Dive Brief:
- The News & Observer on Friday published a statement Friday from 31 retired UNC-Chapel Hill faculty members demanding that current faculty members pressure the school's administration for answers on more than a decade of academic fraud.
- The scholars behind the letter include history professor William E. Leuchtenburg and religious studies professor Ruel Tyson, who say that silence on the issue has bred a failed "public relations" strategy.
- The two professors behind the letter, Michael Hunt and Madeline Levine, had the idea last week following a lunch Hunt had with alums. According to Chancellor Carol Folt, however, their letter "ignore[s] the efforts of many deeply committed faculty, and the real progress in terms of reforms and additional oversight that Carolina has made in just the last few years."
Dive Insight:
Hunt and Levine have long been vocal regarding the academic scandal, and the current faculty's relative silence on the matter has been a concern for many since news of the "ghost courses" broke two years ago. The concern is warranted, as such a scandal could have serious credibility implications, shifting perception of a great institution to the butt of jokes.
Among questions the letter says current faculty should be seeking answer to: “(To) what degree and how detrimentally have athletes in revenue sports been exploited, and in what ways have they been neglected or betrayed as students?” (It should be noted, however, that Faculty Council leader Jan Boxill once tried to rid a faculty report on the scandal of language about an academic motive, which raises even more questions.)