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Started by airboy, October 13, 2017, 12:37:52 PM

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airboy

The NCAA decided that UNC did not violate their rules.

Sure, UNC ran sham courses for a decade out of the African-American Studies Department.  Those classes required next to no work and were an easy A.  They were "independent studies" classes and did not require class attendance.

But UNC allowed lots of students to take those courses.  More than 3000 students in fact.  And more than half the students taking the sham classes were non-athletes.

So the NCAA decided that if UNC had sham courses that everyone could take, then it was not a NCAA violation.  Probably the correct ruling.

As a UNC grad married to another UNC grad, this whole thing turns my stomach. 

I know how independent studies classes are supposed to work and have run them myself and overseen a department who once in a blue moon offers them.  You have a syllabus.  There are required deliverables.  We only allow the credit to be Pass/Fail which means you cannot boost your GPA taking them.  A copy of the work is retained for three years.  The department chair has to sign off on the syllabus before the student can register.  When we have internships for credit, the internship must be related to the department, the internship must be paid, there are weekly reports, there is a term paper, and the employer has to send in a written evaluation of the student.

bayonetbrant

Quote from: airboy on October 13, 2017, 12:37:52 PM
The NCAA decided that UNC did not violate their rules.

Probably a legit reading of the NCAA rules, even though it stinks.

Quote from: airboy on October 13, 2017, 12:37:52 PM
But UNC allowed lots of students to take those courses.  More than 3000 students in fact.  And more than half the students taking the sham classes were non-athletes.

Percent of the UNC student body who were athletes?  Maybe 5%?
Percent of the students in these courses who were athletes?  Around 45%.
Clearly there was some disparity here by either AFAM faculty, or athletic-support-staff folks in steering the athletes into these courses.

(side question that I've never seen answered anywhere - do we have the racial makeup of the independent study classes?)


Quote from: airboy on October 13, 2017, 12:37:52 PM
I know how independent studies classes are supposed to work and have run them myself and overseen a department who once in a blue moon offers them.  You have a syllabus.  There are required deliverables.  We only allow the credit to be Pass/Fail which means you cannot boost your GPA taking them.  A copy of the work is retained for three years.  The department chair has to sign off on the syllabus before the student can register.  When we have internships for credit, the internship must be related to the department, the internship must be paid, there are weekly reports, there is a term paper, and the employer has to send in a written evaluation of the student.
I had at least 1 minimally-supervised IS class in my PhD program, but the other 2 I took were pretty heavily supervised with regular meetings to see the progress on my research papers in them.



The real question is - what's the institutional fallout going to be?

There's no way in hell that this was just the work of one rogue AFAM faculty member - not with over 3000 students taking these classes.
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

airboy

The Department Chair and a Philosophy Prof with an "ethics chair" both retired.  The department admin quit.  And that was about it.

bayonetbrant

Quote from: airboy on October 13, 2017, 05:03:26 PM
The Department Chair and a Philosophy Prof with an "ethics chair" both retired.  The department admin quit.  And that was about it.

I know - that's the problem.  You mean that no one any higher knew about this?

Either they did and they covered it up - bad.

Or they didn't, which indicates a lack of oversight and supervision - really bad.
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers