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Blog and Media Roundup - Thursday, March 6, 2014; News Roundup
Topic Started: Mar 6 2014, 05:39 AM (442 Views)
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http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-05/unc-tar-heels-fake-classes-scandal-administrator-will-tell-all
UNC Fake Classes Scandal: Key Administrator Agrees to Tell All
By Paul M. Barrett March 05, 2014

If University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill’s fake classes fiasco were a mob case, we’d say a key witness has turned state’s evidence. Since it’s a National Collegiate Athletic Association academic-fraud scandal, let’s go with: Another sneaker has dropped—about a size 16, triple-E.

Recall from our current cover story, “No Class,” that UNC-Chapel Hill, home of the legendary Tar Heels basketball team, has become ground zero in the debate about how the $16 billion college sports industry operates. Carolina earned that dubious distinction by, among other misdeeds, offering more than 200 fake classes that never met but were disproportionately preferred by its varsity athletes.

For three years, university administrators tried to limit the damage by insisting that this bizarre campaign to maintain athletes’ eligibility somehow had nothing to do with the school’s athletic department. That implausible denial of the link between big-time sports and academic corruption has started to crumble, and UNC recently agreed to hire an outside counsel to investigate the whole sad episode afresh. Yesterday, the outside lawyer landed a crucial cooperating witness.

Deborah Crowder, a former long-time administrator in Carolina’s black-studies department, announced via her lawyer that she would submit to thorough questioning by the independent counsel, Kenneth Wainstein, a former federal prosecutor and senior U.S. Justice Department official. Wainstein, Crowder’s attorney, Brian Vick, and local prosecutor, Jim Woodall each issued statements confirming that Woodall had agreed not to seek criminal charges against the retired UNC administrator. Crowder, in turn, vowed to tell all to Wainstein.

Why is this important? Earlier university reviews and reports by investigative journalist Dan Kane of the Raleigh News & Observer have tied Crowder to the creation of fake black-studies classes and noted that she has extensive personal ties to UNC athletics. Previously, Crowder, who retired in 2009, had refused to speak about the scandal—at least in public. To avoid criminal prosecution, she is now likely to name the person or people who encouraged her to set up the phony no-show classes.

Crowder’s revelations will put huge pressure on her ex-boss, Julius Nyang’oro, the former black-studies chairman who served as the nominal professor for the suspect courses. Nyang’oro was criminally indicted in December for defrauding the university. Via his lawyer, he has denied wrongdoing and signaled that he does not intend to take the fall.

For a long time, senior UNC officials have tried to isolate Nyang’oro as a rogue academic who for unexplained reasons turned his department into a bad joke. (The department has since been renamed and overhauled, by the way.) Crowder’s belated eagerness to go on the record, combined with the likelihood that Nyang’oro will divulge some dirty laundry as part of a deal with Woodall, could finally allow observers to understand what’s really been going on in Chapel Hill. Expect more footwear to fall in the near future.

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Duke porn star reveals face and film name on Playboy, xojane websites
From staff reportsMarch 5, 2014 Updated 6 hours ago



The Duke University freshman whose participation in porn movies sparked much campus discussion in recent weeks has revealed her photo and porn name on two websites.

“Today, I am choosing to reveal my porn identity to the world,” the student wrote on the www.xojane.com website. “My name is Belle Knox, and I wear my Scarlet Letter with pride.”

In another interview posted on Playboy magazine’s website, the student says she is performing in porn to pay her tuition at Duke.

“If Duke had given me the proper financial resources, I wouldn’t have done porn,” she said. “They have nobody to blame for the scandal but themselves.”

The student does not disclose her real name on either website, saying she has been bullied since news of her porn career became public last month.

“My birth name is one name,” she wrote on xojane. “IT IS MINE. It is the name I am enrolled in at Duke. It is what my family and friends call me. My porn name is another name. It is the name I use when I perform.”

This is the second story the student has written for the xojane website. In both, she says she is proud to perform in porn, and she takes to task another Duke student who she says revealed her identity on campus after seeing one of her movies.

She also talks about the disrespect that she says female “sex workers” face.

The Chronicle, the student newspaper at Duke, interviewed the student in February, giving her the pseudonym “Lauren” and the fake porn name “Aurora.”

Duke officials have said that they cannot comment on any student’s specific situation and that they are committed to protecting the privacy and safety of students.

Last week, Duke spokesman Keith Lawrence said Duke’s financial aid program meets 100 percent of students’ demonstrated need based on a review of family circumstances.

“Whenever we identify a student in need of support, we reach out to them and offer the many resources that we have available on campus to assist them,” Lawrence said.


Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/03/05/3675461/duke-porn-star-reveals-her-face.html#storylink=cpy
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At UNC-Chapel Hill, the story is not yet complete

By Jim Jenkins
jim.jenkins@newsobserver.comMarch 5, 2014 Updated 1 hour ago

Said the True Blue alum of UNC-Chapel Hill: “No one cares about the so-called scandals any more. People are tired of it. Why do you keep writing about it?”

He spoke, of course, of the show that at times seems like it’s played longer than “Cats” on Broadway. A football coach is brought in by boosters eager to bring a national championship to Chapel Hill. Players are found to have connections with agents. An academic department is loaded with phony courses populated with a high percentage of athletes. The coach is fired. A chancellor departs.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill happens to be my alma mater. Because of the university’s journalism school (I was in history myself), it also has been the alma mater of a number of colleagues, a large number, over the 40 years I’ve been in the business at three newspapers.

The claim on the part of some of the True Blue, then, that The News & Observer is “out to get” UNC-Chapel Hill is just not so. With so many alums in this region and state who read The N&O, what in the world would be the point of that? Stories, and editorials, that cause the subjects to become angry, to see themselves as targets, always draw that “out-to-get” reaction. I don’t know anyone in this business who claims to be perfect, but conspiracy? No.

In this case, N&O staff writer Dan Kane has covered the news with exhaustive investigation and detail, and he’s written a lot about the problems in the university’s athletics program and in a shocking academic scandal. One of the latest stories has concerned a dispute between a former academic adviser in the complex that deals with athletes who says some of them couldn’t read well and weren’t ready for college work. Another adviser recently begged to differ.

Some think the university just needed to “manage” the story better. But the story didn’t need managing. It needed telling.

Universities are rather cloistered places sometimes, and they don’t handle crisis or criticism very well. And presidents and chancellors just aren’t comfortable with opening the books on public records even when the institution in question is a public one. Human nature, perhaps.

Credit is due Carol Folt, the new chancellor at Chapel Hill, for acknowledging that the university had to accept ownership of this crisis. It was a stand-up and brave gesture. Her predecessors have been honorable people, all of them. But like many presidents and chancellors who inherit “big time” sports programs, they tried to make the argument to themselves and alums that it’s possible to be Alabama on the football field and Harvard in the classroom. It’s happened, but not very often.

So we can hope that the hiring of Kenneth Wainstein, the blue-chip Washington lawyer and former Justice Department bigwig who seems to have a “get to the bottom of it once and for all” mandate from Folt and UNC system President Tom Ross, will bring some tough but productive choices for the university as to priorities and standards for the future. And let’s hope the university is smart enough to fully disclose Wainstein’s findings to all the citizens of the state, who after all own the university.

Are people tired of the story? Yes they are. Should the story be forgotten? No, it should not. This isn’t about public relations. It’s about a very good university wherein administrators – under pressure from big contributors and believing that athletic success somehow enhanced academics – let the athletics program run itself. And they got burned for it.

They weren’t alone, by any means. There have been a number of prominent schools that have had to face up to embarrassing scandals when athletes got privileges beyond reason. To be sure, giving academic help (extra tutoring, etc.) to athletes has not been a secret. Why should it be? They’re working many hours a week and it’s easy to understand why they would need assistance. But there is a line that must not be crossed. When it is, universities have to do something about it.

I had classes with basketball and football players in Chapel Hill in the 1970s. Most showed up and did the work. Some professors were friendlier than others to players, but I suspect some were tougher on them, too.

It’s likely that Carolina has worked harder at playing it straight in terms of athletics and academics than other universities. But when things go wrong, getting the story out, not sitting on it or trying to manipulate it, is the only credible choice.

Deputy editorial page editor Jim Jenkins can be reached at 919-829-4513 or at jjenkins@newsobserver.com


Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/03/05/3676843/at-unc-chapel-hill-the-story-is.html#storylink=cpy
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http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/03/is_the_cuboulder_sexual_harassment_scandal_falling_apart.html


March 6, 2014
Is the CU-Boulder Sexual Harassment Scandal Falling Apart?
Ben Cohen

About a month ago, this author expressed his deep suspicion of claims that CU-Boulder’s philosophy department had a sexual harassment problem. The story made national news after the school released a report prepared by a “site visit team” from the Committee on the Climate for women in philosophy. To this author at least, the report seemed to be oddly short on specifics, and what little it did have seemed rather trivial, especially in light of the draconian sanctions imposed on the department. Dr. Michael Tooley of the CU-Boulder philosophy department has come forward to offer an insider account matching this author’s suspicions.

The department Tooley describes consists of sincere liberals deeply concerned with creating an environment friendly to women. When the department found out that a faculty member had been punished for sexual harassment, they immediately formed a committee to study the issue, and see if there were any other problems. In Tooley’s retelling, they invited the committee in by unanimous decision, because they genuinely wanted to maintain a welcoming environment for women and minorities. What they didn’t realize was that the “site visit team” was not officially sanctioned by the American Philosophical Association, and might have an agenda.

Tooley anticipated the site visit team conducting an honest investigation into whether a hostile environment existed, but that wasn’t what happened, “In our own case, the site visit lasted a day and a half, with only three hours given over to scheduled discussions with faculty. But when one meets with a group of individuals, one cannot ask people to talk about the sexual harassment or the bullying that they themselves have experienced.”

The site visit team also exaggerated the scope of the problem: “The facts as regards sexual harassment, however, are these. Only one tenured or tenure-track member of the Philosophy Department has been found guilty of sexual harassment, and that in two cases. That person was punished both times, and in the second case, the punishment was not one that could plausibly be perceived, contrary to what the Site Visit Report tends to suggest, as “a slap on the wrist” (page 9): it involved, among other things, one semester’s suspension without pay.”

In other words, after performing a non-investigation, the site visit team declared that CU-Boulder’s philosophy department had a massive sexual harassment problem. What a surprise. Further damaging the team’s credibility, they may have misled the philosophy department as to the confidentiality of the report. Although the details are a bit fuzzy, Tooley has uploaded a document from the “site visit team” claiming that the report, and its details, would remain in the confidence of the team and the party requesting it. Tooley claims that the philosophy department alone requested it, team leader Dr. Valerie Hardcastle claims that the department and the Dean both requested it.

Astute readers will recognize a familiar pattern: Trayvon Martin, Duke Lacrosse, etc. When they spot a great white (male) defendant off starboard, a certain segment of the media abandons any form of professional skepticism, or objectivity. While we don’t know all of the facts in this case, it appears to fit this pattern. Sadly, these scandals keep happening because a certain number of people want to believe the worst, and will persist in their beliefs regardless of the facts.
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Quasimodo

Quote:
 

http://today.duke.edu/2014/03/dcvisit

Brodhead Promotes Higher Education, Humanities During DC Visit
March 6, 2014 | Alyssa Dack

DURHAM, NC - From Capitol Hill to the White House and back again, Duke President Richard H. Brodhead crisscrossed Washington, D.C., Tuesday to share the university's views on federal policy issues and to strengthen relationships with members of Congress and administration officials.

Brodhead's agenda included meetings with Duke alumni currently serving in Congress including Nick Rahall (D-WV) (T '71), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) (T '75) and Bradley Byrne (R-AL) (T '77). He also met with several senators, including Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Bob Corker (R-TN).

[Couldn't have done this to seek a federal investigation of the lacrosse case, though...and even though a few congressmen later asked for such, Duke wouldn't join in...]

Brodhead discussed expanding investment in federal research, comprehensive immigration reform, student aid and tax reform, while emphasizing the need for a strong partnership between the university community and the federal government.

[give us more money so we can get out of the hole we dug for ourselves with, among other things, Kunshan and with the lax suits? And what university WANTS "strong partnership" with government--which will usually turn out to be a restrictive force on free thought?]

"When I arrived at Duke 10 years ago, the federal government was a reliable and supportive partner for research. Since then, research budgets have not kept pace with needed investments, discoveries and costs. As a result, we are seeing the quantity of research diminish, while at the same time the type of research becoming less diverse and more risk averse," Brodhead said during the visit.

In addition, Brodhead highlighted the continuing efforts of the Commission on Humanities and Social Sciences, which he co-chairs with John Rowe, retired chairman and chief executive officer of Exelon Corp. Last summer, the commission released "The Heart of the Matter," a report outlining the state of the humanities in society. Since then, the commission has generated and maintained a new public discussion on the topic, a discussion that led to Brodhead's appearance last year on The Colbert Report.

The trip also coincided with the release of President Obama's budget for fiscal year 2015, which includes broad spending levels for agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Homeland Security, all of which administer funding for university research.

Further information on budget priorities important to the higher education community will be forthcoming from Duke's Office of Federal Relations.

"As a whole, Duke University receives more than half a billion of dollars in student aid and research dollars. This visit was a great opportunity to have our president explain how federal funds contribute to Duke, to North Carolina, to our economy today and our economy tomorrow, by enabling us to train a skilled workforce tomorrow," said Christopher Simmons, associate vice president of federal relations.

[No wonder FERPA wouldn't cancel any funding, regardless of what violations Duke employed...]

Rounding out the president's day were meetings with White House and other administration officers to discuss university's initiatives. He also met with Duke alumnus Jeffrey Zients, who recently became chair of the National Economic Council.

"President Brodhead is committed to engaging with Congress and the administration on issues vital to the university," said Michael Schoenfeld, Duke's vice president for public affairs and government relations. "It's hard to overemphasize the importance of these visits when advocating for federal support of student aid and research.

"Duke is a good example of the partnership between the federal government and higher education, and policymakers want to hear from us," Schoenfeld added. "They want to know the impact our work has on society, and they want to support our faculty and students in their education and research."

[What fun Ed Rickards would have had with this...]


Edited by Quasimodo, Mar 6 2014, 10:06 AM.
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Not, I hope, descended from one of my North Carolina Knoxes (including the one who applied for his Revolutionary pension when he was 90, and got it, without resorting to geriatric porn).
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