UNC Tolerated Cheating, Says Insider Mary Willingham

UNC Insider Claims Athlete Cheating Tolerated
CHAPEL HILL, NC - JANUARY 8: The North Carolina Tar Heel's mascot is held in the air by fans during the game against the Davidson Wildcats at Dean E. Smith Center on January 8, 2003 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The Tar Heels won 79-64. (Photo by Craig Jones/Getty Images)
CHAPEL HILL, NC - JANUARY 8: The North Carolina Tar Heel's mascot is held in the air by fans during the game against the Davidson Wildcats at Dean E. Smith Center on January 8, 2003 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The Tar Heels won 79-64. (Photo by Craig Jones/Getty Images)

As a reading specialist at UNC-Chapel Hill, Mary Willingham met athletes who told her they had never read a book and didn’t know what a paragraph was. She said she saw diagnostic tests that showed they were unable to do college-level work.

But many of those athletes stayed eligible to play sports, she said, because the academic support system provided improper help and tolerated plagiarism. When she raised questions or made an objection to what she saw as cheating, she said, she saw no one take her concerns seriously.

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