Pope Center member calls for investigation of UNC system(updated with details of gift to UNC-CH)

UNC Scandal58

To add some additional perspective, we are adding some links that can help our readers learn more about the Pope Foundation, its history, and its relationship with UNC-CH and UNC-CH athletics. They have been generous donors to UNC-CH for both educational purposes and athletics. This addtional information explains the reasons the donations to advance Western Studies weren’t made. That choice was entirely independent of the eventual decision to donate to UNC athletics. However, the fact that the foundation donated aproximately $5 million to UNC athletics with a portion of that specifically for the football program may still seem relevant to some people when considering today’s column in the N&O.

Here are some links on the Pope Foundation:

John William Pope Foundation Supports Football, Academics with $2.3 Million Gift

John Montgomery, executive director of the Educational Foundation Inc., UNC’s fund-raising arm for athletics, said the Pope family had been extremely generous to the university and the Tar Heel football program.

“The Pope Foundation believes in Coach John Bunting and wants to help grow the endowment to build and maintain a first-class program,” he said.

The Educational Foundation and the athletics department have emphasized building individual endowments to bolster each sport’s operating budget. Dick Baddour, director of athletics, and Bunting will use the new endowment to recruit and retain outstanding assistant football coaches.

“The Pope family’s generosity will help Coach Bunting have the necessary resources to better compete nationally and within the Atlantic Coast Conference,” Baddour said.

Said Art Pope, foundation president, “Student-athletes greatly benefit from excellent coaching. It’s no surprise that when you look around the country, the top programs have consistently strong staffs that stay together for many years. John Bunting has worked hard to cultivate and develop his current staff. He should have the resources available to reward a job well done and retain a key assistant coach who may be courted by other programs.

Apparently, there was some controversy surrounding the Pope Foundation’s support of Western Studies with the liberal faculty on UNC’s campus:

Just a few years ago, the university declined a multi-million dollar grant from the family foundation of controversial Republican magnate Art Pope to expand the university’s offerings in Western studies. Faculty feared Pope could use the grant to extend his own political agenda, or those of the conservative policy groups he has helped launch, to UNC’s classrooms.

Pope appears to have found more neutral territory in funding Tar Heel sports teams. On Tuesday, UNC announced it would accept $3 million from the John W. Pope Foundation, named for Art Pope’s father, to expand UNC’s academic center for student athletes. The existing center will triple in size to 29,000 square feet and serve nearly 800 students with classrooms for teaching and tutoring, computer and writing labs, reading rooms and offices.

This background information was necessary considering today’s article that spurred the entry that was written below. Enjoy.

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Jay Schalin wrote a column today stating the entire UNC system should be investigated.

It’s time for the system to seek out potential problems proactively rather than avoiding them until they accidentally make headlines. AFAM’s problems came to light only because a single tweet by a football player started an investigation that wound a slow, sordid path to the department’s door. No tweet, or nobody noticing the inappropriate behavior described in the tweet, and Nyang’oro would still be the department chair, giving out good grades for almost no work.

Somebody – the Board of Governors, an independent commission, the SBI or the state auditor’s department –should investigate the academic integrity of the entire system.It need not be a massive effort with a large team of researchers taking several years to produce a report that can pass peer review. It simply requires, at least initially, that a few simple facts are cross-checked with each other by a single researcher who’s handy with a computer.
The facts that need to be cross-checked are the distribution of grades for each course in the entire system, the distribution of students in each course according to their year of study (freshman, sophomore, etc.), the course title and the professor. And certainly any course or degree program with an inordinate number of athletes enrolled should raise a red flag.

Like anyone didn’t see this coming? You know the theory that just because your neighbor gets caught selling drugs out of his home, therefore everyone in the neighborhood might also be selling drugs so all homes should then be searched because of the guilt of your neighbor. Makes perfect sense right?

After all Mr. Schalin is clearly a true scholar and independent of UNC-CH as noted in the N&O:

Jay Schalin is the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy’s director for state policy analysis.

Here is more on Mr. Schalin:

Jay Schalin joined the Pope Center in August 2007. He researches and writes about higher education issues, primarily in North Carolina, and oversees the center’s Web site.

A Philadelphia native, Schalin began working as a freelance journalist for the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey in 1994 and has also written for several other papers in New Jersey and Delaware. In 1998, he returned to school to complete his education, graduating from Richard Stockton College in New Jersey with a B.S. in computer science in 2001. After graduation, he was employed as a software engineer for Computer Sciences Corporation. Schalin received an M.A. in economics from the University of Delaware in 2008.

He is independent enough, right?

So who are the Pope’s that have both a foundation and this “center” that Schalin is a part of:

In 2005, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill asked the John William Pope Foundation for a $4.8 million grant to enhance its curriculum in Western civilization. In 2006, after wrangling between the university administration and some faculty and students who opposed the proposal,[21] the Pope Foundation declined to fund the proposal. Instead, the Pope Foundation donated $100,000 a year for a visiting scholars program and student fellowships for the study of western civilization, as well as $2 million for an endowment for salary enhancements for assistant football coaches.[22] In 2011, the Pope Foundation gave the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill $3 Million for its Student-Athlete Academic Support Center.[23][24]

So according to the Wikipedia entry, the Pope Foundation chose not to donate $4.8 million to enhance an academic program(due to UNC disagreement with UNC faculty), but did choose to donate $2 million total toward an endowment for assistant football coaches and then $3 million towards the new Kenan Stadium expansion that included the academic support center.

Anyone remember when Butch Davis was hired? 11/13/2006.

When I read this column, I instantly guessed that there would some sort of connection back to the “Flagship”. Little did I know that the connection might be to an organization that made a donation specifically to fund UNC’s football program and other student-athletes the same year Butch Davis was hired (again according to Wikipedia).

Credit to the sleuths on Packpride for helping gather this data. Without being a professional journalist or working for a foundation that may have helped to fund UNC’s football staff, it is hard to find time to be able to do this type of research.

Also, the N&O has done a lot of great work, but how could they not also include the information about the Pope Foundation and its connections to UNC-CH and specifically to UNC-CH’s football program?

UNC Scandal

58 Responses to Pope Center member calls for investigation of UNC system(updated with details of gift to UNC-CH)

  1. beowolf 07/16/2012 at 9:57 AM #

    GAWolf:

    Re: 1 — I don’t see where I wrote what you said I wrote. I think you are reading far too quickly because you are seeing what you want to see rather than what’s there. I have in the past written quite critically of this situation as a UNC-CH-specific scandal. With respect to the Pope Center, they are an organization whose mission is the reform of higher education in NC. They have written frequently in the past on making education departments more accountable. Suddenly THIS scandal happens that brings THAT VERY issue before the public eye. They write very critically about it as it relates to UNC-CH — which was, incidentally, ignored by SFN — and also put it in the broader context. Now, of course SFN is not obligated to cover everything the Pope Center discusses, but it would be MORE HONEST to discuss the former as well rather than only discuss the later as if the former never happened.

    As for 2: My God, man, do you REALLY think that the ONLY reason someone would call for a systemwide investigation would do so for the SOLE PURPOSE of “trying to mitigate the damage and deflect the finger pointing currently focused appropriately and solely on UNC”? That’s incredibly conspiratorial, wrong on the face of it, and — seriously — one of the most deplorably stupid conspiracy theories I’ve encountered in a long while.

    Lots of question-begging in 3: your argument STARTS from the highly question and risible assumptions that the Pope Foundation directly controls everything the Pope Center writes, that any self-respecting analyst would agree to that, that this opinion is the only thing the Pope Center has to say on the subject, that the Pope Foundation is a message-crafter for a UNC coverup, and that it is an agreed-upon tack that the best way to cover up the scandal is to call for an investigation of the entire UNC system. If that’s the kind of stuff you want, well, carry on, and say hello to Bigfoot and Elvis in the UFOs for me. I would counsel you to step back from the ledge and have some perspective.

    I don’t intend to go on back-and-forth with this. Reasonable people will see reason. Those intent on unearthing conspiracies everywhere will do what they do, and it’ll involve insinuation, trying to lead people to conclusions, hiding facts, disregarding countering facts as irrelevant, and so forth. Ironically, people employing the same kind of “reason” think the Pope Foundation “controls NC State” because they support academic programs there.

    But gee, maybe the same people who ARE HIDING THE SECRET EXISTENCE OF THE “POPE COUNCIL”!!!11!1 actually KNEW that this football/academic scandal would blow up at UNC a few years in the future so they SECRETLY SOUGHT TO PREEMPT critics by funding NC State academics too so most people wouldn’t see through their EVIL GENIUS PLAN to cover up the scandal by ADMITTING IT in order to suggest through a grant recipient that has been calling for reform at UNC for years that there should be reform at UNC because of this. Wow, what a breakthrough. Pass the Kool-Aid!

  2. VaWolf82 07/16/2012 at 10:58 AM #

    Anyone that calls for a UNC-system review without first calling out UNC-CH for their wide-spread academic fraud has opened themselves up for criticism. The last I saw, UNC has left grades and course credits on student’s records for 9 classes that the “signing” professors say that they never taught.

    20 years ago, no one was screaming for a system-wide review in the middle of a witch hunt in Raleigh. Now that there is real dirt in Chapel Hill, cries for a system-wide review are not going to be well received.

  3. Old MacDonald 07/16/2012 at 11:02 AM #

    beowolf: You are coming across as 1) totally unglued and 2) protesting too much.

  4. GAWolf 07/16/2012 at 12:57 PM #

    Have you ever written anything for the Pope group(s), Beowolf? They’re awfully connected to your Locke Foundation, no?

    If so, at least be honest about your loyalties here which might be very well understood and appreciated. Otherwise, attacking this website for merely pointing out interesting fact and allowing readers to draw whatever conclusions they believe appropriate therefrom is a bit much.

    If anyone here is screaming conspiracy it could easily be you, buddy.

  5. beowolf 07/16/2012 at 1:36 PM #

    GA: Please see that I offered to provide more detailed information in private to the author (my first post), but it was ignored. It was and is not my intent to “attack” the site, which I hold in high regard and said as much (I did “attack” the conclusion that, it seems to me, the post wants readers to draw).

    I also have attempted to alert SFN via several emails over the past two years of certain interesting writings highly critical of UNC-CH re: this scandal coming from, as this site would put it now, Pope Foundation grantees. Those emails were largely ignored, though not entirely; q.v., a link that was posted here: http://www.statefansnation.com/index.php/archives/2010/10/21/dukes-horizontal-academics-lands-sfn-on-nbcs-today-show.

    So your criticism is rather unfair (not intentionally unfair; you couldn’t have known the second part) since I attempted to do both beforehand.

  6. GAWolf 07/16/2012 at 2:41 PM #

    I’m sure the private information would be helpful, and I would bet that the emails sent were missed somehow. I have readers send stuff to me via private message, for instance, and I miss them till months later sadly. I just don’t check that. Regardless, I think the difference in monies given to UNC by the Pope family or group seems to be tabbed for athletics, specifically football, whereas the gifts you speak of to NCSU seem to be academics-related, likely of the conservatIve lean sort. Certainly, this site would never scoff at any entity which donates money to our alma mater, even if it is to further personal political goals of the donor entity.

    However, given the fact the money to UNC was at least partly for football specifically shows the support of a fan whereas educational support is to further the goals of the entity. That difference is huge, and I think allowing our readers to draw conclusions is fair.

  7. Gene 07/17/2012 at 12:25 PM #

    “NCSU seem to be academics-related, likely of the conservatIve lean sort.”

    NCSU wasn’t happy about taking Pope money

    http://students.ncsu.edu/sgims/documents/HTML/bills/06-63R-sen.1.html

    I’d be wary of any grant money that had strings attached or tried to influence academic policy/course curriculum.

  8. beowolf 08/06/2012 at 11:26 AM #

    So today the “Pope Council,” funded by the same foundation that gives money to NC State and UNC academics but only to UNC football, which is proof enough of a conspiracy, has written an editorial — http://www.popecenter.org/commentaries/article.html?id=2721 — that does the following:

    1. Calls for a new leader at UNC because Holden Thorp has been too quick to shield and protect, rather than question and investigate, the likes of Butch Davis and Julius N’yangoro (i.e., calls for new leadership specifically at UNC-Chapel Hill because of the athletic & academic scandal specifically at UNC-Chapel Hill)

    2. Compares Thorp’s handling of this scandal to the UNC President Bowles’ handling of the Mary Easley scandal at NC State, which resulted in several members of the NCSU administration, including the chancellor, losing their jobs — despite UNC leaders talking about how great all the involved were (i.e., we wouldn’t allow this sort of thing to fly at NC State, therefore it shouldn’t work for UNC-Chapel Hill, and don’t forget UNC-CH’s scandal originated on campus, not from top-down pressure exerted by a corrupt Governor)

    3. Is unequivocally damning of the athletics & academics scandal at UNC and of the glad-handing by UNC’s leadership obviously hoping to wish it all away

    In my opinion, it would be responsible for SFN to point this column out, since it did the same with a previous column. It would be Claude Sitton-like to present the one (with all that was implied) but not the other.

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