UNC-Chapel Hill officials and others looking into the academic fraud at the university might want to take notice of a comment posted on a course evaluation website that students use to pick classes.
In April 2010, an anonymous student wrote this regarding Julius Nyang'oro's AFRI 370 class:
"I am taking the course by submitting a paper with Prof. Nyang'oro and it is a bit daunting. It has to be between 20-25 pages. I wish I was able to take the actual course with him."
The details match up with the university's investigation covering the period of 2007 to 2011 that found 54 no-show classes mostly offered by Nyang'oro, the longtime department chairman forced into retirement last month. The classes had little or no instruction, and Nyang'oro told students to write a paper to hand in at the end of the semester.
AFRI 370, known as Policy Problems in African Studies, does not turn up on that list. But other university records show that Nyang'oro was listed as teaching it in the spring 2010 semester. It is described as a course with "(l)ectures, readings, and research projects on one problem each semester concerning policy formation by African leaders or on United States–Africa policy issues."
Mike Rihani, a co-founder of Koofers, said there's no way a student could back date a comment, so it looks like this might have been the first apparent clue of a problem. But there was no grade information associated with that particular class on Koofers' site, something that tends to happen, Rihani said, when only a handful of students take a class.
We found the comment because we have been looking at Koofers and a similar website, MyEdu.com, to see if we can find grade data for the 54 no-show classes. We found 17 such courses between the two sites, held in the semesters UNC-CH had reported, and in all but three we found no grades lower than a B-minus.
The other three classes listed nothing lower than a C-minus, and in percentages no greater than 14 percent. Thirteen classes showed the percentage of students receiving A-minus or better was 64 percent or higher.
There are caveats to this information because we don't know if the data on each course reflects one class section or more, and Koofers does not report how many students were in each course. But the data tends to support suspicions that those who enrolled in these classes -- and that's predominately athletes -- had gotten good grades for doing the assigned work.
Dan Kane has covered local and state government and N.C. State University at The News & Observer since joining our staff in 1997. Most recently, he and J. Andrew Curliss teamed to report “The Missing Money,” a three-part series that explored the state's growing number of tax breaks and the related rising revenue loss. Kane's reporting also exposed one of the worst academic fraud cases in U.S. higher education history at UNC-Chapel Hill. Contact him at
Comments
Time to fine a new topic
Fri, 08/24/2012 - 17:03 — ncsportsfanAll schools gray the lines for the talented. After they finish with UNC, they should investigate athletic Academics at NC State and ECU to see if they are in order. There should be a mandatory review of any class that has a high percentage of athletes in it. I would love to see the News and Observe pull a roster on players and classes they are enrolled in all our State Universities.
Let's leave the investigation up to the new committee?!? PFFFT
Fri, 08/24/2012 - 15:14 — gumbyYeah right. Just like what was said about the prior incarnations of committees to "review" the "alledged irregularities." Dan Kane and a handful of PackPride members have dug up more dirt than all the esteemed committee members to date.
Riding a dead horse? A dead horse is a very good analogy for the stink coming out of Chapel Hill over all this. It indeed does favor the heady aroma of a rotting equine.
Oh and please stop with the "you'll find the same thing at every school" song - it's getting overplayed and about as annoying as a Nickelback song - and equally as relevant.
"Wait a minute - they got good grades ... for doing the assigned work?" Evidently yes - whether the work merited the good grades or not (like McAdoo's epic "metronome regularity" treatise).
Dan Kane, keep fighting the good fight. When they start with the insults then you know you're on the right path. They'd all be toasting you if you were investigating NC State instead...
News and Observer keeps riding that Dead Horse
Fri, 08/24/2012 - 14:00 — wilsurtoLet's leave the investigation up to the new committee, the News and Observer's stories on the same academic impropriorties at UNC is becoming a little redundant. It really must be a slow news day for Observer to dig through comments on Koofers. Now if you want to make this about athletes in general, instead of just UNC, why not check out Duke, State and Wake Athletes and see what courses they are taking? I'm sure you can cross reference these schools' courses to more comments on Koofers. Let's face the fact, there are certain easy courses students will take from time to time. Even honor students will take a crip courses from time to time to pad their own GPA. All I'm saying these Observers stories on UNC Academic wrong doing has gone a little over the top. It makes you think that the Journalist from the Observer must have taking some slack courses in Journalism too and are limited in their education on how to find new things to write about. College students nationwide know certain Athletes take easy course, so UNC is not the only University where athletes take cupcake classes. These athletes who are little more academically challenged in school bring in millions to their School in terms of donation. Let's not kid ourselves, colleges aren't always about academics, they are a business whose goal is to make money. The Observer needs to start digging around the academics of Duke, Wake and State, I'm sure what could be found there wouldn't come as a surprise. Most Universities are about Ka-Ching and basketball and football raise more ka-ching through winning athletic programs. The great athletes who can bring the wins generally don't last 4 years anymore, however the income the time they were apart of the system will generate untold future millions. The easy courses these athletes take or will be advised to take will never disappear. It's all about the money, not the education, so find something new to write about for a change.
Blah Blah
Fri, 08/24/2012 - 13:49 — mrdavidpayneMr. Kane,
You are an embarrassment to your profession. I truly feel sorry for the few people that took the time to read this salacious article. Those 2 minutes are lost forever.
"But the data tends to
Fri, 08/24/2012 - 12:30 — MikeStar57"But the data tends to support suspicions that those who enrolled in these classes -- and that's predominately athletes -- had gotten good grades for doing the assigned work."
Wait a minute - they got good grades ... for doing the assigned work? Call the FBI immediately!