Broadcast by: Drew Kurzman; Written by: Jessica Coates; Infographic by: Emily Helton
Greg McKenzie’s fondest memories of UNC are from Saturday football games.
“The football games were always mediocre,” he said. “But the shared experiences with people you enjoyed being with…it was the most fun thing you could do.”
McKenzie attended UNC from 1976-80, a time when the football program was not at its strongest.
But times have changed.
In 1997, the UNC football, men’s basketball and women’s soccer teams were all doing so well that Nike offered them the biggest endorsement deal the college athletic world had ever seen — $11 million. And, by 2001, that endorsement deal had gone up to $28.3 million.
Those numbers concern people like Jay Smith.
“The university leaders here and elsewhere…just want to continue to pretend that this is just an extracurricular activity like any other…and not all that important to the institution,” he said. “But, in fact, it’s awfully important.”
Smith, who has been a history professor at UNC since 1990, has been a vocal critic of the university since 2011, when it was revealed that a simple NCAA infraction in 2010 – giving special perks to UNC football player Marvin Austin – was actually just a symptom of a larger athletic and academic scandal within the university.
But, even with that knowledge of the university’s questionable actions, Smith says he would still be happy if his kids chose UNC for college.
“It’s not necessarily the optimal place to be a student today, not number one,” Smith said. “But it’s still a very good place and that’s obvious to everybody.”
Smith is not alone in feeling this way. In the last five years, UNC admission rates have continued to increase, with the number of first-year undergraduate applications increasing by 25 percent since 2010.
Greg McKenzie admits that the scandal was embarrassing to him, and that he was disappointed by the administration’s lack of oversight of the African and Afro-American Studies department.
But, when his son Jack was looking at schools to apply to, Greg still encouraged him to consider attending his alma mater.
“I can honestly say that I had no concerns about Carolina as an institution because…it seemed like it was limited to this academic program,” Greg said. “I still believe the university acts with integrity.”
For Jack, his family’s legacy of attending UNC – his maternal grandfather also attended the school in the 1950s – gave him confidence in the strength of the school’s reputation. And, although he ended up attending North Carolina State University, he said it was only because they offered him a full-ride scholarship.
“That was basically the only thing that kept me from Carolina,” Jack said. “I’d been raised to think that it was a good school, and – even though the scandal didn’t make me think better of it – I still believe it’s a great institution.”
Lois Boynton, who has taught public relations in the UNC School of Media and Journalism since 2001, says that this sort of mentality is not surprising.
“It’s partially because the school has a well to draw from, students who know the university through reputation or because their parents went here,” she said.
She also said that the fact that the university has taken some actions to eliminate phony classes gives students and their parents the impression that the school is cleaning up its act.
“(Chancellor Folt) is the one who stood up and said, ‘Here’s the deal,’” Boynton said. “Even though (the scandal) wasn’t on her watch, she was willing to stand up and be the presence of the university and begin the conversations.”
Folt became chancellor in 2013, almost 20 years after Julius Nyang’oro, the primary architect of the fraudulent classes, took control of the African and Afro-American Studies department. Under his tenure, which lasted from 1993 until 2011, the department became a refuge for student-athletes who needed help maintaining their academic eligibility. With the help of his assistant, Debby Crowder, Nyang’oro administered more than 180 fake classes to 3,100 students, only some of whom were student-athletes.
“The NCAA…leveled some pretty serious accusations against the institution, accusing it of…failing to monitor the academic experiences of athletes,” Smith said.
But Smith said that, although UNC’s methods of helping athletes cut corners was unique, the basic practice of cutting corners at universities to maintain athletic eligibility is not.
“They all have to recruit among the same pool of athletes and they all want the best athletes they can get, which means they’re going to cut corners academically to get them through the door,” he said. “I would be surprised to find a single clean big-time university.”
This is one of the reasons that Greg McKenzie, in spite of his disappointment, was still willing to let his son attend UNC.
“This kind of thing is just so common place, you know?” he said. “People cheat, people cut corners. Our society’s moral compass is out of kilter. I can’t honestly say that I would have wanted UNC to get hit with harder penalties but, if they had, I would not have said that it was unfair.”
Infographic detailing the impact the academic scandal had on the university.
