The biggest higher education news this week was the release of the report on the UNC athletic/academic scandal by Kenneth Wainstein. In today’s Pope Center piece, Jane Shaw looks at the report and also the bigger question: will the university take the measures necessary to prevent any repetition of academic scams that helped top athletes stay eligible to play (and non-athletes to get some easy credits)? This has been a gigantic embarrassment for UNC, but will the administration now just take cosmetic steps and hope that is will be soon forgotten? The incentive for winning basketball and football teams remains strong and it seems to me that without steady vigilance, the university will slowly slide back into creative ways of admitting athletes who are not capable of doing anything approaching college-level work and keeping them eligible with fluffy courses.

Chancellor Carol Folt’s statement ‘I actually believe that academics and athletics can coexist” is undoubtedly true. The problem, of course, is that it’s very hard for winning teams in the two big sports and academic rigor to coexist. Without vigilant oversight from the chancellor, it won’t be many years before the athletic tail is again wagging the academic dog.