TO THE EDITOR:
The University statements about the athletics/academic scandal are shameful.
As the NCAA reports, UNC “acknowledged that the courses did not meet, involved little, if any, faculty engagement and were frequently graded by a former curriculum secretary.”
Even if there were no vacuous and impotent NCAA, this we know.
Many UNC athletes gained credit for fraudulent classes and as a result those athletes maintained academic eligibility to compete in games.
That’s the core truth of this shameful affair.
In sharing the early influences on her life, Michelle Obama remarked, “We learned about honesty and integrity—that the truth matters... that you don’t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules... and success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square.”
Sadly, the message our university is now trumpeting to our students, to those who are at the core of our mission, is that lux libertas does not mean honesty, does not mean rigor, does not mean courage.
Rather, convolution, manipulation and rationalization prevail.