The conversation surrounding UNC’s athlete admissions, which has dominated faculty and administrative discussions this fall, continued Monday as leaders examined athletics policies.
Members of the Student-Athlete Academic Initiative Working Group focused on the admissions of athletes and contextualized grading in their second meeting of the year.
“Recruited student athletes don’t receive any less scrutiny (than the general study body),” said Steve Farmer, vice provost for enrollment and undergraduate admissions. “In some cases they receive more.”
Farmer said that student athlete applications are subject to the Subcommittee on Special Talent, which determines whether the student qualifies for special admission.
Special talent admissions include students admitted to the athletic, dramatic arts or music departments.
Each year, there is a small group of students that are accepted despite red flags on their applications, each with a certain level of risk, said sociology professor Andrew Perrin, a member of the working group.
There are 160 specially admitted athletes each year, and 14 students are predicted to have a GPA of below 2.3.
“I am quite concerned that the small numbers have a potentially large impact,” he said.
Perrin said that he would like to see the number of these admitted students fall to zero.
