Mary Willingham has become the centerpiece of the latest media craze around UNC’s athletic scandal, but she says her decision to reveal her crucial academic statistics about student-athletes was inspired by a familiar figure.
Willingham, an academic counselor and former reading specialist who worked with athletes, said in an interview with The Daily Tar Heel earlier this week that last year she was approached by former Chancellor Holden Thorp who encouraged her to speak out.
“Before (Thorp) left, he called me and he said, ‘Your story is compelling, and you really need to go around, and you need to let the administration know how you feel.’ So I reached out to several people one on one but they never invited me back,” she said.
A report from CNN on Tuesday revealed data she had collected between 2004 and 2012 which showed that nearly 10 percent of 183 football and basketball players read below a third-grade level, and 60 percent were reading between a fourth and eighth grade level.
Since then, several prominent members of the University have called the report into question, including Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Jim Dean and men’s basketball coach Roy Williams. In the CNN article, Willingham mentioned an example of one basketball player who could not read or write, which Williams disputed.
“Anybody can make any statement they want to make, but that’s not fair,” Williams said, his voice cracking, following the team’s loss to Miami Wednesday.
“The University of North Carolina doesn’t stand for that. I don’t believe it’s true and I’m really, really bothered by the whole thing. People have beaten up on us for a while, but we’re going to survive this. I know what the program’s been for 100 years.”
Willingham said she was invited to the Faculty Athletics Committee meeting on Dec. 10, where she called for several reforms.
She recommended remedial reading courses for athletes and six-year scholarships for athletes. She said ultimately, student-athletes’ illiteracy is an issue of unequal access to education.
