Thousands of students were involved in a long-standing case of academic fraud at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill that set off a trend of plagiarism and inflated grades among athletes and other students, an independent investigation found Wednesday.

The students, nearly half of whom were athletes, enrolled in so-called "paper classes" that did not require them to show up and to only submit one research paper – a system largely devised by a retired office administrator, Deborah Crowder, and the former African and Afro-American Studies department chair, Julius Nyang'oro. Unlike other independent study courses, however, there was no faculty involvement or oversight of the students' research of the papers. What's more, it became "common knowledge" that Crowder didn't closely scrutinize the papers submitted, so students often used unoriginal text, but still received high grades.

“The bad actions of a few and the inaction of others failed the university’s students, faculty and alumni and undermined the institution as a whole,” university Chancellor Carol Folt said in a statement. “This conduct could and should have been stopped much earlier by individuals in positions of influence and oversight, and others could have sounded the alarm more forcefully.”

Throughout the nearly two decades the course existed, Crowder managed the classes and graded papers. The investigation – conducted by Kenneth Wainstein, a former federal prosecutor and partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft – found the systemic problem lasted longer and involved more students than previously thought, Folt said. Wainstein and his team interviewed 120 witnesses and scoured 1.6 million emails and documents that analyzed student transcripts and course records as early as the 1980s.

The report goes on to say that academic counselors at the university knowingly funneled student athletes into the courses in order to help keep them eligible, and that other university personnel were aware of the "red flags" but didn't press for answers.

By the time Crowder retired in 2009, the report says, she "had not only handled those responsibilities for 30 years; she had also started and managed a line of academically unsound classes that provided deficient educational instruction to thousands of Chapel Hill students."

"I apologize first to the students who entrusted us with their education and took these courses," Folt said. "You deserved so much better from your university, and we will do everything we can to make it right."



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Crowder devised the system out of a sympathy for underperforming students, the report says, and later changed her approach to run the courses under the facade of a traditional lecture course, although students never met and never interacted with a faculty member. But after her retirement the students struggled to maintain eligibility and Nyang'oro offered several other courses in a similar format.

"It was only when media reports raised questions about [the department] classes in 2011 that administration officials took a hard look at the AFAM department," the report says. "They were shocked with what they found."

Throughout the duration of the "shadow curriculum," Crowder and Nyang'oro offered 188 different lecture classes and hundreds of "paper classes" that affected more than 3,100 students of the 97,600 undergraduates enrolled during that same time period.

As a result of the investigation, the university plans to launch several new initiatives to crack down on instances of academic fraud, such as a new public records website, a faculty group to review student-athlete eligibility and progress and a process for confidential disclosure of concerns.