UNC historians demand answers about scandal involving the athletic department

Chancellor Carol Folt
South Building
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

April 24, 2014

Dear Chancellor Folt,

Like many others on the Carolina faculty, we members of the History Department deplore the revelations of gross academic impropriety that have troubled our campus in recent years, and the apparent connections between these abuses and our athletic programs, particularly in the so-called revenue sports of football and men’s basketball. We are grateful for the steps you have taken for reform and greater transparency in connection with these matters, including the launch of the Kenneth Wainstein investigation and the new website containing relevant reports and other information.

At the same time, we share the concerns expressed by 32 retired faculty members
in their public letter of April 3, 2014. The signatories, who include some of our department’s most esteemed and distinguished retired colleagues, may have interpreted our respect for the process of internal reform as indifference or passivity. In response to their challenge, therefore, we are taking this opportunity to voice our concerns, and urge you to seek public answers to the following questions from the Wainstein investigation:

• How did the practices of fraudulent courses, independent studies, and grade changes begin, who initially benefitted, and who or what was responsible, beyond the two individuals already identified? What motives or pressures influenced their actions?

• What was the role of the Athletic Department in the disproportionate involvement of student-athletes in these courses, and what was the role of aberrant courses in maintaining students’ athletic eligibility?

• Why did abuses continue uncorrected for seventeen years, from 1994 to 2011? Besides the affected students, who knew about these academic abuses before the public revelations in the spring of 2012? Are any of them still affiliated with the University?

In addition to rooting out past abuses, moreover, we seek an end to the systemic temptation to maintain the athletic eligibility of underprepared students by academic fraud. We notice, for example, that the Athletic Department's strategic plan calls for “a top 3 athletic ranking in the conference and a top 10 ranking nationally in each sport," as well as a "a top 3 academic finish in the conference and a top 10 finish nationally in each sport." Are these goals truly compatible? Which are most important and which will bring the most rewards to coaches? What will be the role of the athletes’ special admissions program in achieving them?

Finally, the recently-announced resignation of Mary Willingham reminds us that many conscientious observers believe that the University's response to this crisis has featured evasion, denial, and the punishment of whistle-blowers. We believe the University should address this perception by a more aggressive effort to answer the questions we have raised, and by prompt compliance with media and others requests for public records. It is entirely possible to obey the laws regarding student confidentiality without concealing relevant and important information.

Hoping to spark a broader and more public campus debate, we also ask all departments in the College of Arts and Sciences to consider carefully the issues raised by the retired faculty, to discuss these matters in their departmental meetings, and to take appropriate public steps to express their concerns about this scandal and the University’s response to it.

Sincerely and respectfully,

Cemil Ayden Assistant Professor

Christopher R. Browning
Frank Porter Graham Distinguished Professor

Melissa M. Bullard Professor

Kathleen A. Duval Associate Professor

William R. Ferris
Joel Williamson Distinguished Professor

W. Miles Fletcher Professor

Karen Hagemann
James G. Kenan Distinguished Professor

Wayne E. Lee
Dowd Distinguished Term Professor

Lisa A. Lindsay Associate Professor

Roger W. Lotchin Professor

Terry V. McIntosh Associate Professor

Louise McReynolds Professor

Michael C. Morgan Assistant Professor

Raul Necochea Assistant Professor

Donald J. Raleigh
Jay Richard Judson Distinguished Professor

Donald M. Reid Professor

Iqbal Sevea Assistant Professor

Sarah D. Shields
Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professor

Jay M. Smith Professor

John Wood Sweet Associate Professor

Harry L. Watson
Atlanta Distinguished Professor

Brett Whalen Associate Professor

Molly Worthen Assistant professor

cc: Department Chairs, College of Arts and Sciences