UNC Probe Continues, Officials Hire Former Governor To Investigate Program Before 2007

Officials at the University of North Carolina have enlisted the help of a former governor and an outside consulting firm to determine how far back the University should investigate academic irregularities in its Afro and African-American studies and athletics departments.

North Carolina chancellor Holden Thorp revealed on Thursday that former North Carolina governor James G. Martin will lead an independent review or irregularities that occurred before 2007.

Speaking to ESPN on Thursday Thorp noted:

“We’ve got so much to be proud of at Carolina. and we’ve got to reassure people that we’re taking care of this situation, and position athletics and the University and everybody in the Carolina family to move forward.”

UNC announced in May that 54 AFAM classes were either “aberrant” or “irregularly” taught from the Summer 2007 semester through Summer 2011. The violations included unauthorized grade changes, forged faculty signatures and high marks without class time required. Students were required to submit written work however the classes were made up of at least 50% football players, many of whom submitted sub-par written assignments.

UNC was sanctions by the NCAA in May after it was determined the university provided improper benefits and academic misconduct involve a tutor in March.

Blame for the misuse of departmental resources has been largely placed on longtime chairman of the department Julius Nyang’oro who was forced into retirement and Deborah Crowder who retired in 2009.

Reviewing the Tar Heel’s programs is Virchow, Krause & Company.

UNC officials are working to re-organize the department and athlete support programs to ensure such egregious violations do not occur again in the future.