New Report Implicates UNC's Athletics Department In Fake Classes Scandal

The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill athletics department knew about and encouraged fake classes and grade manipulation for the school's athletes, according to a new report released Wednesday.

A previous report released in 2012 revealed a long history at UNC of classes in the Department of Afro and African-American Studies that never met, as well as a culture of changing and improving grades. These classes were heavily populated by student athletes.

The 2012 report cleared the UNC athletics department of any involvement in the athletes' grade inflation.

This no longer seems to be the case. According to The News & Observer, Wednesday's report "found a new culprit: the Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes ... The report describes a fairly broad group of academic and athletic officials who knew about athletes getting better grades in classes that only required papers, yet taking little or no action."

Additionally, student newspaper The Daily Tar Heel reports, the new report "found clear evidence that academic counselors from the football, men's basketball and women's basketball teams asked for players to be enrolled in bogus independent study classes in order for them to be eligible."

The more recent investigation was led by Kenneth Wainstein, a former U.S. Justice Department official. Wainstein reportedly had an unprecedented level of access to material related to the UNC scandal, as well as the cooperation of former African studies chairman Julius Nyang'oro and department administrator Deborah Crowder.