The ax falls slowly
Published January 6, 2015
Editorial by Greensboro Daily News, January 6, 2015.
As soon as Kenneth Wainstein released his report about academic misconduct at UNC-Chapel Hill in October, it was clear Jan Boxill was in trouble.
Sure enough, Chancellor Carol Folt last week acknowledged that the university began proceedings to dismiss Boxill the same day.
Boxill will be the most significant academic official fired, if her appeal is denied. A senior lecturer in the Philosophy Department, she was faculty chairwoman for three years. She also has a strong interest in sports and helping underprivileged students, which led her to serve for 20 years as an academic counselor for the women’s basketball team.
It’s possible to help too much. An academic counselor or tutor is not allowed to write any part of a paper, provide research materials or contribute notes for a student’s assignment.
Wainstein, the former federal prosecutor hired by UNC to investigate questionable academic practices, particularly involving athletes, uncovered evidence that rules were sometimes broken, and Boxill was one of the people who crossed the line.
The biggest finding was that, for nearly 20 years, students were allowed to enroll in “paper classes” in the Department of African and Afro-American Studies, where they could receive good grades for doing virtually no work. Boxill encouraged athletes to take those courses and on a couple of documented occasions suggested what grade they needed or should get to Deborah Crowder, the person who administered them.
Crowder retired in 2009. Department Chairman Julius Nyang’oro is also gone. They were the principal figures in designing, or allowing, the sham courses. Faculty member Timothy McMillan resigned in October rather than contest a dismissal notice. Boxill, with a lesser role, is one of the few people who could still be held accountable.
Perhaps for that reason, the university was reluctant to reveal its personnel actions. It claimed it had to wait until appeals were exhausted — an interpretation of law not used by UNCG when it fired employees in its University Relations Department. It took a lawsuit by media organizations, including the News & Record, to spur a change of heart in Chapel Hill. The parties negotiated a settlement that included release of information about Boxill and McMillan. The disclosure was meant to protect the integrity of the university, Folt said.
Not released were the names of six more employees UNC says may face disciplinary actions after their cases are reviewed. Two others were dismissed earlier.
That’s not many people held responsible for a long-running and deeply corrupt academic charade that involved thousands of students — some of whom received help to illegitimately maintain their eligibility to compete in intercollegiate athletics. But Wainstein himself laid the lion’s share of the blame at the feet of just two people — Crowder and Nyang’oro.
From the time information about the scandal began to emerge in 2011, the university had failed to disclose everything it could as soon as it could. It is still working that way. So, even now, there is still more to learn.
