a possible cover up by UNC by not disclosing it if the professor did point it out. Either way, UNC is screwed.

    And think about it, if UNC did discover this professor was helping football players during the investigation, then their only way of not getting completely screwed by the NCAA is to cover it up. If they disclosed that they had students cheating, tutors writing papers, and then professors also rubber stamping players on through classes, then the NCAA would throw the book at them anyway. It makes one wonder if they tried to stop the bleeding and keep the investigation from going further by just sending up the paper for bogus footnoting and let sleeping dogs lie. If that is the case, then heads need to roll. I think the NCAA would be very interested in knowing this. In addition, as citizens and taxpayers of NC, we deserve to know these answers. Therefore, i hope the NCAA investigates it and i hope an independent investigation is done so that we can get to the bottom of how blatant plagarism got by the Department Head of African Studies twice as well as all the other educators that surely had to review McAdoo’s work. Considering the high profile nature of this case, i find it hard to believe someone at UNC did not discover the plagarism.

  9. VaWolf82 07/21/2011 at 10:55 AM #

    I don’t understand the lyrics.

    McAdoo got an F on the paper. Plagarism doesn’t add anything, just like adding “blue on black…..”.

  10. IamGumbyDammit 07/21/2011 at 10:57 AM #

    VAWolf82 stated “McAdoo was given an F on the paper before the plagarism was discovered. How would discovering the plagarism earlier have affected the punishment?”

    VAWolf82, I respect your opinions greatly, but I do have to question this assertion that he got an “F” originally. How do we know this to be true? I’ve only ever seen this asserted by the UNX monkeyboards. I don’t know for certain what grade he got, but the circumstantial evidence points to a passing grade on the paper. The class was in June/July 09 if memory serves correctly, and if the professor had failed it for academic fraud, it would not have taken until Fall ’10 to make it to Honor Court. I would posit that he passed the paper and the course, and it only found its way to Honor court by virtue of NCAA-triggered review of Wiley’s emails which revealed the academic dishonesty charge for her inappropriate assistance.

    The whole McAD’oh! plagiarism scandal, IMO, should be thrust back at the NCAA together with the half-assed tOSU pre-Sugar Bowl “internal investigation” to seriously question the judgment of relying on an accused insititution to investigate itself. At UNX, there’s ample evidence and suggestion, from McAD’oh!’s blatant uncaught plagiarism to Marvelous Marvin’s twitter hints to Cynthia Reynold’s allegations to the UNX Honor court faculty survey responses to the documented evidence the Shahili class was a favored class of UNX athletes to the absurdly skewed grade inflation (300 courses with 90% of grades an “A”?) that the academic environment related to UNX athletes is a dog’s breakfast of abuse, malfeasance and corruption. The NCAA should ignore ALL UNX Honor Court decisions in light of the glaring incompetence and examine the academic charges themselves, including the cases that were dismissed. But then, that’s in a perfect world…

  11. VaWolf82 07/21/2011 at 10:57 AM #

    But that doesn’t automatically imply that they have his 216 phone records.

    OF course not. Just like what was released to the media doesn’t have any bearing on what was released to the NCAA. I stick to my conclusion from the article….the NCAA has either investigated them or isn’t interested.

  12. VaWolf82 07/21/2011 at 11:00 AM #

    VAWolf82, I respect your opinions greatly, but I do have to question this assertion that he got an “F” originally

    That was the reported disposition from the Honor Court.

    The whole McAD’oh! plagiarism scandal

    I like that. Don’t be surprised if you see me use it in the future.

  13. VaWolf82 07/21/2011 at 11:03 AM #

    The NCAA should ignore ALL UNX Honor Court decisions in light of the glaring incompetence and examine the academic charges themselves,

    They’ve already done that with the McAdoo case. It will be interesting to see what the NCAA does with the cheating that was turned into impermissible benefits (free “tutoring”).

  14. Oldwolf 07/21/2011 at 11:05 AM #

    I am not sure, but the origianl paper was given a passing grade (who knows – an A? B? C?) then it was brought before the honors court for receiving help from tutor in re-writing footnotes, which in itself not plagarism, right? They did not find plagarism (not going into why not here).

    What is the penalty for plagarism, in general? Is it just a failing grade on the paper, or is it more serious, like getting a failing grade for the cours, or more, like getting suspended from school for the semester.

    The point is, I think that being caught for blatant plagarism, and then calling your own work, is (or should be) a much worse problem than getting some impermissable help from a tutor and getting afailing grade.

    For instance over at Duke – In 1995, Duke center Greg Newton was suspended from the school for two semesters after a student court found him guilty of cheating on a computer science exam. Newton returned to Duke and resumed playing for the basketball team. Two years later, Duke guard Ricky Price was suspended from school for plagiarism. He too returned to Duke and resumed his basketball career.

  15. ncsu1987 07/21/2011 at 11:10 AM #

    Thanks, Va, for the aggregation and analysis (and for the follow-ups.) For the record, I have to agree with your conclusions.

  16. TruthBKnown Returns 07/21/2011 at 11:10 AM #

    the NCAA has either investigated them or isn’t interested.

    True, but I also think they would be interested in anything new that comes up between now and…… at least October 28th. If Marvin spilled the beans on Butch today, and had evidence to back it up, the NCAA would surely be interested. Likewise, if they don’t have Butch’s 216 phone records, and those get released to the public, I think they would be interested. Maybe you’re right in that they are no longer actively pursuing this investigation. But that wouldn’t prevent them from re-opening it if new information came to light.

  17. packalum44 07/21/2011 at 11:11 AM #

    NCAA does not have the staff to properly investigate this mess. Seriously doubt they wouldn’t demand the head coach’s phone records however.

    Regardless, I think USC type sanctions would be fair. Those same sanctions, which at USC are more of a nuisance, will cripple TarHole football for half a decade at least.

    Kind of like a wrecking your car. Several grand to fix it are pesky to someone making $100,000 per year. It’ll hurt the wallet for a couple months – no Morton’s. But to someone making $30,000 a year, they’re pretty much screwed for some time – better like Ramen.

  18. old13 07/21/2011 at 11:15 AM #

    IIRC the NCAA commented at the time that they issued the NOA that investigations were still ongoing at the Hell . . . er, Hill!

  19. packalum44 07/21/2011 at 11:16 AM #

    The McAddoo case is at least a slap in the face of the NCAA. They dealt out punishment with what they thought was limited to Wiley help cite references. Then this prick takes them to court – and Thorpe publicly defends the prick. In the meantime, NCAA finds out the prick had in fact plagiarized 30% of the paper, a MUCH more serious form of cheating.

    This alone won’t send the NCAA team back to the OC to resume investigating, but it will perhaps make them re-think whatever punishment they plan on doling out and at least affirm their posture.

  20. ncsu1987 07/21/2011 at 11:19 AM #

    Hungwolf: thx for the link to the Jarrett column. It has what is now my favorite line from the MSM on this whole affair:

    “And that tough sell is the head coach was clueless to the massive wrongdoings going on around him, which is harder to buy than a good defensive tackle.”

    That got an honest-to-God LOL from this old pessimist.

  21. packplantpath 07/21/2011 at 11:21 AM #

    There is no standard penalty for academic cheating. It depends on the magnitude. Writing a paper but having someone improperly help you with citations is very minor. You would get an F on the assignment at worst if it is a first offense.

    Blatantly copying and pasting an entire paper is a whole different ballgame. That warrants failing the entire class. Did he fail the class? I think so, in which case it really is irrelevant. Nobody gets permanently expelled for a 1st offense cheating.

    I don’t think the NCAA can officially punish UNC more or less based on the cheating unless they find evidence it was officially sanctioned by the coach. They probably will forfeit some wins due to playing an ineligible player, but otherwise not much will come of that other than public ridicule. The only other way it could be a big deal is if it comes out that someone at UNC knew about the cheating prior to the “review” but didn’t report it or covered it up.

  22. db321 07/21/2011 at 11:26 AM #

    The point is the plagarism wasn’t caught after the first review and grading by the professor and it wasn’t caught a second time while UNC educators specifically reviewedd McAdoo’s work investigating it for cheating. I guarantee the original professor was questioned about his work in his class which makes the fact that the plagarism wasn’t found even more unbelievable. After doing a “thorough investigation” on itself, UNC ushers the smallest infraction to the honor court for review. All the while, UNC administrators publicly defend McAdoo saying it was nothing more than making a mistake with footnotes and not that big of a deal. The whole scenario is simply unbelievable and points to complete incompetence by the professor himself as well as multiple UNC administrators. Or, it points to a major cover up.

    UNC knew the honor court would only review and judge what was presented to the honor court, so they put forth the most minimal infraction possible in an effort to keep the world from discovering the institutional cheating going on in the African Studies Department, which might lead the NCAA to the basketball team. There’s simply no way that professor and the UNC administration could have missed all of this. I’m sure UNC will claim it was just a simple oversight and that they don’t have plagarism software, etc., etc., but the professor damn well knew that was plagarism and so did anyone else with half a brain that read that paper. I don’t see how the NCAA doesn’t at least look into how the plagarism got by the professor the first time and most likely a second time, as well as how all the other aministrators doing the investigation missed it.

  23. IamGumbyDammit 07/21/2011 at 11:36 AM #

    after doing a little research, I am adding this (I hope) interesting and (I know for sure) pathetic sidebar to the McAD’oh! academic misconduct saga. McAD’oh! wa originally charged with two counts of academic misconduct – for improper tutor assistance in AFRI 266 and SWAH 403. (http://media2.newsobserver.com/smedia/2011/07/05/22/21/NQ5tK.So.156.PDF page 52 of 189). For the AFRI 266 charge, the evidence included an email from McAD’oh!s personal email account in respect to a paper McAD’oh! was writing and had given to Wiley, Wiley states inthe email, “I added your citations and bibliography” (pg 53 of 189). The Honor Court honed in on her use of “your” instead of “my” in her email to mean that “this could also be read as a statement that Mr. McAdoo did indeed complete the citations and bibliography on his own, but perhaps in a different document, that the tutor simply combined Mr. McAdoo’s work into one document.” (pg 54) and said “the email alone was not enough to dispell reasonable doubt” (pg 54). The Court ruled not guilty on the AFRI 266 course.

    Here’s where I have a problem with this decision. First, the Court proposes the possibility that Mr. McAdoo did the bibliography and citations separately and Wiley only combined papers. There was no evidence presented to support this assertion. Further, as the findings for the charges related to SWAH 403 demonstrated (and was tried together with the AFRI 266 at the same hearing), McAD’oh! demonstrated that AFTER taking this class, he could still not corrrectly cite and reference properly. Did he forget how? Entertaining a possible scenario that it was plausible that Wiley’s words did not mean that she wrote the citations in this paper and that McAD’oh! did the work flies in the face of evidence from subsequent events that it was NOT plausible.

    Further, the UNC Tutor Handbook clearly states under the section “Academic Fraud and Academic Offense” that “An institution is required to self report a violation of Unethical Conduct if an institutional staff member (e.g. coach, professor, tutor, etc.)is knowingly involved in arranging fraudulent academic credit for a prospect or an enrolled student-athlete. Examples of this would be 1)if an istitutional staff member is involved with … typing a paper for a student-athlete.” (http://www.wralsportsfan.com/asset/colleges/unc/2010/11/02/8554996/TutorHandbook.PDF pg 8 of 24). The handbook goes on to give among “Other Examples” an example of “preparing and typing papers for student-athletes” (pg 8).

    The Honor Court essentially ruled that the evidence was not sufficient to support MCAD’oh cheated by having Wiley write the citations and bibliography because it was possible that Wiley “cut and pasted” (i.e. “typed” or “prepared and typed”) McAD’oh’s work into the paper – which is also academic misconduct! You mean to tell me that they said “the evidence doesn’t support he cheated this way because it’s possible that he cheated this other way” and they don’t find him guilty either way? UNX’s Honor Court is a joke, and sadly it isn’t even funny.

  24. TruthBKnown Returns 07/21/2011 at 11:43 AM #

    Something else to consider is that the NCAA included in the NOA a mention of someone reporting something, and their “compliance” people didn’t do anything.

    How would that figure into the discussion of penalties?

  25. IamGumbyDammit 07/21/2011 at 11:58 AM #

    Not saying I don’t believe you, VaWolf, (trust but verify)… I’m still trying to find where it was cited that McAD’oh! originally got an “F” for the paper prior to the Honor Court. It contradicts common sense that he was sanctioned by the Honor Court with an “F” on the paper (http://media2.newsobserver.com/smedia/2011/07/05/22/21/NQ5tK.So.156.PDF pg 55) if he had already received an “F” on the paper. That would be unnecessary and redundant. Then again, we ARE talking about the UNX Honor Court.

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