Thousands of student athletes enrolled in “shadow curriculum” to keep athletic eligibility
Kenneth Wainstein, former United States Justice Department official, released a report from an independent investigation on Oct. 22 revealing more academic fraud than previously reported by the NCAA and the University of North Carolina (UNC).
The academic fraud, seen as a largely significant scandal, has an existing timeline of almost two decades spanning from 1993 to 2011. The University of North Carolina has since terminated at least nine employees, with some currently under investigation for involvement. All of the employees remain unidentified, as UNC believes the situation at hand should be left as a “university” and “academic” matter.
An estimated 3100 students had enrolled in classes that belonged to a “shadow curriculum,” an academic stream stemming from the Afro-American Studies department that included classes students didn’t have to show up for. Some courses only required a single research paper, which would be scanned briefly by a secretary who would award high scores regardless of quality, and had no interaction with university academic faculty. There was no further evidence found within the report of similar problems within other departments at the school.
The majority of athletes enrolled in said courses belonged to the institution’s football and beloved basketball teams. Over the span of the scandal, the UNC basketball team won three of its five championship titles (1993, 2005, 2009). This is a major factor to the report, as the only thing left in question are the consequences, if any, that will come from the NCAA. The threat of fewer scholarships made available for student athletes, and disqualification from previous wins, and possibly championships, remains lingering as the investigation continues.
Guidance counselors were found to have been suggesting courses from the “shadow curriculum” to struggling athletes in order to uphold their playing eligibility. It was also found that two counselors even implied grades, while several were aware that the courses at hand didn’t have an instructor.
After the former department chair Julius Nyang’oro, and retired office administrator Deborah Crowder began the classes for struggling athletes in 1993, by the mid-2000’s, these courses had evolved into the primary source for athletes who had been struggling academically to remain eligible to play.
Nyang’oro was originally charged with felony fraud, although it was dropped once he began to cooperate with the independent investigation of Wainstein. Co-creator Crowder never faced any charges.
Crowder began these classes, however, initially to keep students facing challenges academically from “watered-down requirements.” Despite not being an official faculty member, Crowder enrolled students in courses, delegated topics, and awarded high grades regardless of quality. She also signed Nyang’oro’s name to grades. Six years later, in 1999, Crowder had to side-step the number of independent studies students were allowed to take, and did this through offering lecture courses that never held a lecture.
After Crowder retired in 2009, Nyang’oro continued to follow through on the requests of football counselors to continue the classes and grade the research papers with “an eye to boosting” a student’s grade-point average. As soon as questions began to demand answers in 2011, Nyang’oro resigned from the position.
Roy Williams, Hall of Fame men’s basketball coach, as well as other coaches, reported to be fully aware of the courses offering easy grades, but did not know the classes were in fact fake. Wainstein stated in the report he found no reason not to believe their statements.
Athletic director Bubba Cunningham acknowledged that UNC is working closely with the NCAA to progress through the report as part of cooperating with the investigation.