Julius Nyang'oro, the former UNC professor at the center of the academic fraud case that's been exposed for three years at the school, got a win on Thursday.
Nyang'oro was facing a felony charge of "obtaining property by false pretenses" from the state, but that charge was dismissed, according to multiple reports. Orange County DA Jim Woodall released the verdict, giving Nyang'oro relief from any local prosecution. Nyang'oro reportedly has been helping authorities in other investigations; this involvement reportedly led to his release from prosecution in his primary case.
His reputation remains stained, however. Nyang'oro, who resigned from UNC in 2011, is tied to phony courses and grades in the Afro and African-American (AFAM) Studies department at UNC. Many former football and basketball players took supposed no-show classes. Nyang'oro was the head of AFAM department for almost a decade and a half. Reports and allegations have shown Nyang'oro was party to nefarious grade-giving, and emails uncovered have shown he was a beneficiary to perks at UNC athletic events, like watching football games from the sideline.
But his most interesting comments have to do with Wayne Walden, a character whose name popped up in this scandal two years ago. From Forde’s story:
“When Roy Williams came here from Kansas, he brought with him the team academic counselor who had served him so well at Kansas: Wayne Walden,” Smith wrote. “He regarded Walden as such a vital contributor to the good fortunes of his teams that he was practically moved to tears when Walden departed in 2009. Walden knew every detail about the academic lives of those players; he had to. He registered them for their courses, for crying out loud. [And that means he got on the phone with the Department of African and Afro-American Studies and he put them in paper classes.] Walden also spoke with Williams every day; he had to. Williams’ claim that he had no earthly idea that his players were floating along on paper classes – and that he never would have guessed that one of his stars was enrolled in four no-show classes in the spring of 2005 – is nothing more than a confidence trick. He’s counting on the customary journalistic favoritism, and journalists’ amazing lack of curiosity, to enable him to tell this whopper and walk away with his aura intact. We’ll see if that works.”
Two years ago, The Big Lead took a look at Walden and his connection with Roy Williams at Kansas and North Carolina. Walden left in 2009, a year before the academic scandal truly erupted.
This article from nbcsports.com. It looks like the only school on the planet where the head football coach and the head basketball coach don't know what in the hell is going on is at North Carolina.