9/3 email from UNC professor to Thorp makes numerous explosive assertions

UNC Scandal24

WRAL recently made available this email, sent from UNC Kenan Professor of Medicine David Clemmons to Holden Thorp on September 3rd.  The entire thing is a MUST READ.  WRAL now has a searchable database of UNC emails up and ready for action.  I would invite readers to do some researching and report back any fun stuff you find.

The time frame of these allegations in the 9/3 email is uncertain (the professor says the football team has been a problem since the day he arrived at UNC 31 years ago), but among the accusations made by professor Clemmons in the email:

* Grade-changing for UNC football players

* Cheating by UNC football players

* UNC professors who gave UNC football players passing grades getting free plane rides to games

* Two UNC football players had a combined SAT score under 1000

I have been wondering since this thing began if there were any adults in Chapel Hill.  Apparently there are some!  It is good to know that not everybody over there has been drinking the Butch Kool Aid.  Notice how Thorp replies and expresses concern and promises to get right on it.  Hilarious! 

After mentioning the “free agent party,” the professor closes the email with this (remember this was written on 9/3):

If there is no evidence that either Dick Baddour or coach Davis did anything substantive prospectively to prevent this then there is only one decision that will clear the air and restore some measure of respect which this University truly deserves.

WOW!

UNC Scandal

24 Responses to 9/3 email from UNC professor to Thorp makes numerous explosive assertions

  1. cWOhLFrPAiCKs 12/17/2010 at 10:41 PM #

    The obvious answer here is that all of the “incidents” mentioned in the email are just “wild rumors” and nothing more…and therefore there is no reason to consider doing any investigation into these allegations. As you pointed out, it’s good to see that some people in Chapel Hill still have a sense of right and wrong and are willing to speak out about it. I know that this will not draw much attention from the NCAA, but I’m starting to think that they will have more than enough to bury them when all is said and done. Reality: 584 UNC: 0.

  2. LRM 12/17/2010 at 10:45 PM #

    Thorp’s response was 22 words, and he didn’t even bother to hit “enter” twice before typing his name at the end. Clearly, he’s all over it. Lee Fowler himself couldn’t have typed a better response.

  3. Dogbreath 12/17/2010 at 11:02 PM #

    HA HA HA! HO HO HO! AND A COUPLE OF LA DEE DA’S!!!

  4. Old MacDonald 12/17/2010 at 11:32 PM #

    You have to wonder what’s in the emails they haven’t released yet.

  5. wolfbuff 12/18/2010 at 12:05 AM #

    This was a pretty ballsy email. The professor essentially questioned HT’s integrity. This is much more inflammatory than the media dude who was fired. But this guy has tenure. As for Holden’s response, he really couldn’t have responded any other way. He can’t give every faculty member an audience to complain to him.

  6. wufpup76 12/18/2010 at 4:39 AM #

    “We will keep spinning this diligently under SpinMaster Erskine’s guidance until we get this straightened out.
    Holden”

    FTFY Holden.

    And I’m sorry – at first I didn’t think that e-mail was real. It was like one long run-on sentence complete with grammatical errors. I realize that this e-mail seemed emotional (or frustrated/angry) – but still, this is a Professor?

    I’m beginning to believe this “Public Ivy” isn’t quite all it’s cracked up to be.

  7. Wufpacker 12/18/2010 at 6:59 AM #

    Like most non UNC-CHeat partisans, I firmly believe “Public Ivy”, as well as any other term they’d like to use to try and elevate themselves above other public state universities, is nothing more than hot air. I have believed this for a while, actually…way before this current situation became public.

    But I wouldn’t be too hard on the prof who wrote the email. As you pointed out, he was likely writing from a perspective of anger and/or frustration. But even that aside, he’s a tenured professor but not in the English dept.

    Physicians aren’t exactly known for their stellar grammar and/or spelling for the most part.

  8. wolfonthehill 12/18/2010 at 9:32 AM #

    Some of these things just don’t even seem like they could be real. Thorp’s response sends the message that either (1) he already knew, or (2) he didn’t care, and the fact that he got the email was just an annoyance… someone else who just didn’t know how to play ball & spin things the Carolina Way.

    If one of my people at work blew a whistle like this, and if my response involved PR instead of some sort of corrective action, I’d be fired as soon as my boss found out.

  9. dbo2874 12/18/2010 at 10:01 AM #

    this post is more related to the positive emails that are sent to thorp, and i posted this on packpride but it bears mentioning here as well…

    remember the campaign on IC to send positive emails to Thorp and the BOT? Well this is why. That campaign started after the PR firm got engaged and everyone agreed that they would have to release these emails at some point so they made a conscious efforts to flood thorp with these emails so they could release 1000s at a time and bury the needles in the haystack. Also, i would bet anything that the email from butch regarding players safety and many others were “staged”, so that they could help muddy the water and have the media pick up on these type of emails (like they have) and miss the ones that are more damning.

    ***Notice no emails have been released that were sent before the investigation started. I know for a fact that this is intentional. This is all being carefully crafted right now. When you start seeing emails released that were sent pre-investigation, then you know the movie is about to start.

    this is a full bore PR job at this point

  10. ppack3 12/18/2010 at 10:59 AM #

    (sarcasm) But I thought that anyone who believes in black helicopters are left wing, paranoid whack-jobs!?

    Your damned right that all of the things being put out there are spun by the PR Firm, e-mails included. That’s why they make the big bucks, after all.

    Think about the reasons that ‘Public Relations’ firms even exist, next time a certain duo of radio personalities start to snicker about the ‘conspiracy nuts’ or the ‘Black Helicopter Contingent.’ Surprise! Some people have ulterior motives and the power/money to deceive in order to further their own agendas.

    Thorpe, Baddour and Butch are in full CYA mode. But, the facts are the facts, no matter how much you spin them. And, the fact is, everyone is not 100% behind Butch, Baddour or Thorpe. There is a faction of UNC faculty that has retained their morality. You just have to look harder to find them, as they are being shoved under the bus.

  11. coach13 12/18/2010 at 11:03 AM #

    UNC = a trailor with vinyl siding, nice deck and and brick underpinning that they try to call a mansion.

  12. redwolf87 12/18/2010 at 11:12 AM #

    The poli sci professor with the blacked-out name mentioned in the email almost certainly is Merle Black. For those who may not remember, he was very prominent in this area back when he was at UNC–the guy the media always went to with questions about elections, etc. Kind of like they also would question Abraham Holtzman at NC State back in the day (showing my age).

    He probably got a better deal at Emory, and Emory has a great reputation, but one wonders if the grade pressure may have played a role in helping steer him to a prestigious private uni with less-than-prestigious athletics.

    Since Black was at Chapel Hill from 1970-1989, the incident noted in that case would have happened way before the current regime. Now, if we cross-reference the time period that Dr. Clemmons has been at Chapel Hill, per CV, we find that he could have been Black’s next-door neighbor well back into the 1970’s. So this particular incident could happened under anyone from Bill Dooley to Dick Crum to Mack Brown.

    The running back? They had several “famous” ones over that period. One of them was even named “Famous”…hmm.

    Doesn’t mean a whole lot in the current context, other than a history of “unrecognized” LOIC, but (1) I hate that they blacked out that name, and (2) if they intended on protecting identities, they should have blacked out that he was a poli sci prof at Emory as well. Not a good job of concealment. Any junior reporter would be able to figure this out and give Merle a call.

  13. TheAliasTroll 12/18/2010 at 11:35 AM #

    The brevity of Thorp’s response speaks louder than the accusations in the original email.

  14. Trout 12/18/2010 at 11:45 AM #

    Agree, gotta be Merle Black (Emory professor): http://www.polisci.emory.edu/faculty%20pages/black.htm

  15. packalum44 12/18/2010 at 11:52 AM #

    If you should have learned anything from the NC State Mary Easley “scandal”, it was to NOT send private emails to a public email address. The fact that some folks never got that memo makes for an interesting read.

    Now if only we got wikileaks involved we could really dig around.

  16. NCSU88 12/18/2010 at 12:37 PM #

    As this drags on and on, I wonder what toll it is taking on the big shots and their families. I learned pretty quickly and we have taught our son to tell us up front when he is in trouble. The consequences are always much easier to deal with if you tell the truth up front.

    At what point did these men decide that deception was ok? What makes people do this? Greed? Is it some sort of addiction?

    This house of cards is eventually going to come crashing down and hopefully those responsible will receive the punishment they deserve.

  17. highstick 12/18/2010 at 1:26 PM #

    Famous? Meaning the “Cookie Running Back”. Guys, this goes even further back, but I don’t have emails to prove it…Just “hearsay” from a former UNC football player that I used to play handball with…

    And it went into the basketball program too!

  18. PackisRolling 12/18/2010 at 2:06 PM #

    see this email from Erskine where he says “Not too far off”.
    http://www.wralsportsfan.com/asset/colleges/unc/2010/12/17/8794041/102310_Possible_resolution_to_the_Butch_Davis_problem_without_firing_him.pdf

    it details how they can’t fire butch without pissing off the rams club. the fact that erskine agrees with the whole premise is shocking.

  19. PackisRolling 12/18/2010 at 2:31 PM #

    this is an interesting thread between Holden, N&O, UNC General Counsel. It really makes you wonder why they are so defensive about the parking tickets in question: http://www.wralsportsfan.com/asset/colleges/unc/2010/12/17/8793731/100510_Re_N&O_records_request.pdf

  20. PackisRolling 12/18/2010 at 2:34 PM #

    An un-named ESPN employee weighs in supporting Butch and big-time football – meaning Tire Bowls I guess? : http://www.wralsportsfan.com/asset/colleges/unc/2010/12/17/8793619/091610_Feedback_and_Thanks.pdf

  21. PackisRolling 12/18/2010 at 2:43 PM #

    Erskine sure is cozy with these UNC guys…Thanks Pal! http://www.wralsportsfan.com/asset/colleges/unc/2010/12/17/8793756/100710_Skipper_gave_you_great_advice.pdf

  22. method1220 12/18/2010 at 9:30 PM #

    redwolf87 is exactly right–whoever redacted Merle Black’s name, but not “Emory”, is either a knucklehead, or intentionally left his identity discernable. Former Carolina faculty at Emory has to be a pretty short list, and as it happens, no other faculty member on the Emory PoliSci website lists a UNC faculty position on their CV (three others earned degrees there). Not only that, if you look at the second black bar, the letter ends that are visible at the bottom clearly would match “Merle”. Of course, assuming that they all own(ed) their homes, then the list of Clemmons’s “next door neighbors” over the past few decades is a matter of public record. Sooo… redaction fail.

  23. GoldenChain 12/19/2010 at 10:04 AM #

    I will never understand why in the world people use their work emails/phones etc for any type correspondence that could come back to bite them.
    It reminds me of the Congressmen who kept track of their illegal activities and hoe visits in their diaries back in the 70’s (or was it 80’s).

  24. highstick 12/21/2010 at 5:48 PM #

    http://www.wralsportsfan.com/asset/colleges/unc/2010/12/17/8793567/091010_Future_professional_athlete_degree.pdf

    I ran across this one the other day…Here’s the solution as offered by a 2010 UnC School of Journalism grad…Just make up a new program for them, they can even graduate in 3 years and learn some very valuable stuff!

    Duh, I think the program is in place already…But they don’t advertise it to the public!

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