Kenneth Wainstein, the outside investigator retained by UNC for a review of their academics, presented an update to the Board of Governors Friday.
Wainstein, a former top official in the Department of Justice, said a lot of progress has been made over the past four to five months, but will not share any of his findings until the investigation is complete. He said he hopes to have the report out sometime in the fall.
He said he and his team have reviewed 1.5 million emails, thousands of student records including transcripts and have interviewed more than 80 people — some more than once. He said they have reviewed records going back as far as the 1980s.
"We can't do any of this without the assistance of the University," Wainstein said. "I want to say that to date the University has been tremendously cooperative."
He stressed his team is completely independent from the University.
"It's important for everyone to recognize that the University is not part of our investigative team," he said.
He said former investigations did not have access to some of the most critical information, mentioning Deborah Crowder, a former administrator in the former African-American and Afro Studies department.
Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall said in March Crowder would not be criminally charged in connection to the department's scandal because of her cooperation in investigations by the SBI and Wainstein.
Bill Thomas, the attorney for Julius Nyang'oro, the former chairman of the renamed African and Afro-American Studies department, said his client would also cooperate with the investigation led by Wainstein, the first time Nyang'oro has agreed to cooperative with any investigation.
