Academic fraud found at UNC-CH

UNC Scandal40

This is an excellent article from the News and Observer.  No-show professors, unauthorized grade changes, plagiarism, and forgery are all mentioned prominently.

The whole thing is a must-read, but here are some highlights:

One of the no-show classes is the Swahili course taken by former football player Michael McAdoo that prompted NCAA findings of impermissible tutoring, and drew more controversy when the final paper he submitted was found to have been heavily plagiarized.

and

McAdoo sued in state Superior Court to try to get back on the team, and in doing so, he included the paper as an exhibit. Rival N.C. State fans quickly analyzed the paper and found several passages of plagiarism that the university, its honor court, university athletic and academic officials, and the NCAA did not catch. The Wolfpack fans buzzed about the plagiarism on message boards, and the media, particularly a blog known as SportsbyBrooks, took notice. The N&O confirmed the plagiarism in a follow-up report.But the plagiarism was just the beginning of the questions for Nyang’oro, who was the department’s first chairman when it was formed 20 years ago.

The N&O later obtained a partial academic transcript of Marvin Austin, another football player caught up in the football scandal. The transcript showed that Austin took an upper-level summer class from Nyang’oro before Austin began his first full semester as a freshman, and before he had taken a remedial writing class. Nyang’oro gave Austin a B-plus on the course.

and
The plagiarized paper McAdoo submitted lists Nyang’oro’s name as the course professor. The investigation found it was one of nine classes in which there is no evidence that any professor “actually supervised the course and graded the work, all though grade rolls were signed and submitted.” Other professors who were listed on grade rolls for those classes said their names were forged on course documents.
Everyone have a great weekend.  Here is a visual aid UNC-CH’s honor court might want to use in the future to spot plagiarism.
UNC Scandal

40 Responses to Academic fraud found at UNC-CH

  1. triadwolf 05/05/2012 at 11:02 PM #

    If Thorpe keeps his job through the summer, that’ll be proof enough the the fix is on (as if we have any doubt). There’s no way a department head can get away with something this overt without his “managers” knowing. If by some miracle he could, Thorpe should be fired anyway for total incompetence.

    There’s no way the leadership at any other respectable school would survive a situation even half as bad. Bruce Poulton must be livid – What happened at NC State is child’s play compared to UNC.

  2. choppack1 05/06/2012 at 9:07 AM #

    Braak posted a very interesting article from 2010. Erskine howled says that baddour and Thorpe are doing a great job. Later, baddour would testify to the ncaa that Robert Mcadoo did his own work on a swahili paper…that was later found to be copied almost word for word.

    Now, unc has told us there was academic fraud, but that athletes weren’t getting special treatment.

    I don’t know about the rest of you, but that settles it for me.

  3. Gene 05/06/2012 at 12:25 PM #

    “As this unfolds, watch what questions are NOT asked, what connections are NOT made, etc.”

    The first question NOT ASKED is what was happening prior to 2007?

    What is so special about 2007 that it becomes the cut off point that academic fraud started at UNC-CHeat?

    I understand that it coincides with the hire of Butch Davis, but did Butch Davis have so much power at UNC-CHeat, after one season, that he could change the academic culture of an entire department?

    I don’t think so.

  4. Gene 05/06/2012 at 12:32 PM #

    “There’s no way the leadership at any other respectable school would survive a situation even half as bad. ”

    There’s no way a BoG or BoT or state legislature that takes academics seriously would not order a special investigation to find out about fake courses and professors signatures being forged, in order to get grades processed.

    The cover up for UNC-CHeat is disgusting and heads should roll from Bowles and on down.

  5. Alpha Wolf 05/06/2012 at 4:00 PM #

    “The Carolina Way” is now exposed for what it is: a PR ploy to cover up lying, cheating and stealing.

  6. GAWolf 05/06/2012 at 5:44 PM #

    Well that’s the whole major problem of butch and Blake keeping their yaps shut. Undoubtedly they were brought in and given access to the methods employed by the basketball team, Swahili for example, so them not talking throws the football program under the bus to save the basketball program. And unfortunately for us since the BOG and ACC won’t add to the NCAA punishment, the likely got off better than thy even expected.

  7. Dr. Wolf 05/06/2012 at 6:11 PM #

    You would think for $158,240 annually he could have at least taught the classes.

  8. Wufpacker 05/06/2012 at 7:22 PM #

    “[The report] said there is no evidence that student-athletes received more favorable treatment than students who were not athletes.”

    Does that really matter at this point?

    “It also said that no student received a grade without doing course work.”

    Except for McAdoo, that is (at the very least), which wasn’t even uncovered by the university (including the honor court for cripe’s sake) or the NCAA. Now they have professors claiming their signatures were forged on documents and that they never even taught some of the courses in question.

    Is there anyone (other than the BoG and Carolina fans with their blinders still on, of course) that still thinks allowing Carolina to investigate themselves is a good idea? Too many people over there with too much to lose to let them police themselves on this IMHO.

    If this happened at State they’d shut us down (the whole university, not just the athletics dept.), raze the site of the former campus, and put up a huge Walmart and a parking deck. Probably a Starbucks as well.

  9. packof81 05/06/2012 at 8:44 PM #

    Where’s the accountability?

    The gravity of these revelations and the absence of any independent investigation is ample evidence of UNC’s corrupt culture. It just doesn’t get any worse than this.

    Thorpe says UNC is a better university. Really? Looks the same to me. He’s only sorry they got caught.

    If the BOG/BOT does not treat this matter in the harshest possible way, that will constitute evidence of their corruption as well.

  10. Wufpacker 05/06/2012 at 9:05 PM #

    “Thorpe says UNC is a better university.”

    Better than ’80s SMU, perhaps. But even that is now questionable. Given all the different things that have been already substantiated (and ONLY those that have been substantiated) I’d call ’em a tie for corruption and cover-up. Taking into account the things which seem to be likely, but have not yet been investigated/substantiated, I’d have to give the crown to the heels. They do love made up championships over there, however, so maybe that’s appropriate.

    Their only saving grace (and it ain’t much) is that they weren’t already on probation when it all blew up on them. But even that doesn’t mean much given what we’ve seen of their internal procedures.

  11. choppack1 05/06/2012 at 10:34 PM #

    If only you’d have lived in Raleigh when our “scandal” broke in 89…Nothing of this magnitude was ever proven. If anything, the message that rang loud and clear was that our athletes were not getting special treatment in the classroom.

    It’s really shocking that UNC is allowed to police themselves. Also, don’t expect the NCAA to make too much of a stink. Remember, these are the same ethically-challenged individuals who think high graduation rates of athletes actually mean that the kids are actually being truly held accountable.

    This whole thing is rotten to the core. As much as I love Wolfpack sports – this scandal, the NCAA’s reaction and continued actions AND the NC media and politicians reaction to it are making me think that college sports should just go down the toilet.

  12. Wufpacker 05/07/2012 at 3:18 AM #

    ^ Proud ’89 Raleigh resident here…it was the end of my 1st year post grad. Remember the morning it first hit like it was yesterday. On my way to class I pulled into Bojangles on Western for drive-thru breakfast, then in for gas. Grabbed the morning N&O in passing, tossed it on the passenger seat and headed for class. After parking, I reached over to grab my backpack, which was now underneath the N&O, and caught the front page. I said “WTF?” out loud. Loudly, out loud.

    Front page, above the fold, was a photo of the dust jacket of Golenbock’s now infamous masterpiece. No copy, mind you. The body of the book hadn’t been released at that point, so not only were there no substantiated accusations to warrant the placement, there were no accusations of any sort at that point. But the N&O still saw fit to make this the lead story in section A.

    I immediately picked up the phone and called my father (also a State alum and proud Wolfpack sufferer) and told him to get ready because our basketball program was about to be destroyed for the foreseeable future. I’ve often wondered if that advance dust jacket image had never been released if things would have been different. I doubt it.

    Regardless, the blood was in the water and sharks started circling. Valvano treaded water publicly for a while but it didn’t take long. Even calling the NCAA dogs in himself and literally begging them to turn the program inside out to prove Golenbock was wrong (not to mention a hack), which I believe vindicated him (at least it did to my satisfaction), couldn’t save him or the program.

    Most Carolina fans take offense that most State fans enjoy the schadenfreude aspect of their recent football issues. Their arrogance keeps them from seeing how much less harshly they’ve been treated for significantly more egregious issues.

    And I agree chop…the NCAA is happy to wash their hands of this. They’re done with Carolina unless they are absolutely forced to go back in. Unless something criminal comes up, nothing more will ever come to light.

  13. packof81 05/07/2012 at 11:40 AM #

    Notice how this got reported late Friday afternoon.

  14. TruthBKnown Returns 05/07/2012 at 12:29 PM #

    It was reported late Friday afternoon.

    Now it’s our job to make sure everyone is reminded about it on Monday afternoon. 🙂

  15. choppack1 05/07/2012 at 8:19 PM #

    I think this scandal has confirmed what some of us has long believed:

    1) UNC is every bit as dirty as any other school out there in spite of their claim to the contrary.
    2) the media is hopelessly absent of decency. Quite frankly, the people running the n&o are too ethically challenged to trust watching your goldfish for the weekend.

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