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It's not just the Willingham thing though. The way they've handled students in regards to sexual assault allegations has also been shameful. Sports ribbing aside, it seems like there needs to be a purge of UNC's upper administration and a hard look at what is going on in those offices.
I assume this is the case you are talking about. Please remember this young woman NEVER attempted to file criminal charges. Instead the matter was taken to the honor court months after the alleged incident occurred. Take from that what you will:
Gambill has maintained that the honor code violation was retribution by the university for filing the complaint and speaking publicly about her case. Thorp, however, said that an outside review by a nationally recognized consultant on sexual misconduct issues found no evidence that the university retaliated.
"This has been a difficult situation for the students involved, and it has led to me to carefully re-examine two issues: How we can continue to protect our students' right to free speech, and the Honor Code provision dealing with disruptive or intimidating behavior that was the basis of the original charge," Thorp said.
UNC has revised its policy so that no student can be charged by the Honor Court with the violation until the Committee on Student Conduct "can adequately evaluate the provision."
"This action is not a challenge to the important role of students in our Honor System but is intended to protect the free speech rights of our students," Thorp said.
Seriously, though. Why hand out degrees that were not earned?
I agree.
The vast majority of college athletes, though, are never going to earn a living playing their respective sport. They are there to earn a degree and enjoy their college experience. For those that use college as a necessary stepping stone to professional athletics, let them earn a degree in a select few programs that might help them make better decisions in life and with their money.
Better yet, the NBA and NFL should develop minor league programs that would develop young athletes who have no desire to get an education. This is already done in MLB and NHL. If the kid decides to attend a university on scholarship, they should be required to stay for a minimum of three years. If they leave, they are not eligible to play professionally until that three year commitment is complete.
Somehow UNC has gone from The Carolina Way and Public Ivy to "Everyone's Doing It!". And, no, everyone is not setting up completely bogus classes/majors, clustering their basketball/football players in those classes, having hundreds of forged grade changes, calling a researcher a liar (and then using completely different data to try to refute. Of course your graduation rates tell a different story than her data, you gave away fake degrees).
Kudos to CNN, The N&O, Bloomberg and others for covering the story and trying to dig into the corruption. Shame on Tom Ross, Governor Martin, Swofford, the NCAA, ESPN and others. I can't wait until Nyang'oro and the Tutor take the stand. And books start coming out.
Last edited by Dire Wolf; 01-29-2014 at 01:11 PM..
Somehow UNC has gone from The Carolina Way and Public Ivy to "Everyone's Doing It!". And, no, everyone is not setting up completely bogus classes/majors, clustering their basketball/football players in those classes, having hundreds of forged grade changes, calling a researcher a liar (and then using completely different data to try to refute. Of course you graduation rates tell a different story than her data, you gave away fake degrees).
Kudos to CNN, The N&O, Bloomberg and others for covering the story and trying to dig into the corruption. Shame on Tom Ross, Governor Martin, Swofford, the NCAA, ESPN and others. I can't wait until Nyang'oro and the Tutor take the stand. And books start coming out.
Hi! When are the rest of the gang from packpride going to show up?
OK if you can actually, with a straight face, compare the Stanford "easy class list" or Harvard "Intro to Congress class cheat" to the diploma mill for the jocks scandal @ UNC then I must say you are way above me on the self-delusional scale LOL. I've lived and worked in the Triangle for a decade now, and worked with 100's of Carolina grads... and must honestly admit... not been truly impressed by any of them (yet anyway)!
It's interesting that you bring up Duke, because I don't recall the same local media scrutiny when Duke basketball player Carlos Boozer took a whole bunch of independent study classes during the summer while he was off traveling with the US national team. ESPN uncovered a lot of the embarrassing details surrounding Duke's Sociology department and independent studies, but the local media didn't show much interest.
Why is the situation so different now that UNC is the target? The business of college athletics is an easy target with all the inherent hypocrisy related to amateurism, but it amazes me that our local media in Raleigh are trying so hard to use our own flagship university as the whipping boy for something that is occurring at all major BCS schools.
I'm really trying to understand the dynamics of this situation, and if people want to suggest that it's rooted in the arrogance of UNC alums, then so be it. From my experience, most UNC grads are busy at their jobs trying to get things done, and a strange set of attitudes and perceptions have been developed independently by people with no real connection to the school. These attitudes seem to be fueling the local media coverage, and have already caused severe damage to UNC as an institution. I just struggle to see how this is good for the state of NC as a whole.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JONOV
It's a conspiracy, see, the media and WRAL and them are controlled by NCSU and Duke Alums, see, that's why they're out to get UNC...
I have no idea...Usually the more squeaky clean and classy a team purports to be, the more they get hurt by their indiscretions. The better an institution is at handling it, the quicker they bounce back. Look at Ohio State in football...they recently had huge penalties to their football program, but they recovered in short order.
I don't think there is a media conspiracy. I think a lot of this revolves around the financial struggles of the N&O (also reference McClatchey's stock price decline). The N&O's investigative team has dwindled over the years due to industry decline, and are actually devoting a pretty significant percentage of their remaining resources towards investigating UNC. I think that the goal from the start has been to win a Pulitzer for uncovering the evils of college athletics through relentless investigation of UNC, and that the strong desire to produce some dramatic result has severely biased their reporting.
The part that's a bit less clear is why this type of biased and unprofessional reporting is tolerated by our community. Don't get me wrong, the local media has an obligation to report on things like the NCAA investigation, but the repeated lawsuits to access personal information at UNC are completely over-the-top. When you combine that with some clearly biased reporting, it's not hard to see why some UNC alums are trying to point out the obvious flaws in the local news narrative.
Ultimately, I think the N&O is just in survival mode, and just trying to do anything to attract attention and justify their existence. Normal journalistic ethics were abandoned long ago. Unfortunately, there is kind of a unique population dynamic at play in the Triangle where the Raleigh media doesn't face the same backlash investigating UNC as the media in Columbus would face if they did the same thing to Ohio State. It's unfortunate that we don't have these checks and balances, because I think a lot of damage is being done to our state as a whole.
Last edited by RedZin; 01-29-2014 at 04:50 PM..
Reason: You posted at length, so I'm thinking you're not that reluctant. ;)
I'm a big UNC fan, although I am a graduate of another university (several, in fact ).
But here's what bothers me: Half the students in the make-believe classes were athletes. OK, most of us understand that phenomenon, and understand that it's not just UNC doing this. But the other half -- the non-athletes. Who in hades are these kids and what, exactly, are they doing in a serious university?
The vast majority of college athletes, though, are never going to earn a living playing their respective sport. They are there to earn a degree and enjoy their college experience. For those that use college as a necessary stepping stone to professional athletics, let them earn a degree in a select few programs that might help them make better decisions in life and with their money.
Better yet, the NBA and NFL should develop minor league programs that would develop young athletes who have no desire to get an education. This is already done in MLB and NHL. If the kid decides to attend a university on scholarship, they should be required to stay for a minimum of three years. If they leave, they are not eligible to play professionally until that three year commitment is complete.
I think that's a pretty good idea, now that I sit and ponder it.
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