Chapel Hill Faculty Panel Calls for Outside Review of Athletics and Academic Issues

A special faculty committee that looked into an academic-fraud scandal at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is calling for an independent commission of outside experts to review the relationship between athletics and education at the university, The News & Observer reported.

In a report released Thursday, the panel says many faculty members feel they have no say in academic decisions, particularly regarding athletes. The report comes after a university investigation found 54 courses within the department of African and Afro-American studies that had little or no instruction, and dozens of independent-study classes that had little evidence of academic rigor. The classes were largely filled with athletes.

The case has generated numerous investigations and reports, but the new faculty report says the various probes have different missions that may miss the larger issues at stake. Its authors say they hope an outside inquiry “will both highlight what we are doing right and identify areas of deficiencies in organization and procedure.”