AND AT HOME – AT 10:21 A.M. ET:  Lots of athletics coming up in the next few weeks.  The Super Bowl and the Olympics.  We've seen that sports have their glory, and their dark side.  Consider this, from the College Fix:

A study conducted by a reading specialist at the University of North Carolina reveals that ten percent of the school’s football and basketball players read only at a 3rd grade level.

According to ESPN, Mary Willingham–a literacy specialist formerly employed by the university–worked with 183 football and basketball players at UNC from 2004 to 2012. Sixty percent read at an 8th grade level or below. Ten percent were below the 3rd grade level.

Willingham said she worked with on men’s basketball player who couldn’t read or write at all, ESPN reports.

After Willingham revealed her claims in a CNN story last week, the University of North Carolina promptly issued a statement saying it did not believe Willingham.

However, UNC is already under a cloud of suspicion with regard to the academic integrity of its scholar athletes–stemming from the recent revelation of long-term corruption in it’s African-American Studies department, which operated hundreds of phony classes, classes that were particularly popular among athletes.

The classes were either barely taught or, in the worst cases, the professor didn’t even bother to show up for the class.

More than five hundred unauthorized grade changes were also revealed during the university’s investigation.

The scandal led to the unceremonious departure of former chairman of the African-American Studies department, Julius Nyang’oro, who faces criminal charges for taking money for a class he never taught.

In view of the longstanding corruption of the African-American Studies program at UNC, and the high level of enrollment among student athletes in the aforementioned phony classes, UNC’s blanket denial that there is any literacy problem among its athletes is hardly reassuring.

COMMENT:  We have simply not held our colleges and universities to account in any area, although there are many sane voices pointing out the woeful deficiencies of the campus.  I would hope that Congress starts launching major investigations into the use of federal aid by these august institutions.  Maybe the threat of the checkbook will stun some of them into wising up, maturing, and delivering an honest product.

If you want the best information on this, check out William Jacobson's superb College Insurrection website, as well as the College Fix

February 1, 2014