UNC leaders address changes following academic scandal
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) -- UNC campus leaders are focusing on reforms in the wake of the academic scandal. Some major changes are already underway.
From advising student athletes to keeping a check on faculty and staff, the state's flagship school is trying to recover from the academic scandal that's claimed jobs and reputations.
"We need to do everything possible to make sure nothing like this can happen again," said Provost James Dean to the Board of Trustees University Affairs Committee.
Dean updated the committee on reforms featured on a campus website that have been in place since the onset of the scandal. There are new changes including monitoring student athletes with jobs.
"There has to be close monitoring to make sure the job is as it says and to make sure the student athlete is getting paid," Dean explained.
The reforms are meant to restore UNC's reputation as a top university amid two outside probes. The NCAA is investigating along with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, an accrediting group that recently sent the university a warning letter.
The academic scandal has claimed its share of casualties since the onset of the initial 2010 NCAA investigation.
Former football coach Butch Davis was fired along with his assistant coach John Blake.
Resignations from the top to the bottom would soon follow from former Chancellor Holden Thorp to UNC whistleblower Mary Willingham. University Counsel Leslie Strohm recently announced her resignation.
Both former athletic director Dick Baddour and former AFAM chair Julius Nyangoro would retire long before the final fallout of the Wainstein investigative report.
At least nine people are still facing disciplinary action for their role in the scandal, including former academic counselor turned faculty leader Jan Boxill, and former counselors Jaimie Lee and Beth Bridger.
The man trying to stay above the fray amid another NCAA probe is Roy Williams. ABC11 caught up with Williams at the Raleigh Sports Club luncheon on Wednesday. We asked whether he was concerned for his own job security in the aftermath of the academic scandal.
He assured the crowd that came to hear him speak that he's with UNC for the long haul.
"Six to ten years," Williams declared. "Regardless of what some people in the media say, I hope I last that long. And if I do last that long, and when I quit, I can assure you there will be no bigger basketball fan than Roy Williams."
