Document Description: In the fall of 2014, the University-appointed independent investigator Kenneth Wainstein issued what became known as the Wainstein Report. This document appeared to be the final report on the University’s academic-athletic scandal, a controversy of alleged fraud and academic dishonesty involving several of the University’s athletic programs and academic departments over two decades. The Wainstein Report named the African and African-American Studies (AFAM) Department as the sole location of academic impropriety across the campus, where two individuals, the report argued, executed a master scheme to defraud 3,100 students of their education by allowing them to take “nonexistent classes” for academic credit. The department underwent deep scrutiny and condemnation as an academic field of study, though the “paper classes” had been arranged by only two individuals in the department and supported by numerous other staff members and administrators across the campus. In response to the accusations circling in national and local media publications which vilified the AFAM Department, RSSC organized a “Speaking Back to Wainstein Rally” in support of AFAM and the mentoring that Black students received from the faculty in the department. This photograph depicts Taylor Webber-Fields, Omololu Babatunde, and Blanche Brown, who organized the rally.
Organization: Real Silent Sam Coalition
Date: 10/29/2014
Document Type: Photograph
Creator: Harry Lynch
Document Collection: Raleigh News & Observer
Campus Space: Saunders Hall
Citation: Alexander, Jonathan. “UNC students rally in support of African-American Studies Department. The Raleigh News & Observer. 29 October 2014.
Document Description: In the fall of 2014, the University-appointed independent investigator Kenneth Wainstein issued what became known as the Wainstein Report. This document appeared to be the final report on the University’s academic-athletic scandal, a controversy of alleged fraud and academic dishonesty involving several of the University’s athletic programs and academic departments over two decades. The Wainstein Report named the African and African-American Studies (AFAM) Department as the sole location of academic impropriety across the campus, where two individuals, the report argued, executed a master scheme to defraud 3,100 students of their education by allowing them to take “nonexistent classes” for academic credit. The department underwent deep scrutiny and condemnation as an academic field of study, though the “paper classes” had been arranged by only two individuals in the department and supported by numerous other staff members and administrators across the campus. In response to the accusations circling in national and local media publications which vilified the AFAM Department, RSSC organized a “Speaking Back to Wainstein Rally” in support of AFAM and the mentoring that Black students received from the faculty in the department. This photograph depicts Taylor Webber-Fields, Omololu Babatunde, and Blanche Brown, who organized the rally.
Organization: Real Silent Sam Coalition
Date: 10/29/2014
Document Type: Photograph
Creator: Harry Lynch
Document Collection: Raleigh News & Observer
Campus Space: Saunders Hall
Citation: Alexander, Jonathan. “UNC students rally in support of African-American Studies Department. The Raleigh News & Observer. 29 October 2014.