The N&O has been trickling out some damning pieces the past few weeks aimed at UNC and their academics. This morning Dan Kane has new revelations surrounding the “Public Ivy”.
Sports agent taught class at UNC-CH
At a time when UNC-Chapel Hill officials were embarrassed to find that sports agents had infiltrated the football program, the chairman of the university’s African and Afro-American Studies Department hired an agent to teach a summer class.
At the time of the class this summer, the agent, Carl Carey Jr., was representing two UNC football players who had been selected in this spring’s NFL draft.
Julius Nyang’oro hired Carey to teach a month-long course called Foundations of Black Education in the first summer semester. Carey is a former adjunct professor and academic adviser to football players who left the university in 2002 and started a business advising athletes looking to turn pro.
Carey’s return to campus was a problem for UNC’s athletic department, which quickly alerted its academic advisers to not recommend his class. John Blanchard, a senior associate athletic director, said the department did not know Carey had been hired until after the fact.
“Normally I wouldn’t be concerned, but I was because of what we’ve been going through,” Blanchard said. Only one athlete, a female, took the class.
While he was teaching, Carey was trying to retain Robert Quinn as a client. He is now suing Quinn, a first-round pick of the St. Louis Rams, in an attempt to recover nearly $300,000 in loans and advances he said he gave Quinn in advance of a professional contract.
He became an agent three years later, and today represents one of UNC’s biggest gridiron stars: Chicago Bears defensive end Julius Peppers.
Carey’s return to campus was a problem for UNC’s athletic department, which quickly alerted its academic advisers to not recommend his class. John Blanchard, a senior associate athletic director, said the department did not know Carey had been hired until after the fact.
“Normally I wouldn’t be concerned, but I was because of what we’ve been going through,” Blanchard said. Only one athlete, a female, took the class.
UNC-CH’s dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Karen Gil, who oversees Nyang’oro and approved Carey’s hire, said she did not know he was a sports agent.
“In hindsight,” she said in an email message, “it would have been better to know.” She did not make herself available for an interview and did not respond to further questions about the hire.
While he was teaching, Carey was trying to retain Robert Quinn as a client. He is now suing Quinn, a first-round pick of the St. Louis Rams, in an attempt to recover nearly $300,000 in loans and advances he said he gave Quinn in advance of a professional contract.
UNC officials say Carey won permission to teach the month-long summer session class because he has the credentials and experience. He has a Ph.D in educational psychology and is teaching a class that he taught 11 years ago as an adjunct professor under Nyang’oro.
But Nyang’oro’s decision raises more questions about his connections to football players and an athletic department wracked by a football scandal. Allegations of NCAA violations include an assistant coach taking money from an agent, a former UNC football player who the NCAA considers an agent with access to players in the weight room, and numerous athletes accepting trips, parties and other perks from agents.
That investigation into impermissible benefits and academic misconduct forced 14 players to miss at least one game last season, and seven, including Quinn, sat out the entire season. In July, Chancellor Holden Thorp fired football coach Butch Davis and accepted the retirement of Athletic Director Dick Baddour. UNC-CH has until Sept. 19 to respond to an NCAA notice of allegations, and is scheduled to appear before the association’s infractions committee on Oct. 28.
Shouldn’t an Independent investigation into UNC’s African American department, Professor Nyang’oro, and all athletes who took classes begin? For the sake of knowing if there is any fire in the midst of all this smoke and clear any players names who are associated with this who earned their grades.
