UNC Academic Scandal: Fraud Charges Dropped Against Former AFAM Director Julius Nyang'oro for Cooperation

The Orange County District Attorney's office has decided to drop the fraud charges against Julius Nyang'oro, a former academic administrator in the African American Studies (AFAM) dept. at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill.

According to WRAL, Jim Woodall, Orange County D.A., said he was dropping the charges due to Nyang'oro's cooperation with an investigation at the school. A grand jury previously indicted Nyang'oro for wrongfully accepting payment in exchange for teaching a false summer school course.

"Julius Nyang'oro has cooperated with the SBI criminal investigation and has agreed to continue cooperating with the district attorney's office," Woodall said in a statement Thursday. "Nyang'oro has also agreed to cooperate fully and completely with the independent (non-criminal) investigation being conducted by Kenneth Wainstein into athletic and academic issues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill."

The class Nyang'oro held was attended by football and basketball players at UNC - Chapel Hill and rarely met if at all. The course was an independent study class that only required on paper for a final grade.

Mary Willingham, a former UNC - Chapel Hill reading specialist, brought forward allegations that "paper classes" were widespread within the AFAM dept. She has publicly stated these classes are meant to keep football and basketball players academically eligible to play on their athletic teams. Most recently, she filed a lawsuit against the school for retaliating against her and creating a hostile work environment before she quit.

The NCAA has also reopened an investigation it began in 2011 into related allegations. In 2012 the NCAA penalized the UNC - Chapel Hill football team with a postseason ban and a loss of scholarships for academic fraud and impermissible benefits.

"If other information becomes available, that some crimes were committed, we'll look into that," Woodall told WRAL. "I felt it was more important to get to the bottom of the overall academic scandal versus pursuing a single criminal charge against a man who didn't have a record, who, if convicted would've been put on probation, the money was already paid back."