UNC officials will take back $12,000 from professor Julius Nyang’oro — former chair of the African and Afro-American studies department.
In a letter to the Board of Trustees last week, Chancellor Holden Thorp said UNC will take back the money, which was paid to Nyang’oro for a summer 2011 course he taught irregularly. Nyang’oro signed a contract stating the course would be taught in lecture format but University officials have since discovered that he taught it as an independent study.
According to Thorp’s letter, Nyang’oro expected no more than five students to enroll in the particular summer course but when 18 signed up, UNC officials informed the professor he would be compensated for his work.
Of the 19 students who took the summer 2011 course, 18 were members of the UNC football team and one was a former football team member.
“Anytime you have a class consisting solely of student-athletes, it raises questions,” Thorp said in a statement. “In that respect, this class stands out from the other problematic courses we identified.”
The State Bureau of Investigation is examining the African and Afro-American studies department. In May, Orange-Chatham District Attorney Jim Woodall said he asked the SBI to look into potential cases of academic and financial fraud, computer fraud, or misuse, forgery or conspiracy or attempt to conceal any of those crimes.
The University began its own investigation into the department in September following the revelation that former defensive end Michael McAdoo had plagiarized a paper for a class in the department, and the plagiarism had gone undetected.
