TO THE EDITOR:
I feel Jay Smith’s Jan. 15 column, along with his largely unchecked long-running diatribe on the academic scandal at UNC, deserves a response.
Smith is entitled to his opinion, but it is important to note the self-interested motivation behind his continued outspoken criticism of the work done by outside individuals and companies.
As the associate dean for undergraduate curriculum from 2004 to 2008, years when the “paper courses” greatly increased, Smith has a strong interest in shifting blame elsewhere.
From the outset of the “scandal,” Smith has erratically blamed everyone from Butch Davis to former Gov. Jim Martin to now seemingly criticizing Chancellor Holden Thorp’s decision to accept the Martin Report.
Perhaps the colleagues Smith criticizes realize there were failings in the academic side of the University, one which Smith played a significant role in.
Disguising self-interested vitriol as virtuous to the University truly makes for painful reading.
Austin Maloney ’11
Chapel Hill
