CHAPEL HILL -- While Tuesday's panel exploring NCAA reform eventually degenerated into yet another public airing of grievances over how UNC handled its football scandal during the Q&A, there were a number of salient points exchanged among the panelists regarding the necessity of change in college athletics first.

A standing-room only crowd at the Sonja Hayes Stone Center Theater on the UNC campus, one that included UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham as well as a number of other senior athletic administrators, gathered to hear the insights of former UNC president Bill Friday, Duke professor Charles Clotfelter and civil-rights historian Taylor Branch, a visiting professor at UNC. Both Branch and Clotfelter have recently published books about the state of college athletics, while Friday has spent decades pushing NCAA reform.

Has it really been 40 years?

Bill Friday, the longtime UNC president who many in this state consider the godfather of public higher education, is celebrating the 40th anniversary of his UNC-TV interview show, "North Carolina People with Bill Friday."

As Yonat Shimron reports in Sunday's News & Observer, Friday is as sharp and on point as ever, having long ago learned the value of the open-ended question.

Read on.

In the early 1960s, then-UNC President William Friday had to deal with a point-shaving scandal involving basketball players at UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State.

Now long retired, Friday, 90, has been thinking about those bad old days a good bit lately as he follows the scandal enveloping the football program at Carolina.

"For people who care about the university, this is a moment of great sadness," Friday said today. "We've gone 50 years without even the remotest allegation of wrongdoing at Chapel Hill.

Athletic ethics is an issue dear to Friday's heart. For more than 15 years, he co-chaired the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, a collection of university leaders that has recommended reforming college sports.

"What we're seeing is a manifestation of what's going on all over college athletics," he said. "It's pretty clear the time has come for the people who care about intercollegiate athletics to put a stop to this."

Here's something you might want to add (or not) to your summer reading list.

On July 15, "A School District's Journey to Excellence: Lessons From Business and Education" will be released. It's written by former Wake Superintendent Bill McNeal and former Wake school board member Tom Oxholm.

"Rich in examples, case studies, and data, 'A School District's Journey to Excellence' is a much-needed map to excellence in public education," according to the book's blurb.