TO THE EDITOR:
The ongoing UNC athletics scandal presents many ethical conundrums, that is for sure.
That so many of those implicated in the scandal sincerely believed that they were acting with integrity fascinates me.
But it doesn’t surprise me, given what I learned after finishing my doctoral program at UNC in the late 2000s and taking a tenure-track position at a small public liberal arts university in the upper Midwest.
In my first year there, I encountered a struggling student-athlete and new transfer in my 400-level media theory course. His adviser in the athletics department had steered him into my course knowing that the student had never taken a communications course before.
When I went to my department chair, she insisted that I offer the student an independent study and do a course substitution so that he would maintain his minimum course load for financial aid.
When I refused, she became incensed and claimed that I was elite and insufficiently student-centered (i.e., unwilling to do whatever it takes to help a student complete his/her degree).
“Student-centeredness,” I learned, is a deeply-internalized value among many working in higher education today, especially in this moment when students are framed as customers and colleges/universities as businesses. And it predominates at open-enrollment schools like my former employer and premier institutions alike. Our efforts at accountability must hold individual actors responsible, yes, but also scrutinize the system and culture in which they acted.
Tara Kachgal
