Former Gov. Jim Martin in a letter in today's paper objects to a couple points in our Sunday story on his report into long-running academic fraud at UNC-Chapel Hill's African studies department.

It has to do with a conclusion he delivered to the UNC Board of Trustees on Dec. 20. That finding would help absolve athletics officials and academic support staff for athletes of any wrongdoing because Martin said they had twice sounded a warning about suspect classes.

"On two occasions (in 2002 and 2006)," Martin told the trustees, "leaders of Academic Support for Student Athletes brought to the Faculty Athletic Committee their concerns about students taking nominally lecture courses that did not meet and only required one 20-page term paper, and other forms of questionable independent study."

His letter first appears to say our Sunday report hadn't shown enough homework:

"In checking this, you found three members of the committee who deny this was presented, only one of whom was present in April 2002."

Readers should know that our stories don't always include every interview that we do for our reporting. In this case, we interviewed five members of the 2002 committee who said they either did not recollect such a warning or say it never happened. They include the chairman, Dr. Stanley Mandel, and faculty members Lissa Broome, Nick Didow, Gar Hershey, and Celia Hooper. (A sixth, Jim Murphy, briefly said he had no recollection before his wife hung up the telephone.)

Martin's report said the same concerns were raised in 2006. The meeting minutes show references to independent studies being discussed in November 2006 and January 2007. We interviewed three faculty members at the November meeting -- Broome, Steve Reznick and Desmond Runyan, and then Chancellor James Moeser, who was listed as in attendance, and four who were in attendance at the January meeting, Broome, Hershey, Reznick and Barbara Wildemuth. None remembered being warned about suspect classes.

Martin interviewed none of these people. He said that Broome told him after he released his report that he had gotten it right. We talked with Broome after the report was released. She said the same thing she told me earlier, that she didn't remember a warning.

Martin's letter continues:

"While discrediting testimony on behalf of ASPSA as self-serving, you need similar skepticism about motives of the accusers."

Martin's basis for the red flag finding comes from officials with close ties to athletics: former athletic director Dick Baddour, senior associate director John Blanchard, former academic support director Robert Mercer and Jack Evans, a business professor and former longtime faculty NCAA representative. He acknowledged that those tied to athletics would have a reason to make up a story.

But he also said they were backed up by two others who do not have ties to athletics: Chancellor Holden Thorp and Laurie Maffly-Kipp, who co-authored a special faculty report on the academic fraud that was released July 26.

That report was the first mention of academic support being told not to question how classes are taught. It came after we had broken a big story on the case, that Nyang'oro had formed a no-show class four days before the start of a summer semester and it immediately filled with football players. Thorp said in that story that academic support staff helped the players enroll in a class that staff knew did not meet.

Maffly-Kipp has now acknowledged that she and her colleagues on the special committee never investigated the red flag claim. That information was provided to her by Thorp. His spokeswoman referred me to the 2002 minutes.

Which brings us back to the remaining point in Martin's letter:

"The minutes of that meeting clearly state that this subject was discussed, and there is an appended 'Report on Independent Studies.' For our part, we relied on this and four witnesses who were there and affirmed it happened, plus a later conversation with a participant who did not deny it."

We reviewed the minutes and posted them online for readers to judge for themselves. (They are also attached to this post.) We did not see a warning about lecture style classes that didn't meet, or out-of-control independent studies. There is nothing in the "Report on Independent Studies" or in the minutes that suggest any kind of problem with the African studies department.

Blanchard was an author of the 2002 independent studies report. He said he does not remember much about it other than "just reporting on independent studies." He said he twice raised concerns to the committee in 2006 about an African studies professor offering lecture-style classes as independent studies. We asked if he had any records or correspondence to back up that assertion. He said he had none.

Documents:

Marc Basnight's announcement earlier this week that he was retiring from the State Senate was a blow to the UNC system, a primary beneficiary of Basnight's support n the 18 years when the influential politician did much of the decision-making in Raleigh.

It wasn't as big a blow as it would have been had Democrats still been in power; Republicans took control of the General Assembly in November's elections, muting  the longtime Senate leader's powers.

Basnight was a force for the UNC system, protecting its budget even in the toughest times while blessing initiatives that led to the system's growth.

Lest there be any doubt of Basnight's influence on the universities, look today to the News & Observer's letters page.

On it, you'll find this letter from James Moeser, the former chancellor at UNC-Chapel Hill.

He writes in part:

Basnight was an incredible champion of higher education. Certainly, the University of North Carolina has never had a better, more loyal or effective friend than Marc Basnight in its whole history spanning three centuries. His effect on UNC-Chapel Hill was nothing short of stunning.

From the passage of the bond bill at the beginning of the decade, the battle to retain our overhead receipts, which led to the great run-up in research funding at Carolina, through the approval of the Cancer Hospital, the N.C. Cancer Research Fund and, most recently, the imaging building, his fingerprints are indelibly etched in the history and the future of UNC.

For years, top brass across the UNC system have received a tidy perk at the time of their retirement - a year's pay at their full salary.

Under a UNC system policy formalized several years ago, the heads of public university campuses and an array of other administrators have received this pay - all public money - with very few strings attached. And in some cases, campuses violated policy and gave it to people who shouldn't have received it.

In the News & Observer today, we explore this issue, which has tapped the North Carolina taxpayer for about $8 million over the last five years.

For a brief summary of many of the high-profile folks who benefitted from this policy - including former UNC system President Molly Broad and others - click here.

And for a look at what one former university leader - former UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser - did after stepping away from the job - check out this story.

Okay. Quick now. What does former UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser have in common with Oprah Winfrey?

Give up?

They will both receive honorary degrees in May from Duke University.

According to Duke news release today, Moeser and Winfrey are among seven recipients of honorary degrees at the May commencement ceremony. Winfrey will be the featured speaker at the May 10 event.

Moeser, who while presiding over commencement ceremonies in Chapel Hill during his eight years as chancellor, occasionally made light-hearted jabs at that private school down the road, is credited with the creation of the Carolina Covenant - a financial aid program for low-income students, as well as the expansion of genome research, successful fundraising and other accomplishments, according to the Duke news release.

My colleague Mark Schultz has been methodically pecking away at the maneuvering involving UNC Chapel Hill, Carolina North, local business interests and the Horace Williams Airport, which the university has for years said it wants to close in order to develop that land.

Mark's latest installment arrived today in the Chapel Hill News. It reveals that last year, then-Chancellor James Moeser asked two local businessmen to help fund a study of the economic impact of a new airport in Orange County.

The two businessmen, Jim Heavner of VilCom and J. Adam Abram of the James River Group, each pitched in $15,000 towards an eventual $100,000 that the UNC Chapel Hill Foundation paid a consultant.

The resulting report, which Mark wrote about last month, suggests a windfall for Orange County in the neighborhood of $53 million a year. And one local legislator, State Rep. Bill Faison of Cedar Grove, likes that idea very much.

The prospect of a new airport in Orange County has some folks on edge, even though there has not been any sort of indication that a site has been selected.

Mark has also put some questions on the issue directly to new Chancellor Holden Thorp. Read that interview here.

Good morning, kind Chapel Hillians.

Just wanted to clue you in to an interview I did recently with UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser, who retires at the end of the month.

There's more to the interview than we were able to squeeze into today's paper. You can read the extended version of our conversation here.