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