North Carolina has received a notice of allegations from the NCAA connected to the school’s academic fraud scandal.
In a statement Friday, Chancellor Carol Folt and athletic director Bubba Cunningham said UNC is reviewing the “lengthy” notice and will release it publicly “as soon as possible” after redactions to comply with privacy laws.
“We take these allegations very seriously, and we will carefully evaluate them to respond within the NCAA’s 90-day deadline,” they said.
The statement did not reveal the contents of the document, which the NCAA uses to specify rules violations. It will ultimately lead to a hearing for the school with the infractions committee, which would then issue a ruling and any potential sanctions within a time frame of weeks to months.
Inside Carolina first reported the arrival of the document. NCAA spokeswoman Emily James said in an email that the organization wouldn’t comment about the case.
The NCAA reopened a probe into academic misconduct last summer connected to the formerly named African and Afro-American Studies (AFAM) department. The focus was courses that were often treated as independent studies that required no class time and one or two research papers.
An eight-month investigation conducted by former U.S. Justice Department official Kenneth Wainstein stated that an office administrator—not a faculty member—typically handed out assignments then high grades after only a scan of the work.
