What does it say about your culture, and the level of managerial oversight, when a fraud is allowed to continue for years in a program run by the office of the chairman of the athletic department, notwithstanding the number of people who knew it was going on? Even the men’s basketball coach was concerned.
“University Is Faulted Over Academic Fraud,” Wall Street Journal, October 23, 2014 A4. Counselors at the University of North Carolina complained that some academic courses were too hard for athletes. Athletes steered to courses where attendance not required and grades didn’t reflect quality of students’ work. These programs were run by the chairman’s office, so administrators had a harder time detecting the problems. This went on for nearly twenty years.
This happened at a well-respected state school. Who was in charge? Were there controls in place that should have brought this to light sooner? Why did they fail? Is anyone really shocked? Is this an information problem or a governance problem or something else?