Acing the Course at Chapel Hill
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD, NYT
Another shameful lesson in the multibillion-dollar entertainment industry euphemistically referred to as collegiate sports is playing out at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A former professor was indicted on fraud charges last month after running dozens of bogus and no-show courses heavily enrolled with student athletes looking for easy academic credits.
Investigations have found that over almost two decades as many as 200 classes offered little or no actual instruction, with the mere submission of any sort of term paper the only requirement for a passing mark. As many as 560 unauthorized grade changes were made across the years, some in the name of professors who said their signatures had been forged. This at a campus that presents itself as an academics-first institution.
The scandal points to the ever more dominant role in academic life played by revenue-rich intercollegiate athletics, where victories are badges in the booming business of televised sports. Yet Chapel Hill officials have clung to the fiction that the dummy courses were not designed to protect athletes’ eligibility. The university says the fact that nonathletes also had access to the courses shows that the scheme was not designed to protect athletes.
(More here.)
Another shameful lesson in the multibillion-dollar entertainment industry euphemistically referred to as collegiate sports is playing out at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A former professor was indicted on fraud charges last month after running dozens of bogus and no-show courses heavily enrolled with student athletes looking for easy academic credits.
Investigations have found that over almost two decades as many as 200 classes offered little or no actual instruction, with the mere submission of any sort of term paper the only requirement for a passing mark. As many as 560 unauthorized grade changes were made across the years, some in the name of professors who said their signatures had been forged. This at a campus that presents itself as an academics-first institution.
The scandal points to the ever more dominant role in academic life played by revenue-rich intercollegiate athletics, where victories are badges in the booming business of televised sports. Yet Chapel Hill officials have clung to the fiction that the dummy courses were not designed to protect athletes’ eligibility. The university says the fact that nonathletes also had access to the courses shows that the scheme was not designed to protect athletes.
(More here.)
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