Let's Redefine the "Carolina Way"

       I am a direct decedent of William R. Davie, the founder of UNC, my grandfather attended law school there, my dad graduated there in 1940, my oldest sister graduated there and thus my addicted loyalty.  Dad took great pride that his name, along with Mom’s, is on the donor plaque at the Dean Dome.   As a child I wanted to attend, but out of state admission required an academic prowess I never attained.   My eldest daughter was a very good student in Charlotte who desperately wanted to attend, well over a 4.0 with honors and AP classes throughout her high school career, but was denied entry due to the competitive academic standards of UNC.  The latest revelations of academic fraud for athletics at the University of north Carolina, coupled with my daughter’s experience, sickens me.

This is not limited to athletics.  A country, founded on the philosophy of an intellectual enlightenment, is teetering on the edge because we value celebrity, fame and selfish wealth over knowledge and the value of community and service. We fund athletic arenas and departments with obscene amounts of cash while universities hire more and more part time professors.   Yes, this is bigger than UNC and the athletic fraud perpetrated by an overheated win at all costs culture. Most, if not all, universities carry this stain of corruption. It is important to remember that as Rome fell, the colosseum entertainment apparatus was more popular than ever.  Arizona is defunding community college and higher education, Oklahoma is banning AP history, Wisconsin is changing the mission of its flagship university to jobs over knowledge and most states are cutting their K-12 budgets to the bone. If we don't begin to understand that knowledge and meaningful self-reflection are what build community, culture and character, then we are doomed to the fate of all great powers in history.  Invariably, because power is historically recognized by material wealth, which we currently seem to value over all else, rather than cultural maturity; the world may now be headed for a fall.  Yes, our overheated attention toward the fame that becomes athletic accomplishment is a bad sign.

I have always loved sports at all levels.  I love the challenge, the conversation, the individual and collective sense of accomplishment.  The most important part of my personal athletic experience has always been the story.  Yet, our human weakness is causing this to crumble.  William Friday, President of the University of North Carolina in the 1960’s, was a great man who hired Dean Smith, not to win national titles, but to clean up a mess.  We need a William Friday who is willing to unilaterally clean up a mess.  UNC should not wait on the corrupt and weak NCAA.  The UNC administration should dramatically reduce athletic scholarships, ban special admission and fire any coach or professor with any stain of complicity. The Ram's club, or any corrupt athletic booster organization, should be required to provide 60% of it's income to academic departments determined by an organization independent of the university.  Would UNC then disappear from the national spotlight in athletics? Probably.  The most important legacy here is the academic legacy.  Somebody needs to have the guts to show this. We have to reverse the trend of anti-intellectualism in America and what better place to start than college athletics.  What better means to re-introduce the "Carolina Way."