Probe: UNC Athletes (and Others) Directed to Phony Fake Classes to Raise Grades

As opposed to phony actual classes

An independent investigator found evidence of 963 North Carolina football players and 226 men's basketball players enrolled in no-show classes beginning in 1999, a scheme designed to raise their grades and keep many of them eligible, according to a report released Wednesday.

Kenneth Wainstein, a former U.S. Attorney and general counsel to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, found that most of the wrongdoing was pinned to Deborah Crowder, a longtime university employee who managed the African and Afro-American Studies Department, and Julius Nyang'oro, who became chair of curriculum for the department in 1992.

However, Wainstein also found that academic advisers who worked with the athletic department regularly steered athletes to these classes, which required only a research paper rather than class attendance.