UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor to Step Down

College athletes and faculty were implicated in cheating scandal

Holden Thorp, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will step down in June after college athletes and faculty were implicated in an academic cheating scandal.

Thorp, who became chancellor in 2008, notified UNC President Tom Ross yesterday of his intent to resign on June 30, saying it was in the best interests of the university, the school said today in a statement on its website.

The resignation follows the results of investigations that found academic misconduct and unauthorized grade-changing in the college's Department of African and Afro-American Studies. In March, the school's football program was put on three year's probation and banned from 2012 postseason play by the National Collegiate Athletic Association for rules violations including academic fraud.