UNC-Chapel Hill to learn accreditation status next month
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) -- The University of North Carolina will learn next month where it stands with the accreditation agency Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) in wake of the damaging Wainstein report on academic fraud.
SACS President Dr. Belle Wheelan told ABC11 on Thursday, "the board decisions will be made public the afternoon of June 11."
SACS first put the university on notice in 2011 when claims of academic impropriety first surfaced, and SACS said last fall the agency considered the findings of Kenneth Wainstein as a new issue.
The agency says UNC was not diligent in providing information about the academic scandal, and that two UNC employees withheld information about the fraud.
SACS reviewed the Wainstein report and notified UNC in November of 18 accreditation standards which the university may have violated. The most damaging was a lack of "institutional integrity."
In a 224-page response, UNC officials asked the agency to find them in compliance, noting numerous changes that have been made in the wake of the scandal.
Possible punishment from the SACS board includes probation or stripping UNC of its accreditation.
Click here to read UNC's full response to the SACS accreditation warning.
Click here to read the full Wainstein Report (.PDF)
