unc football essay

• Breaking News
• University Guide
• Meghan Markle
• Prince Harry
• King Charles III

How did this 146-word essay on Rosa Parks get an A-? UNC football player's shocking term paper is released by whistleblower who alleges widespread academic fraud

• A terrible 146-word term paper on Rosa Parks that received an A from University of North Carolina is released
• Whistleblower Mary Willingham claims that it is just one example of academic fraud at the institution
• Willingham alleges athletes were guided towards fake classes and gifted grades to comply with NCAA guidlines
• UNC denies academic fraud is widespread and claims that only one professor - who has been suspended - was responsible

By James Nye

Published: 02:08 EDT, 28 March 2014 | Updated: 11:01 EDT, 28 March 2014

View comments

An awful 146-word term paper littered with grammatical errors that is barely even readable has become a potent visual symbol of the University of North Carolina's fake classes scandal.

The one-paragraph essay on civil rights icon Rosa Parks earned an A- and was exposed by former UNC professor Mary Willingham, who spent 10 years teaching UNC's athletes before she turned whistleblower on alleged classroom corruption.

The shocking essay came to light during an ESPN documentary timed to coincide with the March Madness basketball competition. It contains allegations that UNC athletes in danger of failing were encouraged to sign up for fake tutor groups designed to let students pass.

Scroll Down for a Video:

Allegations of academic fraud: This is Mary Willingham a former student adviser at UNC who has claimed that many athletic students at the college were unable to read or write and that fake classes were set up to enable them to play and to graduate

The so-called 'paper classes' were essentially no-show study groups that allowed semi-literate and in some cases, illiterate athletes to pass, thereby boosting their Grade Point Average to meet the NCAA's eligibility requirements.

The anonymous essay, titled, 'Rosa Parks: My Story' attempts to recount the important moment on December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, when Parks refused to give her seat up for a white man.

However, it fails to even place the event in the past or give any gravitas to the momentous moment in American history.

'Some of these college students could read at a second or third grade level,' Willingham, a UNC academic adviser since 2003 told ESPN .

'Students were taking classes that really didn't exist. They were called independent studies at that time and they just had to write a paper... There was no attendance.'

RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

During the course of her ESPN interview, Williams confirmed the existence of 'easy paper classes' and alleged that students were guided to these classes by their academic advisors.

'Their job isn't necessarily to make Deunta Williams a better person, a smarter person,' Williams told ESPN.

'Their job is to make sure I'm eligible to play.'

Deunta Williams, played football at UNC from 2007 to 2010 and has admitted to the scam, now says he is ashamed to have been involved with it.

Willingham's whistleblowing began in 2011 after she became appalled that UNC, rather than educating its athletes was keeping them from needing to study at all.

The paper: This is the essay on Rosa Parks that received an A- that Mary Willingham produced as evidence of apparent academic fraud on an ESPN special timed to coincide with March Madness

She began to release information to journalists about  basketball and football stars who read at a grade school level.

She confessed herself to steering many young men into lecture classes that simply did not exist.

And most galling for her, given UNC's proud history pushing for desegregation, that the courses were in African-American history.

Willingham began to feed information about alleged academic fraud to the News & Observer in Raleigh.

UNC is heavily invested in the $16 billion business that is college sports but Willingham's revelations threaten that.

'I was part of something that I came to be ashamed of,' said Willingham to Bloomberg News in February. 

ROSA PARKS: MY STORY: THE FULL 146-WORD TEXT OF THE TERM PAPER

On the evening of December Rosa Parks decided that she was going to sit in the  white people section on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

During this time blacks had to give up there seats to whites when more whites got on the bus. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat.

Her and the bus driver began to talk and the conversation went like this. 'Let me have those front seats' said the driver.

She didn’t get up and told the driver that she was tired of giving her seat to white people.

'I’m going to have you arrested,' said the driver. 'You may do that,' Rosa Parks responded.

Two white policemen came in and Rosa Parks asked them 'why do you all push us around?'

The police officer replied and said 'I don’t know, but the law is the law and you’re under arrest.

'We weren’t serving the kids. We weren’t educating them properly. We were pushing them toward graduation, and that’s not the same as giving them an education.'

When she publicly came forward, UNC stripped of her supervisory title and denied the allegations of widespread academic fraud.

UNC officials noted in a statement released after the ESPN report aired that little new information was revealed and noted that the university has used the episode as a chance to improve.

'We have instituted numerous reforms, including new governance and accountability standards in our Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes,' Vice Chancellor for Communications and Public Affairs Joel Curran said in the statement.

In January senior UNC officials publicly condemned her for suggesting that football and basketball stars couldn’t read well enough to get through college classes honestly.

The fake classes were investigated in 2012 and Department head Julius Nyang’oro was listed as the instructor for the classes, although he calender revealed him to be abroad during some of these.

He has been charged with a felony for defrauding the university, and is currently fighting the charge in court.

Shocking: Mary Willingham said her research of 183 football or basketball players at UNC from 2004-12 found 60 percent reading at fourth- to eighth-grade levels and roughly 10 percent below a third-grade level.

An NCAA investigation into the football program in 2010 expanded into a probe of how the nation's first public university provides academic help to athletes. It led to a discovery of fraud in a department with classes featuring significant athlete enrollments.

Now, the debate of balancing academics and big-time sports at the university has been reignited by comments from a reading specialist about the reading levels of football and basketball players.

'It really has just been like we've been under siege for the past three years,' said Lissa Lamkin Broome, a banking law professor and UNC's faculty athletic representative in January.

'Now to the extent that we've uncovered problems during this siege, that's a good thing — to find those problems and weed them out and to try to put processes in place to hopefully ensure ... that some of this stuff doesn't happen again.'

In a CNN story that aired in January, Willingham said her research of 183 football or basketball players at UNC from 2004-12 found 60 percent reading at fourth- to eighth-grade levels and roughly 10 percent below a third-grade level.

She said she worked with one men's basketball player early in her 10-year tenure who couldn't read or write.

'I don't believe it's true,' UNC coach Roy Williams said in January.

'It's totally unfair. I'm really proud of the kids we've brought in here. ... We haven't brought anybody in like that. We've had one senior since I've been here that did not graduate.

Allegations: Mary Willingham said she worked with one men's basketball player early in her 10-year tenure who couldn't read or write (Her allegations did not relate to Deunta Williams - who is pictured here in a game gainst the Duke Blue Devils in 2009)

'Anybody can make any statement they want to make but that is not fair. The University of North Carolina doesn't do that. The University of North Carolina doesn't stand for that.'

Willingham has said in interviews that she has received death threats and hate mail. UNC police spokesman Randy Young said investigators have contacted her and 'are responding appropriately.'

Broome said Willingham had shared her findings previously but hasn't provided data that led to her conclusions.

'If Mary's data uncovers issues that would be helpful to us in our admissions process or in our academic support process, then I want to know about those so we can benefit from whatever work she has done ... in moving forward and doing things better,' Broome said.

Admissions director Stephen Farmer, a review group member, said his office won't hesitate to tell coaches no if a recruit can't handle coursework.

'We do not rubber-stamp anyone for admission,' Farmer said.

'We evaluate students for admission and we decide whether the students are capable of succeeding academically at UNC. That's about as plain as I can make it.'

The topic of balancing academics and athletics isn't unique to UNC, such as the AP reporting in 2011 that 39 schools had at least 50 percent of football players clustering in one, two or three majors.

But the scope of problems here has often left officials sifting through what happened as much as looking ahead.

In December, a grand jury indicted Nyang'oro for receiving $12,000 to teach one of the no-show classes in summer 2011, a lecture course that was instead treated as an independent study requiring a paper. The enrollment was 18 football players and one ex-player.

• http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=10671809

Share or comment on this article: UNC football player's shocking 146-word essay on Rosa Parks gets an A

Most watched news videos.

• War on Tape: Russia's deadly Glide Bombs causing havoc in Ukraine
• Russia launches blizzard of missiles and kamikaze drones on Ukraine
• Prince William says Kate is 'doing well' after her cancer diagnosis
• Israel's Eden Golan performs amid loud boos during the Eurovision final
• Greta Thunberg joins pro-Palestinian protest outside Eurovision venue
• Harry and Meghan spotted holding hands at polo match in Nigeria
• 'I'm deeply concerned': PureGym CEO gives honest opinion about Gaza
• Israel thanks Eden Golan for 'giving the entire country strength'
• David Cameron blasts BBC for failing to call Hamas 'terrorists'
• Moment Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at Lagos House Marina
• Pro-Palestine protesters chant 'Shame on you' outside Eurovision venue
• Israel's Eden Golan receives hero's welcome as she flies back home

Comments 461

Share what you think

• Worst rated

The comments below have not been moderated.

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

We are no longer accepting comments on this article.

• Follow DailyMail
• Subscribe Daily Mail
• Follow @dailymail
• Follow MailOnline
• Follow Daily Mail

From the Makers of Candy Crush

• Back to top

Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd

Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group

UNC Player Wrote This Paper On Rosa Parks And Somehow Still Got An A- In The Class (UPDATE)

UPDATE: 2:00 p.m. -- Earlier Friday morning, the whistleblower who provided the paper to ESPN clarified on Twitter that it wasn't the paper that received an A-, the student nabbed the high mark as their final grade:

Clarification on RP paper that went viral.It was a final essay for an intro class.Final grade in class A-.Not a real education. #ncaareform — Mary Willingham (@paperclassinc) March 28, 2014

How hard do college athletes have to work in class? At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the answer appears to be "not very."

This image from an ESPN report shows what's supposed to be a final paper written by a player in one of the school's athletics programs. It might get a C- in an elementary school (and that's being generous), but at UNC, it earned an A-:

Whistleblower says UNC put athletes in classes that never met and required only one final paper. This one got an A-. pic.twitter.com/HShyr6ivGm — Bryan Armen Graham (@BryanAGraham) March 26, 2014

To save your eyes, here's what the paper says:

Rosa Parks: My Story On the evening of December Rosa Parks decided that she was going to sit in the white people section on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. During this time blacks had to give up there seats to whites when more whites got on the bus. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. Her and the bus driver began to talk and the conversation went like this. “Let me have those front seats” said the driver. She didn’t get up and told the driver that she was tired of giving her seat to white people. “I’m going to have you arrested,” said the driver. “You may do that,” Rosa Parks responded. Two white policemen came in and Rosa Parks asked them “why do you all push us around?” The police officer replied and said “I don’t know, but the law is the law and you’re under arrest.

The paper controversy comes amid a growing scandal with claims of academic fraud, fake classes and no-show classes at the university designed to help push athletes through the school so they can keep playing while maintaining grades.

Our 2024 Coverage Needs You

It's another trump-biden showdown — and we need your help, the future of democracy is at stake, your loyalty means the world to us.

As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.

Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.

Contribute as little as $2 to keep our news free for all.

Can't afford to donate? Support HuffPost by creating a free account and log in while you read.

The 2024 election is heating up, and women's rights, health care, voting rights, and the very future of democracy are all at stake. Donald Trump will face Joe Biden in the most consequential vote of our time. And HuffPost will be there, covering every twist and turn. America's future hangs in the balance. Would you consider contributing to support our journalism and keep it free for all during this critical season?

HuffPost believes news should be accessible to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay for it. We rely on readers like you to help fund our work. Any contribution you can make — even as little as $2 — goes directly toward supporting the impactful journalism that we will continue to produce this year. Thank you for being part of our story.

It's official: Donald Trump will face Joe Biden this fall in the presidential election. As we face the most consequential presidential election of our time, HuffPost is committed to bringing you up-to-date, accurate news about the 2024 race. While other outlets have retreated behind paywalls, you can trust our news will stay free.

But we can't do it without your help. Reader funding is one of the key ways we support our newsroom. Would you consider making a donation to help fund our news during this critical time? Your contributions are vital to supporting a free press.

Contribute as little as $2 to keep our journalism free and accessible to all.

Dear HuffPost Reader

Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.

The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. Would you consider becoming a regular HuffPost contributor?

The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. If circumstances have changed since you last contributed, we hope you'll consider contributing to HuffPost once more.

Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.

Before You Go

Popular in the community, from our partner, more in college.

• Newsletters
• Account Activating this button will toggle the display of additional content Account Sign out

Here’s the Awful 146-Word “Essay” That Earned an A- for a UNC Jock

Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images

The University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill has already been embroiled in a scandal for allowing its athletes to enroll in fake courses for easy credit. Now, the whole controversy has a rather potent visual symbol to go along with it: a 146-word, ungrammatical essay on Rosa Parks that earned an A- for a real intro class.*

Mary Willingham, who spent a decade tutoring and advising UNC’s jocks before turning into a whistleblower, unveiled the paper during an interview with ESPN . As the segment explains, academically troubled UNC athletes were encouraged to sign up for so-called “paper classes”—which were essentially no-work independent studies involving a single paper that allowed functionally illiterate football players to prop up their GPAs, thus satisfying the NCAA’s eligibility requirements. While viewers were not treated to any of the “work” produced in those courses, Willingham did show this paper she later clarified was written for an actual intro class, in which the athlete finished with an A-:

Screenshot of ESPN.com

And here’s the text.

On the evening of December Rosa Parks decided that she was going to sit in the  white people section on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. During this time blacks had to give up there seats to whites when more whites got on the bus. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. Her and the bus driver began to talk and the conversation went like this. “Let me have those front seats” said the driver. She didn’t get up and told the driver that she was tired of giving her seat to white people. “I’m going to have you arrested,” said the driver. “You may do that,” Rosa Parks responded. Two white policemen came in and Rosa Parks asked them “why do you all push us around?” The police officer replied and said “I don’t know, but the law is the law and you’re under arrest.

It seems fitting that this image is making the rounds just one day after a National Labor Relations Board official ruled that football players at Northwestern University were not primarily students but rather employees of the school. That’s not to say Northwestern was running a similar scam (Disclosure: I’m an alum) . But the point is that those who think that most big-time college athletes are at school first and foremost to be educated are fooling themselves. They’re there to work and earn money and prestige for the school.

And really, what are the chances that other schools aren’t mimicking UNC? In 2010, before Willingham started feeding information to reporters, UNC’s football program, for instance, had a 75 percent graduation rate, lower than some far more competitive teams today . It’s possible that those schools simply try harder and find more scholarly candidates for their o-line. But I somehow doubt that.

*Correction March 28, 2014: This story originally stated that the essay Willingham displayed was assigned in one of UNC’s “paper courses.” On Friday she clarified on Twitter that it was actually written for a standard introductory course, which may in fact be even more dispiriting.

• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My Portfolio
• Latest News
• Stock Market
• Premium News
• Biden Economy
• EV Deep Dive
• Stocks: Most Actives
• Stocks: Gainers
• Stocks: Losers
• Trending Tickers
• World Indices
• US Treasury Bonds
• Top Mutual Funds
• Highest Open Interest
• Highest Implied Volatility
• Stock Comparison
• Advanced Charts
• Currency Converter
• Basic Materials
• Communication Services
• Consumer Cyclical
• Consumer Defensive
• Financial Services
• Industrials
• Real Estate
• Mutual Funds
• Credit cards
• Balance Transfer Cards
• Cash-back Cards
• Rewards Cards
• Travel Cards
• Personal Loans
• Student Loans
• Car Insurance
• Morning Brief
• Market Domination
• Market Domination Overtime
• Opening Bid
• Stocks in Translation
• Lead This Way
• Good Buy or Goodbye?
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing
• Newsletters

New on Yahoo

• Privacy Dashboard

Yahoo Finance

This ridiculous one-paragraph essay by a unc athlete got an a-minus [update].

UPDATE: The whistleblower who showed the essay to ESPN, Mary Willingham, says the student got an A- in the class , not necessarily an A- on the paper. Willingham says she doesn't know what the student got on the essay, or if the student made any additional edits before handing it in.

ORIGINAL POST:

In January the University of North Carolina publicly apologized for offering "phony classes" designed to keep athletes academically eligible since the 1990s.

In an ESPN report , ex-UNC football player Deunta Williams and whistleblower Mary Willingham detailed how these "paper classes" worked.

The classes — which were listed as "independent studies" on the course book — had no attendance, and students got credit for writing papers that always got either A's or B's.

Willingham, who called the paper classes "scam classes," showed ESPN an example of one of these papers. It's a one-paragraph, 148-word "final paper" on Rosa Parks.

The essay, titled "Rosa Parks: My Story" got an A-minus, Willingham says.

Here's the text ( h/t @BrianAGraham) :

On the evening of December Rosa Parks decided that she was going to sit in the white people section on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. During this time blacks had to give up there seats to whites when more whites got on the bus. Rosa parks refused to give up her seat. Her and the bus driver began to talk and the conversation went like this. "Let me have those front seats" said the driver. She didn't get up and told the driver that she was tired of giving her seat to white people. "I'm going to have you arrested," said the driver. "You may do that," Rosa Parks responded. Two white policemen came in and Rosa Parks asked them "why do you all push us around?" The police officer replied and said "I don't know, but the law is the law and you're under arrest."

NOW WATCH: The Unbelievable Story Behind The Best-Selling Tank Top That Everyone Wears On Spring Break

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

More From Business Insider

A Loophole In The Clock Rules Screwed UNC Out Of The NCAA Tournament

UNC-Iowa State Game Ends With A Controversial Call After The Clock Malfunctions In The Final Seconds

Duke Loses To Mercer In A Shocking First-Round Upset

• Newsletters

Site search

• Israel-Hamas war
• Home Planet
• 2024 election
• Supreme Court
• All explainers
• Future Perfect

Filed under:

Inside UNC's outrageous academic scandal: athletes took fake classes for 18 years

Share this story.

• Share this on Facebook
• Share this on Twitter
• Share this on Reddit
• Share All sharing options

Share All sharing options for: Inside UNC's outrageous academic scandal: athletes took fake classes for 18 years

For 18 years, thousands of students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill took classes with no assigned reading or problem sets, with no weekly meetings, and with no faculty member involved. These classes had just  one requirement: a final paper that no one ever read.

The academic fraud in the university's African-American studies department was first revealed three years ago. But a  new investigation shows that the fake classes were even more common than previously thought, and that athletes in particular benefited from the classes, in some cases at the behest of their academic counselors. Previous investigations had found no ties to campus athletics.

On campus, the fake classes, which at least 3,100 students took, were hardly a secret. They were particularly popular with athletes, who made up about half of enrollments. Nearly a quarter of students who took the classes were football and basketball players. And t he classes made a difference: good grades that students didn't have to work for made more than 80 eligible to graduate who otherwise would have flunked out.

After the dubious courses were first revealed 2011, the university conducted two investigations. Today's was the third, and by far the most detailed, in part because investigators spoke to the two people at the heart of the scandal.

Here's what they found about how the scheme worked, why it was started in the first place, and why it worked for so long.

How the fake classes worked

Kenneth Wainstein holds up his report at a media briefing Wednesday, Oct. 22. (Raleigh News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Two members of the university's African-American studies department — Debby Crowder, the student services manager, and Julius Nyang'oro, the curriculum chair who later led the department — were responsible for the scheme, with Crowder leading it.

Criminal charges against Nyong'oro were dropped earlier this year; Crowder has never been charged. Both cooperated with the investigation, directed by former US Justice Official Kenneth Wainstein, a partner at the law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.

According to Wainstein's report,  Crowder created "paper classes." Some of these classes were independent studies, in which students are supposed to work one-on-one with a faculty member and write a final research paper. But there were no professors involved. ( In the university's systems, Nyang'oro was listed as the person in charge of the classes, but he didn't actually work with students . Crowder signed his name to grade reports.) Crowder assigned and graded the final paper, the only requirement in the paper class. The grades were usually very high, even if portions of the paper were plagiarized or written at a middle-school level.

Then the "paper class" fraud spread beyond just independent studies, according to the investigation. Crowder began creating fake lecture classes. The classes never met, and operated just like the fake independent studies. Then Crowder enrolled students in actual lecture classes, but exempted them from all requirements except for a final paper. In some cases, she would add a student to a legitimate class. That student would fail or get an incomplete for never showing up or doing the work. After the student handed a paper in to Crowder at the end of the semester, she'd change the failure or incomplete to a high grade — without the knowledge or consent of the instructor.

Grades were about 10 percent higher than in other courses in the African-American Studies department: the average grade was 3.6, meaning virtually all students were getting an A or B on their sole assignment.

In some cases, the investigation notes, students took the research paper requirement seriously and put work into researching and writing about their assigned topics. But in many other cases, they turned in papers that were plagiarized, written by tutors, or that had only an introduction and conclusion with "fluff" in between. Crowder sometimes gave out passing grades even if students didn't turn in anything at all.

What the athletic department— and the rest of the university — knew about academic fraud

A UNC football player, who has not been linked to the academic fraud scandal, during a recent game. (Getty Images Sports)

It's not unusual for colleges to steer athletes toward easier classes, or classes that fit their travel schedules while their sports are in season. And the investigation suggests that even if most people at the university didn't realize the paper classes were total frauds, some, including head basketball and football coaches, were aware that they were very, very easy.

Some counselors who worked in the university's Academic Support Program for Student Athletes knew the paper classes went far beyond being an easy A and were academic only in name. When Crowder announced her planned retirement, this side was shown to a group of football coaches:

At the rest of the university, though, people seemed aware the classes were easy — maybe too easy — but didn't know the extent of the fraud, according to the investigation.  Within the African-American Studies department, some professors knew of Crowder's influence, particularly with student-athletes, and criticized Nyang'oro's leadership. But administrators, deans, and the university chancellor were totally unaware, according to the investigation.

That began to change in August 2011, when the Raleigh News & Observer began reporting on irregularities

Why Nyang'oro and Crowder did it

The investigation is highly critical of Crowder, who is described as the mastermind and main actor behind the fraud. But it argues that she had benevolent motives, as did other staff at the university who steered students into fraudulent classes.

Crowder, as the investigation tells it, was guilty of caring too much. Once a struggling student at UNC-Chapel Hill herself, she felt the college should be more inclusive of students who weren't the "best and the brightest." She was also known as a devoted fan of college sports.

he told the investigators he had more benevolent motivations

"These two passions — her desire to help underprepared students and her love of Chapel Hill athletics — would ultimately lead her to cut corners to help students and student-athletes make their grades," the investigators wrote.

Nyang'oro's light oversight of the department enabled Crowder's plans — and the report attributes the neglect to his need to his own travel and consulting schedule.

But he told the investigators he had more benevolent motivations. After two athletes he taught were forced to leave UNC due to poor grades, one was murdered.  The other was arrested and ended up in jail. Nyang'oro "committed himself to preventing such tragedies in the future and to helping other struggling student-athletes to stay in school," investigators wrote.

What happens next at UNC

One key revelation in Wednesday's report was that the athletics department was tied to what had previously been considered an academic scandal. That raises the possibility that the NCAA could sanction the university's athletics programs.

Both Crowder and Nyang'oro have retired, and neither will face criminal charges. The Daily Tar Heel, UNC's student newspaper, reported Thursday that  nine people will face disciplinary action as a result of Wainstein's report. All of them knew, or should have known, about the paper classes, according to the university.

Since 2011, t he three investigations into the academic fraud have produced a slew of recommendations and reforms, many of which have been adopted . Those include random checks by university administrators to make sure lecture classes are actually meeting, new standards for admitting athletes, stricter reviews for faculty leadership, a new student records system, and new limitations on independent study credits.

" This should never have been allowed to happen," the university's chancellor, Carol Folt, said Wednesday. "At the same time, I want to underscore that there is a clear distinction between the 'then' and the 'now.' "

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled Carol Folt's last name.

Will you support Vox today?

We believe that everyone deserves to understand the world that they live in. That kind of knowledge helps create better citizens, neighbors, friends, parents, and stewards of this planet. Producing deeply researched, explanatory journalism takes resources. You can support this mission by making a financial gift to Vox today. Will you join us?

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via

Next Up In The Latest

Sign up for the newsletter today, explained.

Understand the world with a daily explainer plus the most compelling stories of the day.

Thanks for signing up!

Check your inbox for a welcome email.

Oops. Something went wrong. Please enter a valid email and try again.

America’s misunderstood border crisis, in 8 charts

So, what was the point of John Mulaney’s live Netflix talk show?

UFOs, God, and the edge of understanding

Israel’s other war

What we know about the police killing of Black Air Force member Roger Fortson

Inside the bombshell scandal that prompted two Miss USAs to step down

• CBSSports.com
• Fanatics Sportsbook
• CBS Sports Home
• Triple Crown 
• Champions League
• Motor Sports
• High School

Men's Brackets

Women's Brackets

Fantasy Baseball

Fantasy football, football pick'em, college pick'em, fantasy basketball, fantasy hockey, franchise games, 24/7 sports news network.

• CBS Sports Golazo Network
• PGA Tour on CBS
• UEFA Champions League
• UEFA Europa League
• Italian Serie A
• Watch CBS Sports Network
• TV Shows & Listings

The Early Edge

A Daily SportsLine Betting Podcast

With the First Pick

NFL Draft recap

• Podcasts Home
• The First Cut Golf
• Beyond the Arc
• We Need to Talk Now
• Eye On College Basketball
• NFL Pick Six
• Cover 3 College Football
• Fantasy Football Today
• My Teams Organize / See All Teams Help Account Settings Log Out

UNC investigation: Athletes pushed into fake classes by counselors

A new report into the north carolina academic fraud scandal details how it happened. also shows 47.4 percent of the students in the paper classes were athletes..

Academic counselors in North Carolina 's athletic department pushed athletes into a system of fraudulent, no-show classes that was used to keep players eligible, a new investigative report released Wednesday shows.

The report by Kenneth Wainstein, a former top US Justice Department official, found that North Carolina athletes made up 47.4 percent of the more than 3,100 students who took the "paper" African-American Studies classes during the 18-year period of the scheme. North Carolina athletes comprise 4 percent of the university student body.

The report paints a picture of the classes being organized by Debbie Crowder, the student services manager of the African-American Studies department. She was such a big Tar Heels basketball fan that she sometimes missed work after a loss. Yet students never had an interaction with a faculty member and only dealt with Crowder, who was not a part of the faculty and assigned grades without considering the quality of work.

A good number of the athletes were "steered" to the paper classes by certain academic counselors in North Carolina’s athletic department, the report said.

"Those counselors saw these paper classes as 'GPA boosters' and steered players into them largely in order to help them maintain their GPAs and their eligibility under the NCAA and Chapel Hill eligibility rules," the report states. "At least two of those counselors went so far as to suggest what grades Crowder should award to their players who were taking her paper classes."

For 81 students, the grade-point average boost in paper classes was the margin that gave them a 2.0 GPA that allowed them to graduate at North Carolina. The average grade for all Tar Heels athletes in the AFAM paper classes was 3.55, compared to 2.84 in regular AFAM classes. AFAM is short for the Department of African and Afro-American Studies.

Ten of the 15 players on North Carolina's 2005 national championship men's basketball team were AFAM majors. North Carolina coach Roy Williams told investigators he was "uncomfortable" early on about his players' heavy use of AFAM classes, but he denied knowing the paper classes existed without an instructor.

Williams said he asked assistant coach Joe Halladay to make sure players were not steered to the AFAM classes, and by 2007 their enrollments in the paper classes had decreased. According to the Raleigh News & Observer , Williams previously suggested publicly in October 2012 that players may have stopped enrolling in the AFAM classes because they have had other interests.

Wayne Walden, an academic counselor for basketball, told investigators he sent some players to Crowder and knew that she graded some papers.

Last June, former  North Carolina star basketball player Rashad McCants told ESPN that he had papers written for him and that no-show classes helped keep him eligible. McCann's transcript showed that in his African-American classes he had 10 A's, six B's, one C and one D, and in his other classes he got six C's, one D and three F's, according to ESPN. McCant did not respond to interview requests by investigators.

"[Former North Carolina athletic director Dick] Baddour recalled that Williams asked Baddour whether the number of independent studies McCants had taken troubled him, and Baddour replied that it did trouble him and that he wondered how the college had allowed it to happen," the Wainstein report said. Baddour said he did not recall when that conversation with Williams occurred.

There were 54 basketball player enrollments in AFAM independent studies during Dean Smith's 36 years, 17 during Bill Guthridge's three years, 42 during Matt Doherty's three years, and 167 in Williams' 11 years. Doherty told investigators that although he felt free to make significant changes to the rest of North Carolina's coaching staff upon being hired in 2000, he was told by Smith and Guthridge not to change the academic support system. That system was being handled by Burgess McSwain, an academic counselor with close ties to Crowder.

Among the athletes who were enrolled in the paper classes, 50.9 percent were football players, 12.2 percent were men's basketball players, 6.1 percent were women's basketball players and 30.6 percent were Olympic and other sport athletes. 

The report said that football academic counselors were "painfully aware" that Crowder's retirement in 2009 "would require the whole football program to adjust to a new reality of having to meet academic requirements with real academic work." There was even a PowerPoint presentation in November 2009 by two academic counselors to explain to North Carolina's football staff that Crowder's retirement meant no more paper classes. One slide read:

"What was part of the solution in the past?

* We put them 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 topics

-- THESE NO LONGER EXIST!”

Most, if not all, of North Carolina's coaching staff was present at the meeting, including then-coach Butch Davis. The academic counselor later sent the PowerPoint to Robert Mercer, the director of North Carolina's academic support unit for athletes, and senior associate athletic director John Blanchard, according to the report. 

Crowder's boss, longtime African-American Studies department chairman Julius Nyang'oro, allowed Crowder to create the paper classes and later continued some of them when Crowder retired. On one occassion, according to the report, Crowder told Nyang'oro that the athletic department academic counselors "believed he was 'being an ass' for demanding so much from the players and were rethinking whether they should be steering student-athletes to AFAM classes."

One popular class was Swahili 3, in which struggling students could satisfy their foreign language requirement by writing a paper about Swahili culture in English rather than completing a regular Swahili 3 paper class in Swahili. The report says 18 students were enrolled in Swahili 3 paper classes, including 12 athletes.

Nyang'oro was initially indicted by a grand injury for accepting payment for a summer class he did not teach in 2011. The charge was dropped last June. Nyang'oro told investigators he was sympathetic to athletes who flunked out, having early in his career seen one murdered in his hometown and another end up in jail.

The Wainstein report comes at a time when the NCAA has reopened its academic fraud case at North Carolina. Previously, the NCAA said there were no violations of NCAA policies. That was before Crowder and Nyang'oro agreed to speak with investigators.

North Carolina and the NCAA released a joint statement on Wednesday that said both sides continue to engage in an "independent and cooperative effort" to review possible NCAA violations.

"The information included in the Wainstein Report will be reviewed by the university and the enforcement staff under the same standards that are applied in all NCAA infractions cases," the statement said.

At a news conference Wednesday, Wainstein said university administrators had a "glaring" lack of oversight. North Carolina Chancellor Carol Folt said the university will initiate termination against four employees and disciplinary review for another five. Their names were not identified. 

"The bad actions of a very few and inaction of many more failed our students, faculty and staff and undermined our institution," Folt said.

Former North Carolina academic adviser Mary Willingham, who publicly questioned the literacy level of Tar Heels players and provided information on academic misconduct before leaving the job in 2010, said the report is thorough for the most part.

Willingham still questions how coaches could not have known about the fraudulent classes. Wainstein said he found no evidence that athletic coaches were involved in initiating the fraudulent classes. But he wrote in the report it was clear to the academic counselors they were being evaluated by the coaches and judged on whether they keep players eligible to play sports.

"If you're telling me you didn't know, why should you make all that money as a coach and be talking to parents and athletes about academics?" Willingham said. "I just don't buy it. It's going to be my word against Roy's and he's going to win. I remember reading about the Penn State (child sex-abuse scandal) and how the culture was a factor. It is the culture of the place here to allow something like this to happen."

Willingham, who has been criticized within the Chapel Hill community and has a civil lawsuit against the university for losing her job, said she does not feel vindicated by the report.

"It's a sad day," she said. "Maybe it’s my age, but I don’t really feel that being right is as important as fixing the problem. What I really wish is sometime back in 2010 the university could have acknowledged it and fixed it and helped the students."

Our Latest College Football Stories

2024 Colorado football news: CU Transfer Portal updates

Cbs sports staff • 4 min read.

Ohio State AD: 'of course' Michigan games need asterisk

David cobb • 2 min read.

Urban Meyer laments current state of NIL as cheating

David cobb • 1 min read.

Tim Lester tasked with removing Iowa from jokes

Dennis dodd • 9 min read.

Steve Sarkisian talks Texas QBs, Alabama victory

David cobb • 3 min read.

Four facts about EA cover athlete Donovan Edwards

Cameron salerno • 3 min read, share video.

No joke: OC Tim Lester aims to innovate at Iowa

Projecting top-rated players in EA game

Post-spring Group of Five rankings

EA Sports teases College Football 25

OSU AD: Michigan wins 'of course' need asterisk

Urban Meyer laments evolution of NIL as cheating

Missouri State to join Conference USA in 2025

Big 12 Power Rankings: Utah on top

Post-spring top 25: Oregon into top three

The NCAA will not sanction UNC after an academic scandal — here's how a student-athlete got an A-minus with a one-paragraph final essay

For years, UNC Chapel Hill student-athletes and non-student-athletes alike used "paper classes" — courses that never met and required only one final paper — to boost their grades.

The NCAA announced on Friday that it "could not conclude" that UNC violated academic rules after a years-long investigation into the academic scandal, saying the university will not be sanctioned.

Grading for the "paper classes," the NCAA found, was mostly done by a UNC secretary, who had been delegated the task by her department chair.

"The papers consistently received high grades," the NCAA found.

Related stories

"As far as her grading method, the secretary admitted that she did not read every word of every paper submitted," according to the NCAA report. "But in following the department chair's instructions, if the paper met his stated requirements, she gave it an A or a B."

In an ESPN report in March 2014, ex-UNC football player Deunta Williams and whistleblower Mary Willingham detailed how these paper classes worked.

Willingham, who called the paper classes "scam classes," showed ESPN an example of one of these papers. It's a one-paragraph, 146-word "final paper" on Rosa Parks.

The student received an A-minus overall in the course , Willingham said.

Here's the text ( h/t @BrianAGraham) :

"On the evening of December Rosa Parks decided that she was going to sit in the white people section on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. During this time blacks had to give up there seats to whites when more whites got on the bus. Rosa parks refused to give up her seat. Her and the bus driver began to talk and the conversation went like this. 'Let me have those front seats' said the driver. She didn't get up and told the driver that she was tired of giving her seat to white people. 'I'm going to have you arrested,' said the driver. 'You may do that,' Rosa Parks responded. Two white policemen came in and Rosa Parks asked them 'why do you all push us around?' The police officer replied and said 'I don't know, but the law is the law and you're under arrest.'"

• Main content

We have extended the  enrollment deadline to May 15, 2024 . View the announcement .

Application Prompts for 2023-2024

Your essay and short answer responses help us get to know you.

We’ve selected the following prompts for the UNC-specific portion for the first-year and transfer applications for 2023-2024. We’re proud of the Carolina community and how each student makes us better through their excellence, intellect, and character. In reading your responses, we hope to learn what being a part of the Carolina community would mean to you.

Short answer prompts

We’d like to know how you’d contribute to the Carolina community and ask that you respond to each prompt in up to 250 words.

• Discuss one of your personal qualities and share a story, anecdote, or memory of how it helped you make a positive impact on a community. This could be your current community or another community you have engaged.
• Discuss an academic topic that you’re excited to explore and learn more about in college. Why does this topic interest you? Topics could be a specific course of study, research interests, or any other area related to your academic experience in college.

Common Application essay

You’ll choose one Common Essay prompt to respond to in 250-650 words. These prompts are common to all schools who accept the Common Application, and you can view the prompts here. Choose the option that best helps you answer that question and write an essay of no more than 650 words, using the prompt to inspire and structure your response. Remember: 650 words is your limit, not your goal. Use the full range if you need it, but don’t feel obligated to do so. The Common Application also has an optional section where you’ll have the opportunity to write about how COVID-19 has affected you.

Your responses will be evaluated not only for admission, but also for possible selection for scholarships and other special opportunities. We look forward to learning more about you!

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

Strong UNC Chapel Hill Essay Example

UNC Chapel Hill is a pretty selective school, especially for out-of-state students, so it’s important to write strong essays to help your application stand out. In this post, we’ll share an essay a real student has submitted to UNC Chapel Hill. (Names and identifying information have been changed, but all other details are preserved).

Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized. 

Read our UNC Chapel Hill es say breakdown to get a comprehensive overview of this year’s supplemental prompts.

Prompt: If you could change one thing about where you live, what would it be and why? (200-250 words).

Sitting behind the loaded plates on our dinner table, I predicted my mom’s first question with 100% accuracy: “So, how did you do on the trigonometry test today?” Notorious for failing math classes, my brother paused from chewing his chicken wing. 

I knew he’d be in trouble. 

Indeed, after hearing his grade, my mom scolded: “Look at our neighbor’s kid; then look at you! She never gets anything below a 90!”

There it is again: “the neighbor’s kid,” a Chinese concept that I wish would serve a different purpose. Upon learning about their children’s unsatisfactory academic performance, Chinese parents often bring up a so-called perfect neighbor’s kid for comparison. It saddens me to see individuals raised under the shadow of “the neighbor’s kid” not able to simply enjoy exploring knowledge. They toil through years of schooling for good grades and a prestigious college’s acceptance letter at the cost of their mental well-being. Worse, some measure their self-worth by grades alone: my brother believes he’s not good enough, despite all his admirable traits outside of academics. 

Instead of “the neighbor’s kid who got a good grade” at the dinner table, I suggested my parents discuss “the neighbor’s kid who sells bracelets to raise money for charity”  or “who had a hot discussion with the teacher about whether animals have consciousness.” I look forward to a more vibrant and colorful dinner conversation, where families talk about their roses and thorns of the day, rather than a neighbor’s kid defined by numbers.

What the Essay Did Well

This essay does a great job of opening with a strong anecdote and seamlessly transitioning the anecdote into an answer to the prompt. The reader feels the suspense of sitting at the dinner table with the student and their family waiting for the response to their mom’s question, and might even relate to hearing the student’s parents complain about their grade. It’s a simple and quick story, but everyone can find something in it they relate to, which makes the reader want to keep reading.

The essay was also successful at transitioning from a personal anecdote to a broader topic that addresses the prompt. The anecdote is connected to the larger issue the student has with their home environment and provides context for their reasoning that growing up surrounded by this mentality is harmful. The use of the anecdote bolsters the entire essay by perfectly setting up the student’s response to the prompt, rather than being an out-of-place inclusion to add some empathy or imagery, which is a common mistake with anecdotes.

Another positive aspect of this essay is how the student’s passion for the issue shines through. The reader learns a good deal about the student’s family life and familiarity with the “the neighbor’s kid.” The student’s expressed sadness and disapproval at not being able to enjoy learning because the immense amount of stress their parents place on them to get good grades is evident when they said, “ They toil through years of schooling for good grades and a prestigious college’s acceptance letter at the cost of their mental well-being.” The inclusion of the student’s brother also shows how close this issue is to the student’s heart because they are watching stereotypes harm someone they love. The details and direct language included provide strong evidence for why the student wants to change this aspect of where they live, which is the most important part of the prompt to address.

What Could Be Improved

For the most part, this is a great essay. The one thing that could be improved is the last paragraph that explains what the student wants to change. As far as the reader knows, the suggestions the student makes to discuss “the neighbor’s kid who sells bracelets” or “the neighbor’s kid who had a hot discussion with the teacher” are random topics the student chose to contrast with the idea of valuing a kid for a numerical grade. Since these appear as random topics, it distracts from other qualities the student and their brother might possess and want to showcase to their parents.

In an essay that is focused on changing the norm of equating worth with a grade, it would reveal more about what the student wants to be recognized for if they mentioned topics of conversation that related back to their interests. For example, if the student liked to ice skate and play the trumpet they could say: “Instead of the dreaded question about my grades, my parents would ask about how my axel is coming along or what new song I’m considering for the winter concert.” An ending more like this, that discusses the student’s interests rather than randomly mentioning other students, still achieves the same goal of the student not wanting to solely be measured by a number, but conveys the idea while also providing more insight into the student and what they value.

Where to Get Your UNC Chapel Hill  Essays Edited

Do you want feedback on your UNC Chapel Hill essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

Former UNC football offensive lineman finds a new home

By nick delahanty | may 6, 2024.

After not seeing the field during his true freshman season with the UNC football program, offensive lineman D.J. Geth elected to enter the transfer portal.

The 6-foot-3, 305-pound lineman from Spartanburg, South Carolina has found a new home, as he has committed to Liberty University.

🙏🏽🔥🔥 @CoachChadwell @coachbilldurkin @CoachNateHope pic.twitter.com/U17IPdiydC — DJ Geth (@dj_geth) May 6, 2024

A former three-star prospect, Geth had North Carolina family connections, as his father Ed played basketball for the university while his mother and aunt also attended the school. That ultimately helped him choose North Carolina in his original recruitment, but his time in Chapel Hill didn't last too long.

While looking for an opportunity to earn playing time, Geth felt it was in his best interest to move on from the UNC football program. Now, he'll look to make an impact with his new school, as he'll have three seasons of eligibility to work with.

Offensive line depth is very important, as the UNC football program has a new-look unit heading into the new season. Losing Geth does hurt in terms of depth, but expect the UNC football program to monitor the transfer portal for potential additions that they could bring in over the next few months.

NC lawmakers seek to force UNC, NC State to play football, basketball vs. in-state schools

N orth Carolina lawmakers want to require the state's two biggest and richest athletic programs – UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State – to regularly play football and basketball games against other in-state public schools.

Under a bill filed by prominent Republican House members, UNC and NC State would be required to play at least one of East Carolina, Appalachian State and Charlotte every year and would have to play each school home and away every six years.

UNC and NC State would also be required to play each other home or away every year, a nod to looming realignment that could move the longtime rivals into separate conferences.

"Sports tourism is vital to the economy of North Carolina, and intrastate collegiate athletics generates millions of dollars in economic impact to the State," the bill states. "It is the priority of the General Assembly to encourage intrastate collegiate athletic rivalries in order to promote economic development."

House Bill 965 , titled UNC Intrastate Athletic Competition, is sponsored by Reps. Jason Saine, Jake Johnson, Ray Pickett and David Willis. Saine, R-Lincoln, is a Charlotte supporter and senior chairman of the appropriations committee.

"We're just making sure we get those games," Saine said. "They can't not play. There's enough wiggle room in there as far as space and calendaring that we'll get the maximum benefit without real injury to them. It's what fans want to see and it's a good way to do it."

The bill identifies "high-enrollment institutions" as those with more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students. UNC, NC State and Charlotte are the only in-state schools that meet that threshold, according to UNC Board of Governors data for the fall of 2023.

But Saine said the bill is not meant to include Charlotte among those.

It defines other "eligible constituent institutions" as those that play at the highest-level of college football, which means Appalachian State, East Carolina and Charlotte.

It says that every year UNC and NC State – identified in the bill as "high-enrollment institutions" – must play at least one home or away football and men's and women's basketball game against each other and East Carolina and Appalachian State.

Further, it says that every six years, UNC and NC State must play at least one home and away game against each of other three schools. And it would require those games to be alternated between home and away, meaning UNC and NC State would have to play on the road.

"It's more messaging," Saine said when asked about its chances of passage. "The chance of passage may be based on the reactions from the schools. If they kind of overreact, it may force the issue. As much as anything, it's to kind of put a marker out there that fans want to see this. We hear it a lot."

The bill sets aside $1 million to the Board of Governors to "inform eligible constituent institutions and members of the public about the intrastate athletic competition required" by the act. It would become effective on July 1 if passed.

In football, the teams do play. UNC, which just completed a home-and-home series with Appalachian State over the last two years, hosts Charlotte in 2024 and visits Charlotte in 2025. NC State has home-and-home series scheduled with all three in-state FBS programs between 2025 and 2031.

Dr.Jeffrey (PhD)

Please, Write My Essay for Me!

Congratulations, now you are the wittiest student in your classroom, the one who knows the trick of successful and effortless studying. The magical spell sounds like this: "Write my essay for me!" To make that spell work, you just need to contact us and place your order.

If you are not sure that ordering an essay writing service is a good idea, then have no doubts - this is an absolutely natural desire of every aspiring student. Troubles with homework are something all learners have to experience. Do you think that the best high-achievers of your class pick the essays from some essay tree? - They have to struggle with tasks as well as you do. By the way, the chances are that they are already our customers - this is one of the most obvious reasons for them to look that happy.

Some students are also worried that hiring professional writers and editors is something like an academic crime. In reality, it is not. Just make sure that you use the received papers smartly and never write your name on them. Use them in the same manner that you use books, journals, and encyclopedias for your papers. They can serve as samples, sources of ideas, and guidelines.

So, you have a writing assignment and a request, "Please, write my essay for me." We have a team of authors and editors with profound skills and knowledge in all fields of study, who know how to conduct research, collect data, analyze information, and express it in a clear way. Let's do it!

Emery Evans

Customer Reviews

Research papers can be complex, so best to give our essay writing service a bit more time on this one. Luckily, a longer paper means you get a bigger discount!

Avail our cheap essay writer service in just 4 simple steps

Emery Evans

Estelle Gallagher

Rebecca Geach

How Our Essay Service Works

Terms of Use

Privacy Policy

Essay Writing Service

Have a native essay writer do your task from scratch for a student-friendly price of just per page. Free edits and originality reports.

Courtney Lees

What is the native language of the person who will write my essay for me?

• On-schedule delivery
• Compliance with the provided brief
• Chat with your helper
• Ongoing 24/7 support
• Real-time alerts
• Free revisions
• Free quality check
• Free title page
• Free bibliography
• Any citation style

Customer Reviews

Finished Papers