CHAPEL HILL, N.C. ― The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is firing two employees and barring a former associate dean from leadership positions after an investigation described their roles in the school’s academic fraud scandal, the school said Thursday.
The moves mean seven people have been fired, resigned or disciplined since former U.S. Justice Department official Kenneth Wainstein released a report in October 2014 describing a pattern of fake classes that allowed 3,100 athletes and other students to earn artificially high grades from 1993 to 2011. The sham courses were solely in the African studies department, but people around campus knew of them and said nothing, the report said.
Three other UNC employees were cleared, the university said.
The moves came after personnel reviews considering whether the employees helped allow fake courses, directed students to them, or were in a position to know about the wrongdoing and failed to stop it.
The school said Brent Blanton, associate director of the Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes, was fired effective Thursday. Blanton was a women’s soccer academic counselor.
Also fired Thursday was Travis Gore, an administrative assistant in the Department of African, African American and Diaspora Studies.
Roberta Owen, professor of dramatic art and former senior associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, was permanently barred from any leadership responsibilities.
