Retired Professors Letter on Athletics, Academics
Posted on April 4, 2014Following is the text of the letter signed by 32 retired UNC faculty members:
Of all the questions surrounding the long-running academic-athletic scandal on the Chapel Hill campus, one of the most perplexing and troubling concerns the faculty. Professors, whatever their discipline, are above all else committed to the pursuit of knowledge and to the educational development of the students in their charge. Yet on an issue touching on both these fundamental commitments the UNC faculty has with a few striking exceptions been silent and as a collective, altogether missing in action. How did a single faculty member in a single department so grossly violate fundamental professional standards for so long? In what context did this violation occur, and how widely in other departments might similar breaking or bending the rules have happened? To what degree and how detrimentally have athletes in revenue sports been exploited, and in what ways have they been neglected or betrayed as students?
The failure to confront these questions suggests a faculty that has abdicated its responsibilities.
Two chancellors have sought in their decisions and public statements to defend the reputation of the university or at least minimize the damage while turning their backs on the issues related to the integrity of UNC as an educational institution in the service of the state. This course, guided by familiar public relations stratagems, has been too clever by half. UNC’s reputation is now in tatters and integrity more deeply in doubt than ever. South Building and the Board of Trustees seem locked in a self-defeating course and unable to find an alternative path. The recent presentation to the trustees by several accomplished student-athletes, whose work as students has not been impugned, was one more embarrassing exercise in avoiding the heart of the issue.
All of the signatories of this statement are retired faculty who feel a right and an obligation to speak out. Our professional experience and our record of service to the university over decades are considerable. This record gives us more than enough standing to express our genuine puzzlement and deep concern.
There is a way forward out of faculty passivity and fatalism. In a university run from the top down, departments remain a redoubt of faculty governance and discussion. Departmental meetings offer a logical place to begin a conversation about a fresh approach in which institutional integrity gets the priority it deserves. Department chairs or other departmental representatives can help broaden the conversation by creating a web of communications essential to convening a larger forum.
This need not involve an unwieldy university-wide gathering and should be independent of Faculty Council. This scandal is particular to the College of Arts and Sciences. The department at the center of controversy is in the college. So too are the students whose educational standing and experience bear examination. Those who teach within the college are the ones on whom it falls in this case to start shouldering faculty responsibilities. We hope our concern will encourage our former colleagues to make their voices heard.
Signatories:
George S. Baroff, psychology
Samuel Baron, history
Karl Bauman, public health
Donald A. Boulton, education
E. Willis Brooks, history
Jane D. Brown, journalism and mass communication
Stan Chojnacki, history
Wayne Christiansen, physics and astronomy
J. Robert Cox, communication studies
Elliot M. Cramer, psychology
Paul B. Farel, cell biology and physiology
Peter Filene, history
George Fishman, operations research
James W. Friedman, economics
Michael H. Hunt, history
Lawrence Kessler, history
Richard H. Kohn, history
Henry A. Landsberger, sociology
William E. Leuchtenberg, history
Madeline G. Levine, Slavic literatures
Townsend Ludington, American studies and English
Arthur S. Marks, art
Donald Mathews, history
Siegfried Mews, German
Theda Perdue, history
Richard W. Pfaff, history
John Shelton Reed, sociology
Lawrence M. Slifkin, physics
Ruel Tyson, religious studies
Anthony J. Vogt, government
Gerhard L. Weinberg, history
Julia T. Wood ’73 (MA), humanities
More online…
- Retired Professors Decry Faculty Reaction on Athletics, Academics
April 2014 news report - Crowder Won’t Face Charges in Fraud Investigation
March 2014 news report - UNC Launching New Inquiry With Outside Counsel
February 2014 news report - Prominent Former Professor Shares Scandal Concerns
January 2014 news report - Folt Sends Message About Campus’s ‘Painful Journey’
January 2014 news report - National Media, Willingham Keep Scandal in the News
January 2014 news report - Nyang’oro Indicted in Probe of Academic Fraud
December 2013 news report - Rawlings Panel Makes 28 Recommendations on Athletics’ Role in Campus Life
September 2013 news report - New Group Will Examine Academic Lives of Athletes
August 2013 news report - Martin Says Fraud Isolated to African Studies Department
December 2012 news report - UNC Plans Wide-Ranging Review of Academics-Athletics Relationship
August 2012 news report - Faculty Committee: Should UNC Athletes Be Academically Separate?
July 2012 news report - The UNC’s Faculty Executive Committee report
- Only Football Players Took Hastily Arranged Summer Class, Taught in Absentia
June 2012 news report - SBI Probing Fraud Report in African, Afro-American Studies
May 2012 news report - Evidence of Academic Fraud Found in African and Afro-American Studies
May 2012 news report - Practices in African, Afro-American Studies Draw Scrutiny
September 2011 news report - Department Chair Linked to Football Probe Resigns
September 2011 news report - A Flag Is Down: A football season that started with high expectations is being played beneath the shadow of an investigation into improper outside contacts and academic misconduct. From the November/December 2010 issue of the Carolina Alumni Review, available online to Carolina Alumni members.
