Helgate: Heelgate Scandal In College

Great Essays
BUZZY--UNC PRESENTATION—
What we have begun to learn within all of these scandals is that big schools find loopholes for their student-athletes to boost their academics instead of these student-athletes fulfilling their academic requirements on their own. Regardless of what sport you play there are ways around going to class and getting good marks, so that you can focus more of your time towards the athletic side of your student athlete life.
The University of North Carolina Chapel-Hill has been under investigation for certain scandals dating back to the early '90s. The biggest scandal from UNC has to do with student-athletes taking questionable classes to boost their GPA which allowed them to remain eligible for their sport. Another scandal UNC has been subject to investigation has to do with improper compensation to current and past athletes during their time at UNC. In this paper we will discuss what we have learned about these scandals, how the public gained knowledge of them, and some of the repercussions. “Heelgate” The scandal known as “Heelgate” began in 1993 on the Chapel Hill campus of the University of North Carolina.
…show more content…
It started in the African and Afro-American (AFAM) studies program under direction of department chair Dr. Julius Nyang'oro and student services manager Debby Crowder. The AFAM program began to offer “paper classes” to student athletes, as well as regular students on campus. The classes never actually met and the only requirement for the class was to submit a single twenty page paper about the course topic that was loosely graded. In the internal investigation report released by the university, it said that Crowder and Nyang’oro were "primarily motivated to offer these classes by a desire to help struggling students and student-athletes." (Fiammetta 2014). These “paper classes” continued on for years. Even though these “paper classes” directly benefited athletes, they were not the only students involved. In fact, just over half of the enrollment in the classes was non-student-athletes. This in turn made it not only an athletic scandal, but also an academic scandal. When the mid 2000’s rolled around, many struggling student athletes relied on these classes to boost the GPA and help them to remain eligible for their sport. By the time the scandal came to a hault, following Crowder’s retirement in 2009 and Nyang'oro’s reassignment in 2011, 188 of these classes had occurred and over 3,100 students had participated in at least one of the courses (Fiammetta 2014; Beard & Dalesio 2014). Nyang’oro’s reassignment was amongst rumors of wrong doing. Once he resigned, an investigation began, the scandal was discovered and officially ended in 2012. The Benefiters Overall, there were approximately 1,871 student-athletes (47.6%) who had participated in the improper courses. Of those student-athletes, 1,189 were members of the varsity football or varsity men’s basketball programs (Fiammetta 2014). Therefore, the majority of athletes taking these classes were either football or basketball players. This would include players who were members of the 1993, 2005, and 2009 NCAA National Champion men’s basketball teams at UNC (Beard & Dalesio 2014). To be exact, members of the 2004-05 UNC basketball team counted for 35 of the enrollments in the illegitimate courses (Rutherford 2014). The Repercussions In August, while waiting on NCAA investigations to finish and rulings to be dealt out, the university announced that they had internally found additional violations that would include the women’s basketball and also the men’s soccer programs. Due to these further violations, it is believed that the official rulings for UNC would be released after the national signing day and after the annual March Madness National Championship basketball tournament (Volk 2015). Due to the scandal also involving regular students and not just student athletes, an academic accreditation agency became involved in reviewing the scandal. The board of Southern Association of Colleges and Schools' Commission on Colleges placed the University of North Carolina on a twelve month probationary period. The commission stopped just short of subjecting their harshest penalty of blocking the university from receiving federal funds which would include student loan proceeds. "They just have to send us more documentation to show their compliance with seven of these principals," commission President Belle Wheelan said (Dalesio 2015). The school must show compliance

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    The only ones not cashing in, it seems, are the player themselves. " This does not seem fair that the ones who are making the money are not receiving any of the money. Greg Johnson, sports editor at The Daily Targum, and StudentNation, organization who give first-person accounts from student activists, organizers and journalists reporting on youth-oriented movements for social justice, economic equality and tolerance, says, "Coaches and athletic directors can negotiate million-dollar contracts, billions are available for installing state-of-the-art facilities, but the whole enterprise hinges on maintaining an arbitrary benefit to the student athletes. " Supporters of the notion that college athletes should not be paid argue that there are problems with payment. Johnson, who spent sixteen years working in the School of Sport Sciences at Wingate University (NC), and Acquaviva, professor of sports science at Wingate University (NC) say that refuters ask the questions "how much should the athletes get paid and will payments be based on performance?…

    • 1639 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Tubby Smith’s article “Is It Time To Start Paying College Athletes?”, he states his hesitations about colleges paying their athletes. Smith believes if athletes received compensation for their sport, questions would rise about the security of their job. Non-sport related workers always run the risk of being fired. Once college athletes receive pay for their new…

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Death Of Len Bias

    • 257 Words
    • 2 Pages

    With the problems of drug abuse and academic integrity in collegiate athletics in the 1980s, something needed to be done to address these issues. The problem was that these issues were hidden and ignored by American society. The death of Len Bias exposed these issues. In this essay I will investigate the extent to which the death of Len Bias affected the problems of drug abuse and the lack of academic integrity in college athletics. This extended essay demonstrates that the death of Len Bias revealed two systemic problems: drug abuse and the lack of academic integrity in college athletics.…

    • 257 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    by Reed Karaim shows how students have the right to unionize, along with class-action lawsuits demanding more compensation and better treatment for college athletes, has amplified debate over whether they should be paid. Reed Karaim discusses how the top of collegiate competition deserves greater compensation for their efforts rather than scholarships. Meaning these athlete’s deserve…

    • 818 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The article, “The Case for Paying College Athletes,” by Allen Sanderson and John Siegfried, seeks to provide an in-depth analysis of compensating college athletes. Specifically, Sanderson and Siegfried analyze the history of the NCAA and its governance, the reasons for operating commercialized sports programs, the market for college athletes, the NCAA’s power, the distributional aspects of change, and finally, how changes will arrive (Sanderson & Siegfried, 2015, p. 115-137). The authors begin with a description of both the history and governance of the NCAA. The NCAA was established in 1906, resulting from President Roosevelt’s advocacy to improve the safety of players (Sanderson & Siegfried, 2015, p. 117).…

    • 1125 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    One And Done Rule

    • 1920 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Academic scandals can ruin a university’s reputation and can affect their long term ability to recruit not only basketball players but all students as well. Because the best basketball players must go to college, some universities who are looking to land a big time recruit would do anything to get top rated high schoolers to their university. This often times includes recruiting and academic violations both of which tarnish university’s names. These violations range from monetary bribes to promises of not having to do their homework, anything to get recruits to come play for those coaches making the promises. This can permanently damage some school’s academic reputation.…

    • 1920 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    NCAA Graduation Rates

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the Article “NCAA Athlete Graduation Rates: Less than Meets the Eye” by E. Woodrow Eckard the author explains that the NCAA is telling the public that the student athletes have higher graduation rates than regular students. In this article it will discuss the NCAA’s misleading claims, the real evidence and claims and how the audience feels about the author’s statements. The Article itself explains that according to the NCAA, student athletes are “completing their bachelor’s degrees at rates higher than the American College student population at large. ”(Eckard 209) The author then talks about how the NCAA does not take into account, the large portion of college students who are part time.…

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    A major issue that resides within the sphere of college athletics is whether college athletes should or should not be paid while they are attending school. College athletes work hard every day to meet the scholarly standards of their universities. They also strive to keep their level of play at its peak. These college athletes need to be awarded and credited for their achievements. This problem often leads to athletes making poor judgments in accepting money from boosters and others that are willing to help them.…

    • 1349 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Should Student Athletes Be Paid Essay

    • 1778 Words
    • 8 Pages
    • 7 Works Cited

    Opportunities for a good education are there if they are willing to work as much at that as at football”. (Sloan S. and Favero D. 1) Scholastics in student athletes unfortunately take a back seat role in their college years, because students believe that they are indeed helping the university. Every student helps the university in some form so what differentiates a student athlete from a regular student? Critics say that students should be paid for going above and beyond and taking time out of their day to practice or to play a sport that they could be studying or doing something scholastically related. This idea is exactly what causes strife within a student body.…

    • 1778 Words
    • 8 Pages
    • 7 Works Cited
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The controversy of whether college athletes should be paid or not is a significant issue in the sports world, today. In this issue there are two different sides the NCAA and then their college athletes. The main reason the NCAA states they will not pay their college athletes is because they are ‘amateurs’. According to the NCAA, “Amateur competition is a bedrock principle of college athletics and the NCAA.…

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In his memoir entitled Unsportsmanlike Conduct, the first full time executive director of the NCAA, Walter Byers, observed that "Amateurism is not a moral issue; it is an economic camouflage for monopoly practice."26 In arguing for college athletes to be paid, tennis legend and civil rights advocate Billie Jean King asserted that the NCAA’s concept of amateurism symbolized a power struggle between college sport officials and athletes.27 Part of that control is exercised through the manipulation of the language the NCAA uses to describe it.28 As Kevin Satterlee, vice president and legal counsel at Boise State University remarked at a conference examining the proper role of sports in higher education at the Santa Clara University Institute of…

    • 153 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    College Athletes Should Not Get Paid Outline Specific Purpose Statement: At the end of my speech the audience will agree that college athletes should not get paid. Thesis: College athletes should not receive any payment or compensation in college. Introduction: I. I would like everyone to raise their hand if they play a sport for Southeastern Community College.…

    • 1302 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many court cases are beginning to arise due to former players realizing the NCAA unfair rules and guidelines, and it needs to be changed drastically. Two students on the Northwestern football team created a petition to be able to unionize and be compensated for their play, however, the National Labor Relation Board declined to give jurisdiction in the athletes’ case (Strauss) (this is another work from the same author). Although the board denied compensation for athletes, their reasoning was that college athletes are students first. They avoided the main point of the case which was William Goud, a former labor board chairman, thinks the student athletes have a good case by stating "The principle reason for that is their work -- they have…

    • 1220 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Being a student athlete is a wonderful thing in high school, despite a lot of people only acknowledge the athlete part and not the student part. I believe that academics come first and if a high school student wants to be an athlete, then getting good grades should be a requirement. It should be mandatory for teachers and coaches to check the grades of student athletes weekly to determine whether students are performing academically well or not. The students that aren’t doing well should be dismissed from any further games and practices until their grades improve. It is important that student athletes maintain good grades because the work that they put into their school performance carries with them through life, putting too much of an emphasis…

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Problem Of Paying Student Athletes

    • 2586 Words
    • 11 Pages
    • 5 Works Cited

    Web. 18 April 2013 Schneider, Raymond G. “COLLEGE STUDENTS' ……STUDENT-ATHLETES.” June 2001. Web. 18 April 2013 Wieberg, Steve.…

    • 2586 Words
    • 11 Pages
    • 5 Works Cited
    Great Essays