University of North Carolina Academic Fraud Scandal

Taking "Paper Classes" in order to Attain Degrees was Commonplace for Athletes at The University of North Carolina

Over the course of 18 years, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill continued to cheat the academic system by allowing athletes to attain degrees fraudulently. Taking classes that did not require attendance and only one paper at the end of the semester were just the start of the malpractices that were in place. Even in the more challenging courses, it was understood that the teachers had to give special consideration and help to the athletes. Special consideration and help varied from extra help for the athletes from the professor that was not available for regular students to flat out boosting athletes’ grades in order for them to pass. These practices are direct violations of academic integrity and National Collegiate Athletic Association rules. Not to mention, the tainted reputation that the University of North Carolina will have to repair in the midst of the biggest academic scandal in college athletics history.

Deceptive System in Place was Ignored by Coaches

According to the report, one former head football coach, John Bunting, admitted to knowing of the paper classes and his successor, Butch Davis, also admitted some knowledge. Current men's basketball coach Roy Williams is steadfast that he did not know of any illegal activities. The detailed 131-page report is being shared with the NCAA and could have huge implications for the university in the long run. UNC has won three national championships for college basketball that could be in jeopardy along with countless wins thanks to this incident. And it wasn't just the revenue-generating sports that benefited. The report says that athletes in a wide range of sports were involved, and it notes a noticeable spike of enrollment of Olympic-sport athletes between 2003 and 2005. Therefore, the problems within the athletic program were not limited to the “kings of campus” on the football and basketball teams. Every single student athlete ended up benefiting from this illegal program.

In the graphic shown above, you can see that the paper classes program was not only being used, but actually gained popularity throughout the years. This is interesting considering the fact that some coaches at UNC still maintain, to this day, that they had no knowledge of the program. However, if you look at the chart, you can clearly see that the system was in place for many years with a significant portion of athletes partaking in the illegal program. It makes it hard to believe that not a single word got back to these coaches since statistically there is a large probability that some of their own players were in the program. Nonetheless, the graphic above does a good job of humanizing the information by comparing it to other tangible majors to show how deeply embedded this illegal system was in the fabric of the UNC athletics program.

Many of the academic-athletic staff who were named and implicated by Wainstein were also named by university learning specialist Mary Willingham, who went public with detailed allegations about paper classes. After an assault on her credibility by the university, she has since filed a whistleblower suit. She also said there were many members of the athletic staff who knew about the paper classes, and her revelations contradicted what UNC had claimed for years -- that Nyang'oro acted alone in providing the paper classes. The blame game is still currently going on at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill trying to find someone to take responsibility for this blatant breach of trust. Regardless, the coaches more than likely knew about it and willingly decided to turn a blind eye to it. Even if they did not know of what was going on, they should have better control of their team and been able to find out potentially being able to make a difference by attempting to end the system.


In this interview of Academic Advisor for Student Athletics here at the University of Maryland, Heather Arianna, you really get the feel that these practices in place were truly an anomaly in the world of college athletics. As you can assume, no one would ever say that they actually agree with the practices in place at the University of North Carolina. However, you can really see the conviction that Heather Arianna has with regards to this issue. This system goes completely against her moral code and she would not have let something like that happen here at the University of Maryland. It makes you wonder how there was not anyone this passionate or strong enough at UNC to stand up to the illegal practices in place.

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Possible Legal Ways to Address Academic Struggles of the Athletes

The first hints of scandal began in 2010, with allegations that some athletes were having improper contact with agents. As the university investigated, it found academic irregularities and finally announced, under pressure from The News & Observer, that there were classes where little work was required. For the next five years, the UNC administration was on the defensive, admitting only to allegations as they surfaced and never digging to the root of the problem. By comparison, in 2009, Florida State had an academic scandal that was considered huge. Sixty athletes were involved, a far cry from the numbers involved at UNC, he said. The scope and significance of this academic fraud is unprecedented in the college athletics.


In this clip, Heather Arianna is able to shed some light on just a few of the legal options that are available for student athletes here at the University of Maryland. Off the top of her head, she names multiple ways in which academic support is able to help the athletes, legally, in order to stay on top of their studies. With that being said, all of the options definitely require more work from both the athletes doing the schoolwork and the academic support staff to really help the busy and sometimes less adept athletes. However, it is the right thing to do and the lessons of hard work and responsibility for these athletes will carry over into the workplace for society along with the skills they will have accumulated.

Just recently, Rashad McCants, a member of the 2005 national champion basketball team at UNC, admitted to only taking sham classes the entire year. In his interview with ESPN, he outlined the understanding of what the University required from him during his time there. He was only at the University to play basketball and help the team win a national championship. Everything else academically was merely an afterthought. Fortunately, Rashad and his teammates ended up winning that national championship without really doing any schoolwork. But, was it really worth it now that McCants and other athletes in the system are now being asked to be functional members of society with little to no secondary education?

Possible Reformation of Academic Requirements for Student Athletes

Currently, the NCAA is discussing possible options to lighten the load for student athletes, especially while in season. With the growth and development of college sports into a multi-billion dollar industry, the travel schedule and time commitment placed upon the athletes is greater than ever. Therefore, it has only become increasingly harder for these athletes to keep up with their academic workload. As aforementioned, possible policies such as less homework or mandatory extensions for these athletes has been discussed within the NCAA. The train of thought is that if these athletes are given more academic leniency and time to really work on their assignments, then there would be less incentive for schools to even consider a program similar to that of UNC's.

Once again, Heather Arianna lends some insight into the possible changes that could be made available for student athletes. Believe it or not, she defends the current academic system that is in place and states that it is sufficient enough for any athlete to be successful. Heather Arianna takes great pride in what she does and takes a personal responsibility in each of her athletes graduating. It is her job to ensure the success of these athletes in the classroom and believes that the extra policies are not really necessary. This goes to show that here at University of Maryland, and most likely a majority of the other schools across the nation, are more than capable of providing enough support and help for the athletes to graduate with a legitimate degree and education.

Program in Place at UNC was Almost Certainly an Anomaly in World of College Athletics

After analyzing all of the given information, I believe that it is safe to say that what occurred at the University of North Carolina is not a common practice throughout Universities across the nation. From the scope of the program allowing phony degrees to the mass amounts of coaches and administrators ignoring it, it is clear that the scandal was a breakdown of moral integrity throughout the University of North Carolina. This entire scandal and situation is such a shame because UNC was regarded as one of the most prestigious public Universities in the nation. Now the reputation will have to be rebuilt over the years in the aftermath of the worst academic scandal in college athletics history. In the short-term, the program may have helped them win some national championships over that brief time period. But in the long-term, they will have to overcome any punishment handed down by the NCAA along with their stained reputation. A question I'll leave for you and the University of North Carolina is this: was it really worth it?

Questions for Lauren

Practice Interview for Final Project

I am posting this from my iPad since I do not have a laptop currently. I am not entirely sure if there will be any formatting issues or if I turned off suggestions correctly. Nonetheless, I will alter this post if there are any problems. Here's my practice interview where I ask David which fast food restaurant in Stamp is his favorite.

Influence of Social Media Sites on Mental Health and Self-Esteem

Increased Prevalence of Social Media Sites over the Past Decade

In 2004, the world of social media as we know it today was changed forever. Facebook was first created an entire decade ago with similar social media platforms such as MySpace, Twitter, and Instagram being created ever since. Similarly, phrases such as "cyber-bullying" were not used or even a thing over a decade ago. However, in today's world social media and cyber-bullying are both intertwined with society and how we communicate with one another over the Internet. Facebook, the biggest social media website of them all, has over a billion users and the amount of users will only continue to grow. The scope and influence of social media should be taken seriously with regards to mental health and the prosperity of its users.

Correlation between Social Media and Symptoms of Depression

Currently there is much debate as to whether or not there is concrete evidence with regards to any correlations between social media websites and depression. This is mostly because social media is so new and used in so many different ways that it is tough to scientifically study something so subjective. Although, researchers do agree that depressive symptoms and factors are easier to identify through social media outlets. Users who have depression issues typically take to social media in order to express their emotions. Therefore, even though we cannot definitively say that social media leads to depression symptoms in some users, researchers can agree that symptoms of depression are more easily identifiable on social media websites.

How Social Networks Negatively affects Users Self-Esteem

In order to analyze the relationship between social media and self-esteem, we first must define what exactly self-esteem is for our study. For our purposes, self-esteem is the degree of which one approves, values, or likes ones self. With that in mind, researchers found an overwhelmingly negative response to social media websites. The belief as to why that is the case is because social media is self-promotional and, in some cases, narcissistic at its core. The appearance of being cool and having a great life is almost more important than actually having those things because your reputation is based upon your social media reputation nowadays. Based upon the research conducted, social media has a negative affect on self-esteem in most cases so the question to ask now is: how do we change social media to make it a more positive environment for its users?

Similar to Drugs, Social Media can be Addictive

A study conducted analyzed the affects of social media on the brain and what happens when social media usage is taken away. Interestingly enough, subjects of the study experienced withdrawal symptoms when having to eliminate social media usage. Chronic users of social media exhibited symptoms that resembled that of alcohol and nicotine abusers. Addiction to social media is a real problem especially considering the adverse affects I covered above. Social media seems to provide more issues than actual positives for its users today however, that's not to say that it can improve in the future.

Digital News Participation is Dependent on Media Device

by Bradley Keith 31 and Dion Wiley 66

Email and Social Media Encourage Digital Participation

The United States is currently ranked 4th on the global list of overall news participation. 35% of these users use email and social media in order to share these news stories. Through the use of various applications and news websites, we are now able to share more personalized information than ever before. Applications such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube allow us to share news that we consider interesting or relevant to our lives with all the people we are connected to on those particular social media sites. On the other hand, email is a more personal way of sharing news by selecting each person you want to share the news with individually. These various platforms have made digital participation in sharing news both easier and more prevalent.

Facebook is Still the Most Used and Important Social Media Website

Contrary to popular opinion, Facebook is not becoming out-of-date or less important thanks to the rise in other social media websites such as Twitter or Instagram. As shown in the image above, Facebook continues to be the top social media site to share news and interact with other people regarding that news. Even though Twitter has become increasingly more popular with their quick way of sharing information with under 140 characters, continued dialogue between people about news stories seems to be easier on Facebook with no character limitations. The increased prevalence of different social media sites allows people to share information in many different ways. However, this image shows that people's first choice to share that information is still Facebook.

Most People Use Mobile Devices to Access these Sites to Digitally Participate

17% of people use their mobile devices in order to interact with the news whether it is through social media, email, etc. This shows that in an increasingly busy and instant digital world, most people rely on their phone in order to view and interact with the news. This should not be a surprise considering the rise of smartphones and how important they have become in people's everyday lives. If someone wants to view something quickly, such as the news, they can look it up on either an app or Internet on their smartphone as opposed to pulling out their laptop. In a growing digital and mobile world, it makes sense that most people would access this information through their phones (mobile devices).

Specifically, People are Using Apple Products the Most to Access this Information

When it comes to devices being used to access news and digitally participate, Apple dominates the market. Smartphone users are about the same when it comes to Apple versus it's competitors. However, Apple owns the tablet market commanding most of the news and digital participation outflow. This signifies that the iPad is the most popular form of digital participation in the tablet market which comes in second to the mobile phone market with regards to digital participation. Regardless, Apple is a key player due to the amount of people using their devices to digitally participate with the news today.

David's Definition of "Good" Interactivity

listen to ‘David's Definition of "Good" Interactivity’ on audioBoom

Managers and Their Approaches Towards Big Data Personalization

After researching some companies approaches towards big data personalization I discovered some interesting statistics. I created the graph above in order to better show you my findings with regards to this matter. It shows that almost half of the business managers polled in this particular survey don't just want to add online customer data to their profiles but also believe that it is important to the success of their business to do so. However, four out of every ten do not target any customer segment using personalization and even fewer are even aware which customers to focus their marketing on. With all that in mind, there seems to be a disconnect between these managers and their general approach towards personalization. In order to fully utilize the benefits that they believe personalization has, these managers need to take the appropriate measures and dedicate more of their time to do so.