UNC asks professor to repay $12K for course

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The University of North Carolina wants a professor at the center of an academic fraud probe to repay thousands of dollars for teaching a course inappropriately.

UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp told trustees Friday that Julius Nyang'oro was asked to repay $12,000 for teaching a 2011 summer course as an independent study rather than a lecture.

Nyang'oro resigned in August as chairman of the school's African and Afro-American Studies program, which was at the center of an investigation into academic fraud involving Tar Heel football players.

“Anytime you have a class consisting solely of student-athletes, it raises questions. In that respect, this class stands out from the other problematic courses we identified. We want answers too," Thorp said in a statement. "

A university report found 54 department classes had little or no indication of instruction and at least 10 cases of unauthorized grade changes for students who didn't do all the work.

"The two people implicated in these irregularities are no longer at the university. We appointed new leadership in the department. The College of Arts and Sciences has new policies and strict new procedures for independent study courses," Thorp said.

The UNC Board of Governors is scheduled to talk about the recent findings later this week.

The State Bureau of Investigation is determining whether any criminal violations occurred.

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While I agree this doesn't sound good. One thing professors and student athletes can both agree upon is that independent study courses are better than lectures. If UNC student athletes receive first registration then it shouldn't be surprising that an independent study course could fill up with student athletes. Witch hunt or bad administration, UNC has a problem when you can't tell the difference.

thefiredog
June 12, 2012 11:03 a.m.

I had a Chemistry class at a large university back in the early 80's in a large lecture hall. Over 100 kids in the class.

You're assigned seat for the class was where you chose to sit the first day.

When they had tests, they passed out test booklets. They were marked a-b-c-a-b-c etc...

I was sitting behind a defensive lineman who was so dumb that someone had to tell him to breath.

I noticed that the guy to left of the player, the player, and the guy to the right of the player all had booklets marked A.

It was obvious that the football player was cheating off both of the guys.

The scary thing was that someone took the time to figure out where the football player was sitting and arrange the booklets so the football player could cheat and pass the test.

ConservativeVoter
June 12, 2012 10:21 a.m.

Sounds like UNC-CH is pushing this professor under the bus to keep all of the problems at UNC-CH from being exposed.

These problems have been going on at UNC-CH for a long time. This is nothing new.

ConservativeVoter
June 12, 2012 10:20 a.m.

The entire UNC at Chapel Hill academic credentials should be under review, not just schussing after a professor for $12,000. This fraudulent course within a seemingly fraudulent department didn't occur without anyone outside of this department or athletics knowing it was going on. If it did, then that still brings into question the academic standards of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in its entirety. Asking the professor to repay money paid for this course is the least of what should be happening in Chapel Hill after these revelations have surfaced.

kmanc4s
June 11, 2012 4:26 p.m.

So I guess it's back to Basket Weaving 101...

rjcuddington
June 11, 2012 4:06 p.m.