The NCAA's failure to enforce academic integrity at the University of North Carolina

¶ … N.C.A.A DOING ENOUGH TO PROTECT ACADEMIC INTEGRITY?

Argument/Persuassion Essay on a Topic in the Field of Education

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is charged with the regulation of athletes, and all athletic programs in affiliated universities and colleges across the United States. The N.C.A.A. is the association charged with developing and implementing policies regarding athletics in colleges and universities. With such a role, the association is mandated to specify the minimum academic requirements for a student to participate in any sporting activity. The association claims that it aims at creating a balance between sport and education. The heart of the association's mission is student-athlete success in classroom and on the field. N.C.A.A. comes up with policies that provide a student-athlete with the opportunity to learn through sporting activities. This is a noble endeavor, but some institutions as presented in the article by Sarah Lyall (1) have misused it. In the article, one can see that the University of North Carolina denied some of its student-athletes the learning opportunity envisioned by the N.C.A.A. Sarah Lyall (1). By offering the students free grades, U.N.C. was doing the students a great disservice, which only served the interests of the university.

Amongest the top Ivy League schools U.N.C. is ranked in the top ten, and the university has been awarded numerous awards for its success in sports. The article written by Sarah Lyall (1) clearly shows that the University was determined to maintain its top ranking and success in sports. Understanding the stringent rules employed by the N.C.A.A., the administrators of the university saw it fit to develop fake classes that student-athletes would attend and receive A's and B's. No one should fault the school alone because the pressure that some of these student-athletes undergo is enormous, and they find it hard to keep up with schoolwork. All universities have minimum academic requirements that they should adhere to when selecting freshmen students. Gurney (43) posits the N.C.A.A. has specified the minimum academic requirements for universities selecting first-year student-athletes. Some of these requirements are followed, but since the high school test scores are low, the students find it difficult to cope with college academics (Gurney 42).

Eligibility of student-athletes to participate in sporting activities is dependent on their academic performance (LaForge and Hodge 223). The N.C.A.A. has stated severally that it is charged with developing the rules and policies. The individual university and colleges are responsible for enforcing the rules and policies. In the case of U.N.C., the people charged with running the athletic program opted to ignore the policies and fake the student's class attendance. The article has only pointed out that the students were faking African and Afro-American studies classes (Sarah Lyall 1), but further investigation is required to establish if this was the only class faked. The curriculum developed by the department was designed to assist struggling students to stay afloat and achieve grades for participating in sporting activities. The N.C.A.A. has noted that some schools are not meeting the required threshold and has made amendments to its eligibility requirements starting in 2016. The new requirements are aimed at enforcing the importance of school work and ensure that athletic programs encourage students to participate in education too.

According to Meyer (16), there is a need to impose more restrictions to legislate the sporting ethics. What has been lacking is integrity, and most colleges are more focused on the sporting success of the institution. The authors have further pointed out that it is not the responsibility of the academic/athletic advisors to keep the students eligible to play, but rather it is the student-athlete's responsibility. This misconception has led to the advisors colluding with lecturers or administrators to develop fake classes that enable the student-athletes to remain eligible to play. The Conspiracy did not occur once, but rather has been taking place for the past eighteen years. This manifests the rot in the college and the urgent need for the N.C.A.A. To implement rigorous rules. The university has boasted continuously of its academic and sporting prowess, which it is now emerging were all faked to preserve the university's image. The first stance taken by the N.C.A.A. demonstrated that it did little to protect the academic integrity of students and universities.

The fake classes were not only aimed at student-athletes because they accounted for only 47.6% of the enrolled students. According to Ms. Crowder the university's administrator for the African studies department, she begun the program to assist struggling students (Sarah Lyall 1). The administrator was not only helping student-athletes, but also all struggling students in the university. Upon the retirement of Ms. Crowder, the professor in charge of the classes created an additional six bogus courses. Since the classes were bogus, the academic support program counselors were able to negotiate with the administrator regarding the grades to assign specific students. The grades were aimed at ensuring the specific student was able to remain eligible for sports academically. With such revelations, anyone can see there is a need for the N.C.A.A. To establish rules that would allow the association to visit and confirm the classes taken by students. To promote academic integrity, the N.C.A.A. should create harsher penalties for schools and student-athletes who break the rules (Meyer 15). Currently, there are punitive actions that the association takes against schools like eliminating a team's championship participation bans, financial aid, and N.C.A.A. membership right restrictions.

The actions taken by the N.C.A.A. against schools that failed to follow its guidelines were not enough to discourage the University of North Carolina. It is disappointing that the counselors had convened a meeting and actually done a presentation portraying the importance of the fake classes. The counselors were only interested in the performance of the school in the field. The article points out that the papers presented by the students were woefully bad. The experts who assessed the papers proved that the papers were highly plagiarized, and content is directly taken from the sources (Sarah Lyall 1). In order to ensure that such cases do not arise again, the N.C.A.A. should investigate and have independent experts look into the papers submitted by student-athletes. The association should also post its representatives in all the schools to oversee the performance of student-athletes (LaForge and Hodge 232). Promoting academic integrity is vital for the future success of the student-athlete.