Free Republic

North Carolina chancellor Holden Thorp wants his university to finally be able to move on from the academic scandal that continues to hover over its Afro and African-American Studies and athletics departments. To do so, the school has enlisted a former governor and an outside consulting firm to probe whether the problems go any deeper, or farther back in time. Thorp announced Thursday that former North Carolina governor James G. Martin will lead an independent review of any additional academic irregularities that may have occurred before 2007.

A nine-month internal investigation into the Department of African and Afro-American Studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill revealed unauthorized grades, forged signatures and other irregularities according to a 10-page report released Friday. ... According to the report, which covered courses from the start of the summer session in 2007 to the end of the summer session in 2011, at least 45 courses taught by Nyang’oro were “found to be aberrant” – or atypical. The courses have evidence of work and grades, but no indication that a professor taught or communicated with the students or even reviewed...

College students were glued to their television sets on April 16, 2007 when news broke of the Virginia Tech shootings. And with a tragedy that hits to close to home, we think, “Was there anything we could have done to stop this?” Well, no.  But, there are ways that we can help to prepare for future situations and maybe even save a few lives.At UNC Charlotte, the Campus Police and Public Safety Department are taking measuring to make sure their squad is prepared to match any dangerous encounters on its campus.  So, in 2010 the first UNC Charlotte Special Weapons...

Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr. told a longtime friend that Eve Carson begged for her life and asked Lovette to pray with her just before he shot her five times with a handgun, according to the testimony of the friend Tuesday in Orange County Criminal Superior Court. Read more: The Herald-Sun - Carson asked Lovette to pray with her

Finally a story posted about Lacrosse that had nothing to do with death, arrests, or rape! With Stony Brook's loss last week to Hartford, I wasn't too interested in who would win the NCAA LAX championship. As I was watching the quarter-final game between Maryland and UNC, there was a play that was just unbelievable. I was wondering what the heck was going on. Everybody was fooled, including the cameramen.

The Department of Public Safety has determined that the alleged aggravated assault reported to campus Monday did not occur, officials said. Quinn Matney, a freshman, said Monday that a man grabbed his wrist and burned him early in the morning April 4 on the Craige Residence Hall footbridge. Because his report was found to be false, the University will not report it as a hate crime, officials said. Officials have declined to comment on the motive behind Matney’s false account. In an email, UNC spokesman Mike McFarland said charges could be pending for Matney. “The only other thing I can...

Chapel Hill, N.C. — The man behind a proposed mosque near Ground Zero in New York spoke at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Wednesday night. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf delivered the 2011 Weil Lecture on American Citizenship. During the lecture, he talked about the importance of Americans engaging with the Muslim community. He said the mosque is one way to help do that. "I'm committed to bridging relations between the country that I love and the religion that I love," Abdul Rauf said in front of a packed auditorium. Abdul Rauf, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was...

Shut down a UNC campus?By Eric Ferreri - Staff writer Modified Thu, Nov 04, 2010 02:50 PM File this under "Worst Case Scenario." UNC President Erskine Bowles is broaching something many would surely view unthinkable: If budget cuts continue at higher levels than now anticipated, might an entire public university campus be shut down? "If you have 20 percent budget cuts, you'll have to think about closing down campuses," Bowles told members of the UNC system's Board of Governors today. "Period." That was the second time this morning Bowles broached that notion - an extreme one, no doubt, but one...

I will never forget the first time I paid a player. There are moments you will always remember, like your first kiss or your first home run or the day you met your wife. For me, the first time I broke an NCAA rule to try to land a client is just as indelible. It was before the 1990 football season, and I flew from Los Angeles to Denver and drove to the University of Colorado to try to meet with Kanavis McGhee. He was a big, pass-rushing linebacker who was expected to be a high pick in the 1991...

The University of North Carolina has concocted a compromise on its abortion coverage that illustrates who all such gestures leave pro-lifers compromised. “Starting this school year, University of North Carolina students will be required to purchase a private insurance plan or enroll in a campus plan that includes abortion coverage,” Christopher A. Guzman reported on CNSNews.com. “And while the UNC administration has agreed under pressure from pro-lifers to allow students on the 16 campuses in the UNC system to opt out of the abortion coverage aspect of the campus plan, students who do opt out will pay the same premiums...

The early news on the NCAA investigation of the North Carolina football program sounded bad enough as it was, but apparently things may very well be far worse for the Tarheels than originally believed. According to Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated, this isn't just some random kicking of the tires by the NCAA:

Military officers from the U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC) and North Korea ended a rare meeting Thursday, officials said, the first such meeting since the March sinking of a warship blamed on the communist country. "The meeting ended at around 11:30 a.m.," said an official at the UNC. The official said he had no information on the results of the meeting that lasted about one and a half hours, adding they will be announced later in the day. The colonel-level meeting was aimed at arranging talks of general-grade officers between the two sides for discussions on the sinking, which a...

The American-led United Nations Command (UNC) said military talks with North Korea to discuss the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on the North have been rescheduled for Thursday. The colonel-level talks were initially scheduled for Tuesday, but North Korea abruptly asked for a delay just hours before the talks were set to begin, citing "administrative reasons." Later that day, the North's military proposed the new date to the Military Armistice Commission of the UNC, and the command accepted, a UNC statement said Wednesday. The meeting "will now take place at 10:00 a.m. on July 15, according to the...

In the duel between North and South Korea, the question now is who will pull the trigger first? The answer may be neither, but don't count on it. The dueling now focuses on two quite different flashpoints. The first is the West or Yellow Sea, where North Korea has vowed to open fire against any South Korean vessel intruding in its waters. One issue there is how to define which waters are North Korean. The North refuses to recognize the Northern Limit Line, set by the United Nations Command after the Korean War (1950-1953) and challenged by North Korea in...

HILLSBOROUGH -- Demario James Atwater pleaded guilty this afternoon to murdering, kidnapping and robbing Eve Carson, the admired 2008 UNC-Chapel Hill student body president. The 23-year-old Durham man, dressed in a blue shirt and khaki pants, entered his plea in an Orange County Superior Court courtroom as Carson's family watched quietly in the front row.

I don’t get angry very often. But I’m angry right now. On May 10th, I’m moving to Manitou Springs, Colorado, to teach all summer at Summit Ministries. I’m living in a cabin at the base of Pikes Peak, teaching a whopping two hours per week, and starting work on my third book. But, obviously, that’s not why I’m angry. I’m angry because I will be missing a very important event on May 22nd at UNC – Gomorrah, which was previously known as UNC- Greensboro, and is also sometimes referred to as UNC Gonorrhea. The UNCG Speech and Hearing Clinics –...

On Monday, April 26, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Youth for Western Civilization (YWC), a student organization affiliated with CampusReform.org, will welcome former Congressman Tom Tancredo to speak on the topic of “Is Western Civilization Worth Saving?” in the Student Union Auditorium at 7 pm. The event is free and open to the public, with a speech followed by a question and answer session. Tancredo was invited by YWC last year to speak on illegal immigration, but that event was disrupted by protestors who prevented Tancredo from speaking. This speech marks the first time since that event...

UNC-Chapel Hill students who disrupted a speech by former congressman Tom Tancredo last year say they're going to do it again. Tancredo's visit to campus last Spring was interrupted by a group of students whose protests resulted in a broken window and led campus police to shut down the lecture. They did so to rail against Tancredo's outspoken opposition to illegal immigration, the topic he had attempted to discuss that evening.

RALEIGH, N.C.—The man accused of killing a University of North Carolina student body president found shot to death in the middle of a street two years ago pleaded guilty Monday to federal crimes, avoiding the death penalty. Demario Atwater, 23, pleaded guilty to several charges, including carjacking resulting in death and kidnapping. Prosecutors agreed to drop their plan to pursue the death penalty and Atwater agreed to a life sentence.

Rashad Hussein, White House official and President Obama’s newly appointed Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference, has a history of participation in events connected with the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood as well as support for Brotherhood causes, once having called prosecution of the U.S. leader of a Palestinian terrorist organization one of many “politically motivated persecutions.” Mr. Hussain’s official biography states: Rashad Hussain is presently Deputy Associate Counsel to President Obama. His work at the White House focuses on national security, new media, and science and technology issues. Mr. Hussain has also worked with the National Security Staff in...