When Zach Ferguson heard about the fraudulent classes at UNC, it did not take him long to realize that he had been enrolled in one before he graduated in 2007.
Ferguson — now enrolled in the UNC School of Law — said he contacted the University about the course to see if he could receive tuition credit to take a class for his current degree.
When he initially contacted UNC administrators, the University did not offer anything to compensate for the class.
UNC decided to offer some free courses for students who took a certain type of fraudulent courses after facing an audit from its accrediting body, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, last summer.
Ferguson’s class — along with several other courses in the newly renamed Department of African, African American and Diaspora Studies — was determined to be fraudulent in an investigation conducted by former Gov. Jim Martin last year.
Ferguson said he had taken several classes in the department and said they were some of the best he had ever taken.
But he said the class he took with Julius Nyang’oro was different. It had one assignment for the semester, and Ferguson said Nyang’oro told the class that unless they had problems, there was no reason to attend class.
Even when Ferguson contacted Nyang’oro for guidance, he said he only received brief answers in return.
“I got the impression that he didn’t really want to be bothered by me a lot,” he said.
