The College Fix

The University of North Carolina has been mired in an academic scandal since last summer involving phony no-show classes in its African American studies department, which were widely utilized by student athletes looking for an incredibly easy ‘A’.

The College Fix first reported on the scandal back in August:

The academic fraud took place solely in the African and Afro-American studies department from summer 2007 to summer 2011. The department was responsible for 54 no-show and fraudulent classes. 67% of the classes were made up of student athletes—most were football players. Classes were either taught “aberrantly” or “irregularly,” the university admitted, following its own investigation in to the matter. The ugly details include unauthorized grade changes, forged faculty signatures on grade rolls, and limited or no class time.

Now, a new report in The Washington Post sheds a sad, but sort-of-comical light on the broader question of academic integrity among student athletes at UNC.

Senior wide receiver Erik Highsmith committed plagiarism on a blog for a communications class he took last spring, according to the report, and the source material he used just so happened to be a piece on chickens written on an education Web site… by four 11-year-olds….

As Dan Kane of the News & Observer reported:

…The four investigations into academic fraud at UNC-CH are largely focused on classes within the African and Afro-American Studies Department that never met. But another theme is also emerging as more becomes known about the school work: football players cutting and pasting from various sources to fulfill written assignments.

We wish we could say we are surprised by the idea of big time college athletes cutting corners in the classroom. But, of course, none of us is truly surprised.

But the work of an 11-year-old? Really?

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