The University of North Carolina is currently being investigated for an academic scandal where their struggling student-athletes could receive fake grades or take no-show classes so they could keep playing their sport. This scandal, which took place from 1993-2011, has been reopened because there is allegedly more academic fraud that had previously been unaccounted for.

The educators that have had a major role in the scandal are Julius Nyang’oro and former office administrator Deborah Crowder. They set up classes to help student-athletes remain eligible for their sport, which was either football or basketball. About 3,100 student-athletes at UNC enrolled in classes they did not have to show up for. In several of the courses these students took, high grades would be given despite the quality of the work.  Grades were given to students that they did not earn whatsoever, and the signatures of faculty members were forged so that better grades could be published.

UNC’s basketball program, which has earned a prestigious reputation over the years, won national championships in 1993, 2005, and 2009. Former UNC basketball star Rashad McCants, who was part of the 2005 championship team, has said that he took no show classes and that his coach, Roy Williams, was aware of them. Williams is still the head basketball coach at UNC, but if these allegations are true, then he may not be it for much longer although he claims they aren’t true. McCants went on to say that he also had tutors that wrote his essays for him.

Regardless of the outcome of this academic fraud, UNC’s education and reputation as a college will forever be stained due to the scandal that has transpired.