A major academic scandal has erupted at Winston-Salem State University. According to three former professors, administrators at the the Historically Black University “routinely increase the final grades of African-American students in order to raise the school’s standing.”
This promises to make the African and African-American Studies scandal at UNC-Chapel Hill look like small potatoes, since, according to this Campus Reform post, the practice is widespread and ongoing. It is hard to imagine it occurred without complicity by some higher levels of the administration. The question remains whether the North Carolina press will pick up on it and give it the sort of scrutiny such blatant corruption deserves, or whether they will give it a kid gloves approach.
Furthermore, the question remains whether these practices are commonplace throughout the UNC system. And whether such illegal practices are a possible unintended consequence of the system’s focus on graduation rates instead of admissions standards.
This story grew out of one former professor’s lawsuit against WSSU, in which she received damages for discrimination because she was white. Sounds like something is really wrong out there at Winston-Salem State.
