Chansky's Notebook: Old and New News

Mary Willingham and Dan Kane are back in the news, literally.

The so-called whistleblower in the UNC academic scandal testified on Capitol Hill this week, extending her 15 minutes of fame for discovering that a small percentage of Carolina athletes were under-prepared for a college education. Willingham now teaches middle-schoolers to read.

And, of course, Dan Kane took the opportunity to regurgitate the story in the N&O.

Former Tar Heel basketball player and head coach Matt Doherty got some ink for theorizing how the infamous paper classes for the marginal athletes might have originated. And he later told the N&O “every school has easy classes” after having coached at five other colleges.

Two points here that need repeating. You might wonder, or disagree with, how college sports became a $14 billion business, but here we are and to maintain the benefits that far outweigh the warts, most schools admit some borderline high school athletes with a special talent. Almost every department at every major university has such special admits and, yes, they all bear the responsibility of helping them advance toward graduation.

One new angle in Kane’s latest story does what his years-long coverage should have done to give Carolina’s situation some context.

Kane wrote:

“Questions of academic integrity also have surfaced at the Triangle’s other major college sports programs. Duke has long had a sociology degree that athletes have used to graduate earlier than the typical four years, raising doubts about academic rigor.

“N.C. State last year, in response to an N&O public records request, released a 2014 report on its academic support program for athletes that showed 10 tutors or mentors had been dismissed over a two-year period. Three tutors or mentors had improperly socialized with athletes, while the others had provided too much academic assistance such as providing personal ideas for an athlete’s paper.”

If Kane had offered that kind of balanced reporting earlier, maybe the nitwits at rival schools who continue referring to UNC-Cheat and its academic fraud – which the NCAA never found, by the way – would understand what Doherty was saying and go away for good.

The one positive about the Carolina scandal was the discovery that oversight was severely lacking and now far more stringent admission standards and academic guidelines are in place. If Kane cared to take a look, that would make a pretty good new story, too.

Chansky’s Notebook: Old and New News

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