Posted on March 1, 2013

UNC Holds Unannounced Inspections of Classes to Make Sure They Exist

Robby Soave, Daily Caller, February 28, 2013

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will conduct unannounced inspections of classes to confirm that they exist, following revelations about decades of fraudulent classes involving student athletes and the African-American studies department.

With an outside review board scheduled to visit the campus in the spring, UNC administrators are determined to make sure all scheduled classes are meeting at their appointed times, and featuring real conversations between instructors and students. Administrators have even considered taking pictures while classes are in session to obtain proof of existence.

In the College of Arts and Sciences, administrators visited a random 187 out of 2,300 class meetings. If a classroom had windows, the inspector only needed to peek in and make sure that an appropriate number of students were engaged with an in-the-flesh instructor.

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But not everyone is enjoying the inspections. One professor called them “Orwellian.”

{snip} Recent investigations have uncovered years of fraud in the African-American studies department, including phantom classes that never met, and others where every student received an “A.” About half the students enrolled in such classes were student athletes, a report found.