Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, is the 1963 Academy Award winning film starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni. Loren supports her family by means of assorted black market schemes which eventually bring the law down on her. Under Italian law, a pregnant woman could not serve time in jail, so it became the duty of her husband, played by Mastroianni, to assure that she was always with child, protected from jail. After 8 children, he runs out of steam. See the movie.
This charming film came to mind at the latest UNC athletics revelations, involving women’s basketball and men’s soccer. The details are not important here, but movie fans will see the parallels. These latest admissions mean that any potential NCAA penalties stemming from the over 20 year UNC scandal will be delayed, yet again, while the new adjudication plays out. Conveniently, no action is likely until well into the spring, after the NCAA basketball tournament.
Here’s a thought. We know we did wrong, so let’s deliberate and impose penalties, acknowledging that we are capable of more thoughtful, meaningful, and just sanctions than anything the NCAA could possibly impose. To get the discussion going at our university, I’ll open the bidding by suggesting that UNC drop all athletic scholarships going forward and make athletics secondary to the mission of research, scholarship, and creativity. In addition, forfeit all games involving players whose eligibility was a function of fraudulent classes.
Admittedly, my suggestion may sound over the top, but as a teacher, it’s simply meant to get the discussion going. Let’s not wait for the NCAA. What are your suggestions?
Let’stand start with censuring the Chancellorsame and Faculty members that allowed the ‘anything goes’ definition of academic freedom for UNC professors to that allowed JN to run amok. Next censure Chacellors and the faculty for for positioning the AFAM Department to it’s own fiefdom. Finally, let’s require the faculty to work as hard at teaching and researching as Roy Williams and Larry Fedora do coaching and recruiting.
I hope the ’81 is not an indication that you are a UNC grad. If you are, this semi-literate letter shows that football and basketball players aren’t the only UNC students being denied a decent education.