UNC academic fraud case goes deeper

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — UNCChapel Hill has received a third notice of allegations from the NCAA in the academic fraud case, several weeks after appearing before the association’s Committee on Infractions in a rare procedural hearing.

The fresh set of charges from the enforcement agency marks yet another unusual turn in a case that has now stretched beyond five years.

Rick White, a UNC spokesman, confirmed in an email that the third notice had been delivered. He did not offer details but said the new notice would be posted on UNC’s website.

A new notice typically involves several months of back and forth between UNC and the NCAA before an infractions hearing is scheduled. It would likely take the place of the most recent set of charges, which the NCAA levied in April; those allegations were generally more lenient than the first group, dropping a previous charge of providing impermissible benefits and eliminating specific mention of football and men’s basketball.

The case involves 18 years of bogus classes offered by a former manager of the African and Afro-American Studies department, Deborah Crowder, and former department chairman Julius Nyang’oro. Half of the roughly 3,100 students who took the classes were athletes, with football and men’s basketball having the highest enrollments.

The classes never met and had no instructor. Those who turned in a paper received a high grade, regardless of its quality.