Prof Charged with Fraud for No-show Classes

<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/01/sports/as-for-athletes-but-charges-of-tar-heel-fraud.html?hp&_r=0%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/01/sports/as-for-athletes-but-charges-of-tar-heel-fraud.html?hp&_r=0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>A professor had no-show classes - for athletes. It burnt me that the NCAA did not impose a penalty on the college for this. They have time consuming procedures for monitoring HS grades, but apparently OK to do nothing in college.</p>

<p>athletes in school for athletics missing a basket weaving class is not a big deal.</p>

<p>Most kids are not as athletes. It is the state flagship.</p>

<p>“Eighteen of the 19 students enrolled in the class were members of the North Carolina football team (the other was a former member), reportedly steered there by academic advisers who saw their roles as helping athletes maintain high enough grades to remain eligible to play.”</p>

<p>but, either way still a basket weaving class</p>

<p>Time to circle the baby blue wagons.</p>

<p>I believe Wroten had graduated before this came to light.
The same school also has as a counselor, a man who was fired from his high school coaching position for unethical behavior.
:confused:
[Disgraced</a> Garfield athletic director sues over firing - seattlepi.com](<a href=“Disgraced Garfield athletic director sues over firing”>Disgraced Garfield athletic director sues over firing)</p>

<p>If these students had actually learned to weave baskets, at least they would have graduated with one skill!</p>

<p>Be assured this isn’t about one non-class. From the article:

</p>

<p>I don’t think there will be any circling of the wagons. I think this professor will be the fall guy (not that he’s without blame) who will take all the blame when my suspicion is there’s plenty of blame to go around. Is it really possible that none of the coaching staff knew what was going on?</p>

<p>Can we please quit the charade that these are student athletes. They are students majoring in football and not getting paid while the school and the NCAA committ legalized slavery. Why is no one screaming for a living wage for these kids?</p>

<p>Upon my read of the article, my sense is that the true fraud is that only the professor has been charged. There’s NO WAY he could have orchestrated such a ‘course’ without the complicity of numerous other individuals within the school administration.</p>

<p>Certainly others knew…how else would these athletes all know to take that class? It couldn’t have just been a secret between those two faculty people and a bunch of students.</p>

<p>

I’d rather public school tuition not go any higher. </p>

<p>Anyways, someone is telling the students which classes to enroll in and forcing the professors to give absentee As. Also, who the h*ll thought it was a good idea to forge the signatures?</p>

<p>Legalized slavery? These athletes CHOOSE to play football for UNC; they can leave the football team at any time, and they are also getting FULL "scholar"ships even when their grades and test scores are far below what are required to get into these universities.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, stuff like this happens at a lot of places. At one of my former employers, there was a course in the History department that, at any other school, would have been considered the most difficult course for History majors to take. But at this school, that course was crammed with football and basketball players who got As and Bs. It was a miracle! (That professor was eventually pushed out the door.)</p>

<p>Baby Blue here not circling the wagons. I think this can get ugly. The professor plans to fight the charges and I suspect the defense will prove that the athletic department and administration was complicit in having easy classes available for the football players. It’s a shame for UNC, a university where my son graduated from and I have a masters, which I am proud of. I know first hand it happens at the other respected universities in our area but UNC was “caught” with a particularly egregious case. If the University was complicit, there should be punishment even if it happens elsewhere. I am sad as UNC is known in this state to be very challenging and I feel my son got an excellent, well rounded, and valuable education. I am sad that big money athletics can tarnish a proud and worthy institution.</p>

<p>I think it’s pretty funny that the professor was charged with defrauding the university. The real victims are the gladiators–sorry, I mean athletes–and the taxpayers.</p>

<p>SomeOldGuy – I’m with GTalum. I assure you that many, if not most, UNC alumni and students are up in arms over this. They are not circling any wagons. I, for one, am outraged and would like to see the whole football program suspended, if not eliminated.</p>

<p>While the “no show” classes may (or may not) be specific to UNC, NCAA football is a scandal. From the horrors at Penn State all the way to one (maybe more) Ivy League school that has players that could never have been admitted to even a mediocre public or private university and have their own liaisons to “work with” the professor on grades (I know of this personally), NCAA football is a morass of ethical problems. I’ve had an older relative tell me that when he was at a very selective private college fifty years ago the football players all took a specific science class, slept through it every time (a type of “no show” situation itself), and somehow all got Cs. This problem with football seems to be not only pervasive but long-standing as well.</p>

<p>I think it’s high time that UNC deals with the serious problems connected to the football program, even if it means suspending it. However, the problem is far more widespread than UNC, and the NCAA needs to clamp down hard on every school.</p>

<p>We need more Bill Fridays.</p>

<p>[Knight</a> Commission co-founder William Friday laments state of college athletics - The Washington Post](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/knight-commission-co-founder-william-friday-laments-state-of-college-athletics/2012/10/06/1bbad0c6-0ff4-11e2-bb5e-492c0d30bff6_story.html]Knight”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/knight-commission-co-founder-william-friday-laments-state-of-college-athletics/2012/10/06/1bbad0c6-0ff4-11e2-bb5e-492c0d30bff6_story.html)
[Knight</a> Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics - Tribute to William C. Friday](<a href=“http://www.knightcommission.org/recent-news/779-knight-commission-statements-on-william-friday]Knight”>http://www.knightcommission.org/recent-news/779-knight-commission-statements-on-william-friday)</p>

<p>Straightshooter: This IS a story about people screaming for a living wage for these students. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. If you pay college athletes they will earn a living for four years and ten be cast out on their own. If we actually teach these kids while they are in school they will be able to get jobs when they finish playing football.</p>

<p>

A worthy thought, but let’s face it. How many of these “student-athletes” are capable of handling a normal course load at college? They’ve been admitted to play football, and most aren’t qualified to do much else–nor do they want to (or they would). But that’s the route they’ve chosen. If they don’t make it in the pros, will they be any worse off than if they had foregone football altogether attended community college or trade school? That’s the real question. But again, these are choices, freely made.</p>

<p>Mommaj: I don’t know the answer to your question but I believe that if they can read a playbook, they can read a textbook. I believe it is more than a few. I believe that by showing zero tolerance for no show classes we convince these kids that they are worthy of an education.</p>