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Post by Marty Da Hungry Wolf on Mar 26, 2014 10:31:13 GMT -5
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Post by Tizu on Mar 26, 2014 12:07:44 GMT -5
Yes, I saw that yesterday. There's an HBO special about it too. Pretty crazy...yeah, and Mary Willingham was lying or wasn't being "truthful", right?
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Post by Marty Da Hungry Wolf on Mar 27, 2014 10:50:29 GMT -5
The most amazing thing to me continues to be, like shown in the Bloomberg article, the "spin" or even the downright misapplication of the facts as presented (http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-02-27/in-fake-classes-scandal-unc-fails-its-athletes-whistle-blower#p6):
" ... Dean grossly distorted Willingham’s statements. What she’s said is that 18 out of the 183 special admit athletes whose records she assessed read at roughly a third-grade level. An additional 110 of the athletes, she said, read at between fourth- and eighth-grade levels. She never said that most, let alone all, of the 800 athletes at UNC are illiterate, and she said nothing at all about the other 18,000 undergraduates.
When challenged, Dean conceded he’d misspoken. He also admitted that he doesn’t really think Willingham is a liar and assumes she means well. But would he similarly qualify his assault on Willingham back in Chapel Hill?"
As would be expected, comments from UNC fans are posted that mention, among other things, Mary Willingham's "somewhat overly dramatic" way of bringing some problems to light, and that go on to criticize her research, saying tests for writing ability and vocabulary were used to judge reading ability and that that is incorrect. If a person writes on a 3rd grade level and has the vocabulary of a 3rd grader, one could probably logically assume the person in question would also read at (or VERY near) a 3rd grade level. Am I missing something here?
The comment in question goes on to say that " ... while it is true that it must be incredibly challenging for a student with poor reading ability to simultaneously play a sport, train, and succeed in collegiate classes, that does not mean that it is not possible and not a worthwhile endeavor. In fact, there are many student athletes who do just that, rising above their underprivileged background to emerge with a solid college education that will serve them well. Why not afford talented and disadvantaged student athletes this opportunity? In the article, Willingham even concedes that she experienced firsthand athletes who took advantage of tutoring and showed “substantial progress”.
The WHOLE, ENTIRE, COMPLETE issue revolves around this thought, expressed in this posted comment after the Bloomberg article: "Although Mary Willingham has somewhat become the face of this scandal, her data analysis and conclusions are simply the lightning rod that captured the media's attention. Her analysis may be confirmed or debunked, but neither is the true scandal here. The real issue involves:
200+ FAKE classes / 500+ UNAUTHORIZED GRADE CHANGES WITH FORGED SIGNATURES - all to keep revenue athletes eligible to win titles for UNC, for which there has been NO punishment from any regulatory body (if such a thing exists any longer). Top this off with impermissible benefits (luxury cars, mouth-guards, parties, sweet rental deals, etc) and we see that UNC has had a sweet system in place for quite some time. And let's not forget the hiring of a star's mother into a a high-paying job for which she had no qualifications - and then essentially embezzled money to travel to see her sons play ball.
All this from an institution that has carefully but relentlessly crafted the image of "doing it the right way". Wow."
I've said this from Day One of this entire thing. The whole "Don't tell me the same thing isn't going on at State." or "This kind of stuff goes on everywhere." or "LOL. One year bowl ban. Enough. Punishment fits the crime. Keep on dreaming, Red Ragers." arguments do NOT address this one simple fact: We were all told for years and years and years that THIS stuff did NOT go on in Chapel Hill, and now it looks for all the world that for at least the majority of all those years and years and years it just might have after all. This is NOT just a football thing, this is NOT just a 2010-forward thing, and any claim to the contrary is more and more rapidly with pretty much each passing day being torn to shreds.
I don't necessarily find joy in that, but I do sense justice; if not now, it's coming. I don't "want" it, I didn't "cause" it, so as is written in the article: Don't judge, rule on, and execute the messenger. It's not my problem.
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Post by Marty Da Hungry Wolf on Mar 27, 2014 11:37:43 GMT -5
Other posted comments (out of nearly 400 to this point) and, no, I do not know what these peoples' qualifications or sources are:
"We should not forget about Dr. Madeline G. Levine, Kenan Professor of Slavic Literatures Emerita. She taught at UNC-CH for 36 years before retiring in 2010. In 2005, the UNC-CH faculty presented her with its Thomas Jefferson Award, which is presented annually to “that member of the academic community who through personal influence and performance of duty in teaching, writing, and scholarship has best exemplified the ideals and objectives of Thomas Jefferson.” In a January 2014 three-page Open Letter to UNC-CH Chancellor Carol Folt and Provost James Dean, Dr. Levine shared four incidents concerning the treatment of student athletes of which she had personal knowledge. Following describing these personal experiences, she wrote: "...Clearly, the coaches and employees in the official athletes' support system knew whom to approach and how to cheat. ...Perhaps chief among these questions is the extent to which the success of our basketball and football teams has depended on keeping the strongest athletes academically eligible through impermissible assistance by their tutors and by enrollment in courses, some of them spurious, in which they were guaranteed the grades necessary to meet NCAA standards." Dr. Levine states clearly that the issue at UNC-CH is broader than Department of African and Afro-American Studies.
During the last week of January, Chancellor Carol Folt admitted in a statement before
a meeting of the Board of Trustees of UNC-CH that beginning in the mid-1990s, the school’s African, African American and Diaspora Studies Department hosted hundreds of phony classes to generate fake grades that kept Tar Heel basketball and football players eligible to play.
So, where are the NCAA, Dr. Mark Emmert, its President, and Mr. John Duncan, Vice President of Enforcement for the NCAA, regarding this academic scandal involving student-athletes that spans over two decades at UNC-CH?
In addition, there has been complete silence regarding this academic scandal involving student-athletes that spans over two decades at UNC-CH from the ACC and its current Commissioner, Mr. John Swofford, the former Director of Athletics at UNC-CH from 1980 to 1997."
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Nyang’oro became the chair of the curriculum at issue in 1992. The Carolina Alumni Review also points out that Nyang’oro was the *first* and *only* department head.
As a matter of deduction, that means that African American Studies as a curriculum was created in 1992 when Nyang’oro was designated the first and only chair.
In 1992-1993, the University of North Carolina basketball team won the NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship in New Orleans finishing the year with an impressive 34-4 record.
UNC’s roster for the 1992-1993 team can be viewed here. However, below is a clip from that link for your convenience:
Roster
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Scott Cherry Sr 6-4 G
George Lynch Sr 6-7 F *
Henrik Rodl Sr 6-7 F/G
Travis Stephenson Sr 6-6 F
Matt Wenstrom Sr 7-1 C
Eric Montross Jr 7-0 C *
Derrick Phelps Jr 6-4 G *
Brian Reese Jr 6-6 F *
Kevin Salvadori Jr 7-0 F
Pat Sullivan Jr 6-8 F
Pearce Landry So 6-5 G
Donald Williams So 6-3 G *
Dante Calabria Fr 6-4 G
Larry Davis Fr 6-1 G
Ed Geth Fr 6-9 F
As you will see, the starting line up for the 1993 National Champion Tar Heels consisted of George Lynch, Brian Reese, Donald Williams, Derrick Phelps, and Eric Montross.
Before we move forward, a disclaimer: In the not-so-distant past, SFN was able to peruse old UNC Basketball Media Guides. For some reason we are having trouble relocating those online. But at that point, we were able to determine from UNC’s own publications the curriculum/majors of many of the former UNC basketball players.
The curriculum majors/minors for that group based on our best collected information and belief are as follows:
Lynch (Sr): African American Studies
Reese (Jr): Communications (minor in African American Studies)
D. Williams (So): African American Studies
Phelps (Jr): African American Studies
Montross (Jr): Communications
It seems worth pointing out that in the first year a curriculum for African American Studies existed at UNC (1992) 4 of 5 members of the starting lineup of the National Championship Basketball team immediately majored/minored in the brand new curriculum with Dr. Nyang’oro at the helm. In just one year, an almost entire team happened to migrate to one particular, and brand new, curriculum?
(So we see here that the issue with African American Studies not only is not confined solely to the football team but goes well back beyond 2010 as well? Hmmmm ..... that is interesting.)
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It would seem that the answers to all of these questions, and the verification of all of this information, should be easy enough to prove. But as long as a University that has long espoused to be so far above reproach that it actually has its own "Way" continues to stonewall, obstruct, deny, deflect, and sink to the very levels of mudslinging and elementary school recess period level comebacks, we will not see the entire festering boil. Unless ..... this University is "compelled" to do so.
Remains to be seen .....
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Post by Marty Da Hungry Wolf on Mar 27, 2014 12:10:41 GMT -5
Reading even further through the comments, it looks like another Litterbox. Wow.
One side: "We think there's something there and we want to know if there is and, if so, exactly what."
Other side: "There's nothing there, and we say there's nothing there so that means there's nothing there. If you say anything other than 'O.K.', you're just a hater. Nyah."
It would seem that a University, indeed the self-professed "Flagship" university of a state-supported university system that is governed by a board of people comprised nearly entirely of graduates from that one single university and whose charges and issues have been investigated entirely by people graduated from and/or paid by that one single university, would want, um, ....... wait, where was I going again?
Oh, yeah. That's it - "integrity". "Transparency." "Lack of conflict of interest." Yeah. That's it.
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Post by Marty Da Hungry Wolf on Mar 27, 2014 12:16:02 GMT -5
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Post by Tizu on Mar 27, 2014 13:43:11 GMT -5
Crazy. Very interesting comments on that article as well. The NCAA says it doesn't get involved in academics...yet let an athlete's grades fall and watch what happens...bang, suspended.
But they don't get involved in academics...
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Post by Marty Da Hungry Wolf on Mar 27, 2014 16:23:36 GMT -5
It's gotten real damn clear real damn quick to me that since there is so much money now wrapped up in football and basketball, the NCAA themselves can't be counted on to fully, completely, and with any real degree of real integrity investigate issues themselves. No consistency, no integrity, rules and "enforcement" are laughable.
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