As an outside academic review team’s visit to campus quickly approaches, the University is taking proactive steps to show it has corrected the academic discrepancies that have haunted campus.
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Bruce Carney instructed academic leaders in the College of Arts and Sciences to drop in on scheduled classes — ensuring they were taking place.
Ultimately, random class checks are a common sense method of proving the University’s degrees still hold their value.
The class checks were spurred by a letter in early January from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges requesting UNC prove it has taken sufficient action to tackle issues that undermined the University’s academic integrity.
It is reasonable that many professors are upset regarding the unannounced visits. The University employs many distinguished faculty members and the vast majority are devoted to honest learning and education.
Professors shouldn’t feel the unannounced visits are indicative of a lack of faith in their teaching ability or their integrity. But moral hazard does exist, and the actions of Julius Nyang’oro show that even tenured faculty can commit academic fraud.
The inconvenience of having someone drop by is a small price to pay to ensure UNC’s accreditation — which is crucial — is not put at risk.
And while departments have courses that are spread all over campus, administrators need to work together to cover visiting many of the classes.
The random class checks are minor inconveniences in the much bigger process of restoring an atmosphere of academic integrity — as well as pleasing the accrediting agency.
