For the past five years, rumors have circulated about a conspiracy concerning the academic integrity of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In the past, these issues seemed relatively mi- nor, which helped to keep the university’s prestigious reputation intact.
But a recent in- dependent report on the school’s academic proceedings show the problem to be anything but insignificant.
Kenneth Wainstein, a former federal prosecutor hired by UNC to investigate the depths of the suspected academic fraud, published the report. The results were staggering: in almost 18 years, at least 3,100 students were placed in special classes that gave A's and B's for minimal to no work. Referred to as “pa- per classes,” these shortcuts were created especially for academically struggling student-athletes in order for them to maintain the minimum GPA required to play for the university.
Rightfully so, Wainstein’s investigation has already led to plans for several changes within UNC’s faculty and academic policies, but it’s clear that such an incident will not easily be forgotten.
It will likely take more restructuring before the school can even come close to mending its reputation. Even then, there’s no doubt that some of those involved, especially those close to the university, will ever be able to move on from this.
At first, the paper classes were attributed to only two professors, who created hundreds of paper classes designated as “GPA boosters.” But, Wainstein found in his investigation that many of UNC’s head coaches were at least aware of the paper classes and knew that stu- dent athletes were undeservedly receiving the grades they needed to continue playing.
While it’s terrible that professors paid by their university to promote a beneficial learning environment orchestrated the cases of academic fraud, it’s more up- setting that students went along with it.
Even though this has been happening for nearly 18 years, if students had any concern for the consequences of cheating, they never showed it.
This doesn’t necessarily mean we should blame the students for going along with the deception. Considering the deprivation of these students from quality education, one might even go so far as to call them victims. It still seems that this could have all been avoided if the athletes had come forward from the start, rather than enjoying the free ride through college.
Instances of these kinds of fraudulent behavior in other universities only make me more appreciative of Elon's Honor Code.
It makes us a community built on trust — the beliefs not only that our professors will always provide a challenging yet enriching curriculum but also that students will speak out when their educational requirements are not met.
An interesting aspect of this situation is that while those involved in the creation and maintenance of paper classes were certainly acting dishonestly, they did so for the short-term benefit of both athletes and the university.
There are probably student athletes at every university, even our own, who struggle to balance the pressures of academia with those of playing sports.
Perhaps we can take this incident as a sign that more should be done to aid these students, so the measures like the ones taken at UNC do not become the standard response.