Archive

UNC Whistleblower Files Retaliation Lawsuit

By Marlene Koury UNC is in the spotlight again after whistleblower Mary Willingham filed a retaliation lawsuit earlier this week against the university alleging she was demoted from her position as reading specialist for speaking out about academic fraud. She also alleges that UNC created a hostile work environment that ultimately drove her to leave her job in May. She filed her lawsuit on the same day that the...

Losing Focus – The “Irrational Exuberance” Surrounding College Sports

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Most of us are well familiar with the multi-billion dollar business big-time college sports have become and their questionable impact on the so-called “student-athletes” who fuel them. See The Hypocrisy of Big-Time College Sports. Questions of amateurism, exploitation and academic failure and fraud associated with these major sports have been swirling about for years. And...

Separating the Myth from Reality of Big-Time College Sports

By Gordon Schnell It has been the subject of heated debate for years.  The student-athletes in big-time college sports -- FBS football and men’s Division I basketball -- bring in billions of dollars a year for their universities and the NCAA but are entitled to nothing in return other than a scholarship that most agree does not even cover the full cost of attending school.  Up until now, it has been largely a...

Gaming the System of College Rankings

By Gordon Schnell It is that time of year again when hundreds of thousands of high school seniors across the country are deep in deliberation as to where they will go to college.  For many of these students (and their parents), weighing heavily into their ultimate decision is where these colleges stand in the still highly influential U.S. News and World Report rankings of best colleges.  While routinely the...

Atlanta Educators Indicted for Widespread Cheating Scandal

By Marlene Koury 35 Atlanta public school employees, including former Superintendent Beverly Hall, face criminal RICO and other charges for conspiring to fraudulently inflate state standardized test scores for financial rewards.  Allegations of cheating first arose when local media questioned how half of Atlanta’s schools achieved a 30 percent increase in student test scores from the previous year.  After a two...