Get a better handle on the academic scandal

The Daily Tar Heel analyzed the report by independent investigator Kenneth Wainstein for the words that appear most frequently and crafted a guide to explain the report's major findings. The most common words appear larger in the correlating graphic. Wainstein's investigation revealed how a secretary in the former Department of African and Afro-American Studies created bogus classes to help athletes maintain eligibility. More than 3,000 UNC students took paper classes, according to the report.

Student

According to Wainstein's report, more than 3,100 students received deficient instruction from 1993 to 2011, the 18-year-period during which the bogus classes were offered. 

Paper classes

Wainstein identified paper classes as courses in which students did not have go to class, there was no faculty oversight and the only assignment was one paper due during the semester that was given a relatively high grade by Crowder and later Julius Nyang'oro. There were five types of paper classes offered between 1989 and 2011, Wainstein wrote in the report. The five types were independent studies, lecture paper classes, post-Crowder paper classes, bifurcated classes and student add-ons. 

Crowder

Deborah Crowder was hired as the student services manager for the former Department of African and Afro-American Studies in 1979. Wainstein said Crowder's official responsibilities were administrative and office assistance, but Crowder graded many papers in the paper classes. 

"She had also started and managed a line of academically unsound classes that provided deficient educational instruction to thousands of Chapel Hill students," Wainstein wrote in the report.  

AFAM

The paper classes were offered in the former Department of African and Afro-American Studies. Wainstein found that none of the University's administration scrutinized or questioned the bogus classes that existed within the department, until media released reports of the classes in 2011. 

Athletes

Wainstein said in the report that 46.7 percent of the enrollments in paper classes were from student-athletes. Between 1999 and 2011, there were 963 enrollments by football players, 226 enrollments by men's basketball players, 114 enrollments by women's basketball players and 568 enrollments from other sports. 

Department

Wainstein found there were many opportunities for faculty and administrators to raise red flags about the paper classes. The University only began to investigate the classes when media released reports of the irregular classes. 

Nyang'oro

Julius Nyang'oro became chairman of the Department of African and Afro-American Studies in 1992. After he became chairman, Crowder began offering paper classes. After Crowder left the University in 2009, Nyang'oro offered six paper classes that were structured the same way as Crowder's classes. 

Independent studies

Independent studies were one of the five types of paper classes defined by Wainstein. Independent studies were classes in which students were enrolled but did not have significant contact with a faculty member, Wainstein said. The only assignment in these classes required students to turn in a paper at the end of the class that was graded by Crowder. 

Academic

For 329 students who took the paper classes, the GPA boost that the paper classes gave them pushed their GPA over 2.0. Without the paper classes, 81 students would not have had the adequate GPA to graduate, according to the report. The average GPA issued to students in paper classes was 3.62 — higher than the average GPA of 2.84 issued to students in regular classes in the former Department of African and Afro-American Studies. 

Chapel Hill

Wainstein investigated the academic fraud at UNC-CH and not at any other universities or colleges. 

FAC

During Faculty Athletics Committee meetings in November 2006 and January 2007, members of the committee discussed the nature of the independent studies offered in the former Department of African and Afro-American Studies. Committee members argued it was the professor's right to choose the correct teaching method. Wainstein said the lack of faculty involvement in these classes was not communicated to the Faculty Athletics Committee.

ASPSA

Counselors in the Academic Support Program for Student Athletes steered student-athletes toward the paper classes to help them remain academically eligible. Wainstein said the counselors were fully aware of how the paper classes were run and used that knolwedge to their advantage to keep athletes eligible to play. 

university@dailytarheel.com