The UNC investigation has revealed that 3,100 students were involved in academic fraud between 1993 and 2001.
Athletes accounted for 47% of enrollment:
UNC/Wainstein investigation findings: “paper classes” lasted for 18 yrs affected 3100 students; athletes accounted for 47% of enrollment
— C.L. Brown (@clbrownespn) October 22, 2014
Here is excerpt from The News Observer about the findings of the investigation:
Academic counselors had pushed for the easy classes and embraced those started by Deborah Crowder, a longtime manager for the Department of African and Afro-American Studies. The report describes a fairly broad group of academic and athletic officials who knew about athletes getting better grades in classes that only required papers, yet taking little or no action. …
Between 1993 and 2011, Crowder and Nyang’oro developed and ran a ‘shadow curriculum’ within the AFAM Department that provided students with academically flawed instruction through the offering of ‘paper classes.’ … These were classes that involved no interaction with a faculty member, required no class attendance or course work other than single paper, and resulted in consistently high grades that Crowder awarded without reading the papers or otherwise evaluating their true quality. …
It was common knowledge within the Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes that the classes didn’t meet, were easy and offered high grades. They became such a crutch that when Crowder retired in 2009, football team counselors were desperate for the classes to continue, warning coaches the team’s overall GPA would plummet, which it did. …
Chancellor Carol Folt said some 70 reforms already enacted address practically every issue the report turned up. But the university won’t stop there, she said.
Key finding of report, per UNC: Academic counselors saw the paper classes “as key to helping some student-athletes remain eligible.”
— Sara Ganim (@sganim) October 22, 2014
Wainstein found no coaches were involved, but “wrongdoing at Carolina lasted much longer and affected more students than previously known.” — Sara Ganim (@sganim) October 22, 2014
