Findings in the Summary of irregular “Paper Classes” that were offered at the University of North Carolina and the conclusion of the Investigation

You can see some of the key points from the academic investigation findings at UNC that came out today and the most tell-tale of these findings that really got to me and if you are student taking classes and being graded on a correct basis at North Carolina, or any other institution in this land, you feel like going ballistic when you read that Deborah Crowder, a non-faculty administrator, managed the classes and graded the papers.

Crowder, a non-faculty administrator and pretty much an employee in the office at UNC-Chapel Hill was able to set up the classes, which for the most part never met and she graded the papers and in most cases you only had to write one paper for this class that never met and she hardly ever gave a grade below a “B” to the students and she again was grading the papers and she was never even a faculty member…How do you even come close to being qualified to grade a written content paper when you are not a teacher/professor???

Crowder said she felt sorry for the students that were struggling in most of their college courses and decided to help them out and thanks a lot, if you could get into one of Crowder classes and what about the students that took regular classes and earned their grades???

The Crowder deal is what really take the cake, where you have an office employee that can become in effect, a college professor who is in charge of all phases of a these “Paper Classes”….

The word is that Coach Smith and Coach Guthridge knew about these classes and they encouraged Matt Doherty to continue them when he took over as basketball coach….

Not real clear how much Roy Williams knew about what was going here, but former football coach John Bunting knew what was going on and kept the classes going on at UNC, as did Butch Davis…..One of Roy Williams associates(Basketball counselor Wayne Walden) knew of the classes and he may have just been the one who kept the “Paper Classes” going for the basketball players and was there to do this for Roy Williams and Roy did not have to deal with the issue directly….

It sounds like the coaches let the academic counselors handle all of this and as long as the players stayed eligible, no problem….

Again the powderkeg to me was that a non-faculty administrator, Deborah Crowder was allowed to serve as the class instructor and grade the papers and nobody was to receive any grade lower that a “B” for the most…This would be like a teacher letting her students grade the classmates and even in some cases their own papers and it does happen sometimes in high school, but usually where you have cut and dry answers fill-in-the-blanks, multiple choice, yes or no or an answer that has to one way or another…..You would never let a student grade a written paper and then give out the grade that they think that paper deserves….

And they were letting this office worker, Deborah Crowder, grade these papers and she had made her mind up prior to even seeing one of these papers that should would not give out a grade lower that a “B”…..

Makes you stop and think and we could look and talk about this all day long, but here is the jest from WRALSportsFan.com…….

University of North Carolina Academic Investigation

•Two people within the department formerly known as African and Afro-American Studies (AFAM)—Julius Nyang’oro and Deborah Crowder—were responsible for offering hundreds of irregular classes at UNC-Chapel Hill between 1993 and 2011.

•These so-called “paper classes” were irregular in that they had no class attendance or faculty involvement, and Ms. Crowder, a non-faculty administrator, managed the classes and graded the papers.

•Over the course of their 18-year existence, the paper classes affected 3,100 out of a total of 97,600 undergraduate students who were enrolled at the University during that time period.

Read more from WRALSportsFan.com when you CLICK HERE…..

7 thoughts on “Findings in the Summary of irregular “Paper Classes” that were offered at the University of North Carolina and the conclusion of the Investigation

  1. Here’s on other key point from the findings that were released today:

    Investigators found 169 student-athletes whose paper class grade kept them eligible to play. Of the 169, 123 were football players, 15 were men’s basketball players, eight were women’s basketball players and 26 played in one of the Olympic sports.

    It still appears that the coaches let the Academic Counselors steer the athletes into these classes and the coaches just went on about their way and took care of their coaching….

  2. This goes on everywhere, in some form of fashion. Why is ANYONE surprised and it is not just athletes that take these classes. Now, if these kids are taking Major classes and are giving grades, then someone should be upset. But an elective. If it was not a paper class, it is many classes on a college campus that athletes attend that they are giving extra treatment. Alabama doesn’t win 3 National Championships in a row with scholars??? The QB at South Carolina just came out and made that statement.

  3. This type of thing is happening in the public schools on a daily basis. The only difference is — kids are doing NOTHING and teachers are required to give them partial credit and/or passing grades in order to keep graduation rates high. It is a total shame. We are setting these kids up for failure!

  4. It was a great run while it lasted.
    I convinced many fools to believe me.
    Even awesome cons like mine can get exposed.
    I must admit that those “Lunatic Fringe” NC State fans finally beat me down and exposed me after 20 years.
    Thanks to Dick Vitale for helping to spread my myth all these years.

  5. When the athletic academic counselors realized Deborah Crowder was ready to retire, PANIC began to set in…

    from JP Giglio with the Charlotte Observer/News and Observer Raleigh:

    The Counselors started conferring with the coaches about Crowder’s upcoming retirement in 2009…..

    “We put them(Athletes) in classes that met degree requirements in which:

    – They didn’t go to class

    – They didn’t take notes, have to stay awake

    – They didn’t have to meet with professors

    – They didn’t have to pay attention or necessarily engage with the material”

    AFAM/AFRI SEMINAR COURSES

    – 20-25 page papers on course topic

    – THESE NO LONGER EXIST!

    Investigator Kenneth Wainstein revealed these details and many more Wednesday in his report into irregular classes in the AFAM department at UNC. He detailed a series of actions before Crowder’s retirement that showed how deeply Crowder was involved and how valuable she was to the football program.

    In addition to the PowerPoint presentation, counselors also created a flier, handed out to football players, to alert them to Crowder’s retirement, and what that would mean for potential grades. In the summer of 2009, football counselor Cynthia Reynolds sent an e-mail to the football operations director imploring the players to turn in their work before Crowder was gone. “Ms. Crowder is retiring at the end of July … if the guys papers are not in … I would expect D’s or C’s at best. Most need better than that …”

    Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/10/22/5260147/unc-academic-counselors-told-football.html#storylink=cpy

  6. For decades Carolina has been telling everyone they were special…..cut from a different cloth.

    Now that they are exposed as cheaters and frauds, they are telling everyone that they are just like all other schools.

    The funny thing here is the cheating was done by the adults! It goes to the core of the university and it’s integrity and lack thereof. It’s one thing to think FSU is letting Winston off easy…..it’s totally another thing if Jimbo and the AD themselves were stealing crab legs and molesting women.

    UNC is a great academic institution, no question. But the arrogance about their athletic department is now based on cheating and fraud. UNC is SMU, they are UNLV.

Comments are closed.