University President Teresa Sullivan commissioned a seven-member task force last month to examine the academic integrity of the University’s athletics department and ensure student-athletes continue to meet academic standards and to improve their overall academic experiences.
Sullivan said the task force will review whether current academic procedures and practices are providing student-athletes with high quality education.
“I believe that we have a good system in place for ensuring academic integrity in athletics, yet even good systems experience failures in implementation,” Sullivan said in a press release. “The task force is charged with examining our system for such issues and, if appropriate, making recommendations for change.”
The creation of this task force comes on the heels of recent reports of academic fraud among athletic departments at universities around the nation, such as the “paper classes” at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
Education Prof. Carolyn Callahan, the faculty representative of the Atlantic Coast Conference and the National Collegiate Athletics Association, said while academic misconduct — and potentially fraud — among student athletes is a concern, the group will focus on observing and improving the academic experience of student-athletes.
“Certainly academic misconduct has been much discussed in the wake of the UNC situation and the issues at other institutions,” Callahan said. “But that area will be included as one aspect of task force deliberations as part of ensuring we are providing excellent and genuine academic experiences.”
Callahan said the NCAA and ACC do not have established procedures to monitor potential academic misconduct by universities registered with the conferences. Nevertheless, she said, both organizations are taking action to prevent such situations from occurring.
“The new Committee on Academics of the NCAA is working on defining academic misconduct more clearly and on sanctions for academic misconduct,” Callahan said. “As new rules and regulations are developed the process will likely be one of investigation of reports of misconduct rather than a specific, regular monitoring.”
Members of the new University task force will review University, ACC and NCAA policies. They will also discuss practices with academic advisors, past and present student-athletes and various faculty members, preemptively examining the University’s academic compliance with the two conferences.
“The examination of whether athletes receive the education they expected when they were recruited, whether they have access to courses and majors that provide a high quality education that other students can access, [and] whether they have the appropriate support in achieving academic goals will be among the areas examined,” Callahan said.
No direct investigations have been made into academic integrity among student-athletes at the University, but a 2001 report on University athletics — called the “2020 Task Force on Athletics” — examined academic issues and made recommendations to maximize the academic experience of student-athletes.
Ultimately, the “2020 Task Force” implemented stronger communication between student- athletes and academic advisors and faculty. It also suggested a higher number of incoming first-year student-athletes attend the University’s Transition Program, which allows student-athletes to adapt to the rigorous academic environment prior to their first semesters.
The newly established task force is expected to have a report ready by June 30.
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