Dive Brief:
- The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill offered free make-up courses to replace suspect courses offered by its African and Afro-American Studies department between 1997 and 2009, but only one student and one alumnus have shown any interest.
- A university spokeswoman says 46 people may not graduate without the extra course, though other options include taking a special exam or presenting prior work for faculty review.
- The university arranged the free course with the Southern Association of College and Schools Commission on Colleges in an attempt to make the degrees of 384 students "whole" after 39 courses were identified as fraudulent.
Dive Insight:
The fraudulent classes were a major scandal for Chapel Hill last year, as news broke that hundreds of students received credit while no-showing classes and also benefited from unauthorized grade changes. Half of the students were athletes, which further complicated matters, though the issues ultimately fell outside of NCAA jurisdiction. That the university is attempting to make things right with free make-up courses is a good sign, though, and one that students have nothing to lose by taking advantage of. Alumni, however, aren't required to enroll in the make-up courses due to transcripts being sealed one year after graduation.