UNC Admissions officer pressured to admit athletes

[Cane2]

A former admissions director said she felt pressured into admitting student-athletes who she felt were not academically qualified to attend the school at the University of North Carolina, according to a report in the Raleigh News & Observer.

Former graduate school admissions director Cheryl Thomas told the News & Observer that roughly once per year, the school's athletic department would ask her to "find a place" for a prospective athlete.

The report specifically cites the admittance of one such athlete, former North Carolina football player Michael Waddell, who had "a low grade point average, no entrance exam score and was months past the [admissions] deadline." In 2003, admission into a North Carolina graduate program was nonetheless sought for Waddell by an athletic official, according to the report.

University correspondence provided to the newspaper by Thomas reportedly indicated that Waddell skipped classes and exams as a graduate student, and flunked out with numerous "F" grades. Thomas advised her superiors Waddell should not be admitted, she told the News & Observer.

• Ex-UNC guard Rashad McCants says he took bogus classes while in school

The request to admit Waddell reportedly passed through a provost as well as then-dean Linda Dykstra, who admitted the cornerback and kick returner.

From the News & Observer report:

Thomas said her unwillingness to toe the line over such admissions, along with other unrelated management concerns, put her at odds with her supervisors. She resigned in 2010 after nearly 22 years as a university employee.

She said admitting unqualified athletes to highly competitive graduate school programs so they can continue playing is fundamentally wrong. UNC’s graduate school typically rejects about two-thirds of the roughly 15,000 students who apply each year.

“You can’t turn down thousands of people and say yes to one just so he can play basketball,” she said.

The report comes just months after a former federal prosecutor appointed by the university released a report detailing how a lack of academic oversight at North Carolina allowed for the formation of several "paper classes" in which students received high grades in exchange for minimal work.

A separate News & Observer report from 2014 found that players from the 2005 North Carolina national championship team took dozens of 'bogus' classes.

Waddell, UNC basketball coach Roy Williams and a former athletic department official declined comment for the story.

 

[Cane2]

UM admin tho force UM Admissions to reject athletes or outright delay their admissions to the University of Miami until they jump through all types of hoops.

Such an irony that Admin at the U, on the other hand, care so much more for their academical prestige, that Football and other sports are not prioritized. This is even so as Football and the glory it brought to Coral Gables via athletic championships was the principal cause why UM suddenly blew up as an elite academic institution.

 

[Gatorhater]

How many times do top schools admit loser sons and daughters of rich and powerful people who do not deserve admissions. Sometimes those children end up becoming President of USA. How many times do under-qualified applicants get admitted for the sake of "diversity"? Sometime those people also become President of the USA. Okay, we should let unqualified people into top schools except for sports -- they do a lot less damage that way.

 

[gogeta4]

The funny and ironic part is that UM is brownnosing and kissing up to this same school's president and wanting to be part of the NCarolina/acc group so bad...with their snobby azzes...when their whole "academic prestige" is a scam.

We're clueless.lol
we're striving to be WAKE FOREST. While UNC are fluffing their dumb *** athletes in every sport so they can play...keep in mind UNC still is considered a better university than us..even that this scam has been known since Julius Peppers was there

 

[ABear]

if you want to be good in sports -- this is the sort of thing you have to do.

if admissions folks want to ***** about it --> fire them.

 

[cane305]

y'all cats got proof that this is going on?

All i know is that Pete swore up and down Gray wouldn't qualify but the man enrolled on time.

 

[djciombor]

UM admin tho force UM Admissions to reject athletes or outright delay their admissions to the University of Miami until they jump through all types of hoops.

Such an irony that Admin at the U, on the other hand, care so much more for their academical prestige, that Football and other sports are not prioritized. This is even so as Football and the glory it brought to Coral Gables via athletic championships was the principal cause why UM suddenly blew up as an elite academic institution.

Yeah, this part is just patently false.

 

[MarshallCane]

UNC doesn't have bagmen like the SEC. You think the Bama admissions officer would talk? **** nah.. Money talks.. UNC wasn't doing it right.

 

[MedleyCane]

A former admissions director said she felt pressured into admitting student-athletes who she felt were not academically qualified to attend the school at the University of North Carolina, according to a report in the Raleigh News & Observer.

Former graduate school admissions director Cheryl Thomas told the News & Observer that roughly once per year, the school's athletic department would ask her to "find a place" for a prospective athlete.

The report specifically cites the admittance of one such athlete, former North Carolina football player Michael Waddell, who had "a low grade point average, no entrance exam score and was months past the [admissions] deadline." In 2003, admission into a North Carolina graduate program was nonetheless sought for Waddell by an athletic official, according to the report.

University correspondence provided to the newspaper by Thomas reportedly indicated that Waddell skipped classes and exams as a graduate student, and flunked out with numerous "F" grades. Thomas advised her superiors Waddell should not be admitted, she told the News & Observer.

• Ex-UNC guard Rashad McCants says he took bogus classes while in school

The request to admit Waddell reportedly passed through a provost as well as then-dean Linda Dykstra, who admitted the cornerback and kick returner.

From the News & Observer report:

Thomas said her unwillingness to toe the line over such admissions, along with other unrelated management concerns, put her at odds with her supervisors. She resigned in 2010 after nearly 22 years as a university employee.

She said admitting unqualified athletes to highly competitive graduate school programs so they can continue playing is fundamentally wrong. UNC’s graduate school typically rejects about two-thirds of the roughly 15,000 students who apply each year.

“You can’t turn down thousands of people and say yes to one just so he can play basketball,” she said.

The report comes just months after a former federal prosecutor appointed by the university released a report detailing how a lack of academic oversight at North Carolina allowed for the formation of several "paper classes" in which students received high grades in exchange for minimal work.

A separate News & Observer report from 2014 found that players from the 2005 North Carolina national championship team took dozens of 'bogus' classes.

Waddell, UNC basketball coach Roy Williams and a former athletic department official declined comment for the story.

What does this have to do with UM football?
Thread title is grossly misleading.
This board.....

 

[Klamalama]

If we can hire a totally unqualified and incompetent CORCH, then why can't we admit unqualified players? If we can dismiss student atheletes for non-performance, why can't we get rid of non-performing: corches; athletic directors; university presidents; members of the Board Of Garbage?

Inquiring minds need to know!

 

[King Slayer]

We got Brady and Gray in here. Also Joe Brown and Grimsley who claimed that grades were the reasons they were not recruited.

 

[lauderdaleballer]

We got Brady and Gray in here. Also Joe Brown and Grimsley who claimed that grades were the reasons they were not recruited.

+1000000
A few of our players were known to be struggling academically but somehow they were admitted right on time. We make exceptions too. We just haven't reaped the benefits.

 

[the storm]

FORMER Admissions Director - was she fired or did she leave on her own when the SHTF? Widespread fraud going on at UNC on all levels. Will be interesting to see the penalty in the end.

 

[dycane]

We got Brady and Gray in here. Also Joe Brown and Grimsley who claimed that grades were the reasons they were not recruited.

+1000000
A few of our players were known to be struggling academically but somehow they were admitted right on time. We make exceptions too. We just haven't reaped the benefits.

The article is about a graduate school admissions officer. Graduate school is more competitive. There are less available spots. The acceptance criteria are more stringent. This kid had an awful GPA while an undergraduate. He did not apply in time. In fact, he didn't even take the GRE. Sure, we make exceptions, but the circumstance cited in the article is a little different. I'm pretty sure we've never accepted a kid who did not take the SAT or ACT.

 

[Cane2]

"we've never accepted a kid who did not take the SAT or ACT." That's not true. Every college can do "special admits". WVU and Marshall, LSU, Bama, Georgia Tech, UNC all do it. The issue is who are willing to accept all the best ballas to win with them. We have done this before Golden, Frank Gore was our most famous "special admit", but Golden does this only out desperation after he fails out on NSD.

At Alabama, 19 football players got in as part of a special admissions, Crimson Tide athletes were still more than 43 times more likely to benefit from such exemptions, and Alabama coach Nick Saban offered no apologies.

"Some people have ability and they have work ethic and really never get an opportunity," he said. "I am really pleased and happy with the job that we do and how we manage our students here, and the responsibility and accountability they have toward academics and the success that they've had in academics."

Back when Steve Spurrier had just left the Washington Redskins, University of South Carolina's All-American linebacker Eric Norwood graduated early with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice. Norwood was twice denied admission to South Carolina before being accepted as a special admit. The school softened special admission standards in 2007 after coach Spurrier threatened to quit when two recruits who met NCAA eligibility requirements were turned down.

"When I got here I applied myself," Norwood said. "I had great support from the academic staff, great support from the football staff. And my teammates, they held me accountable."

Randy Shannon became our coach because then-Rutgers Head Coach Greg Schiano threatened to turn down the offered UM head coaching job if UM Prez Donna Shalala would not lower the (overt) strict admissions requirements for incoming recruits.

Well, unlike USCe, UM did not acquiesce to Coach Schianno threat and they subsequently hired Shannon. Shannon went to have great results in graduating virtually all of his UM players while keeping them off the police blotter.

South Carolina athletic director Eric Hyman dismissed critics who call special admissions simply a way to land athletes.

"It's also a way to get better artists, better musicians," he said. "It's not all athletes. If you graduate, if your people are successful, there's going to be more flexibility. And that's what we've done."

 

[HurricaneU]

Stop pretending it has anything to do with academics and compensate them like the professionals they are and you won't have to undergo these childish and insulting academic gymnastics all in order to justify the scam that has become NCAA athletics.

 

[Cane2]

Your position of compensating athletes to engage in college sports is noteworthy. Having said that, that point has fundamentally nothing to do with entrance requirements that enable a student athlete to begin and matriculate in college for four years while participating in college athletics.

 

[Cane Dynasty]

"we've never accepted a kid who did not take the SAT or ACT." That's not true. Every college can do "special admits". WVU and Marshall, LSU, Bama, Georgia Tech, UNC all do it. The issue is who are willing to accept all the best ballas to win with them. We have done this before Golden, Frank Gore was our most famous "special admit", but Golden does this only out desperation after he fails out on NSD.

At Alabama, 19 football players got in as part of a special admissions, Crimson Tide athletes were still more than 43 times more likely to benefit from such exemptions, and Alabama coach Nick Saban offered no apologies.

"Some people have ability and they have work ethic and really never get an opportunity," he said. "I am really pleased and happy with the job that we do and how we manage our students here, and the responsibility and accountability they have toward academics and the success that they've had in academics."

Back when Steve Spurrier had just left the Washington Redskins, University of South Carolina's All-American linebacker Eric Norwood graduated early with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice. Norwood was twice denied admission to South Carolina before being accepted as a special admit. The school softened special admission standards in 2007 after coach Spurrier threatened to quit when two recruits who met NCAA eligibility requirements were turned down.

"When I got here I applied myself," Norwood said. "I had great support from the academic staff, great support from the football staff. And my teammates, they held me accountable."

Randy Shannon became our coach because then-Rutgers Head Coach Greg Schiano threatened to turn down the offered UM head coaching job if UM Prez Donna Shalala would not lower the (overt) strict admissions requirements for incoming recruits.

Well, unlike USCe, UM did not acquiesce to Coach Schianno threat and they subsequently hired Shannon. Shannon went to have great results in graduating virtually all of his UM players while keeping them off the police blotter.

South Carolina athletic director Eric Hyman dismissed critics who call special admissions simply a way to land athletes.

"It's also a way to get better artists, better musicians," he said. "It's not all athletes. If you graduate, if your people are successful, there's going to be more flexibility. And that's what we've done."

great work! REPPED!