It is hard to know where it started and where it ends.
What we do know is that UNC basketball and football players were guided toward classes, specifically in the African-American (AFAM) studies department, that never met and required very few assignments. Enrollment in these classes was open for a brief period of time, to ensure that only specific athletes registered for the courses.
Mary Willingham is a former UNC employee who did extensive research into the studies of student-athletes and determined that nearly 60 percent were reading at a fourth-to-eighth grade level between 2004 and 2012.
In January, the university stopped funding her research, which sparked yet another firestorm of debate.
MORE: New probe | Investigator to meet with teacher
The many layers of this controversy may never be truly understood, but ESPN recently released a video dissecting the academic scandal. Bryan Graham, a writer for Sports Illustrated and The Atlantic magazine, took a screen grab of one scene from the video which appears to show a final paper for the AFAM 41 course. The paper is about Rosa Parks and according to the video and the screen grab, it received an A-.
Considering what we already know, it should not come as a great shock.
But to see and read such a paper and know that it got an A- at a university like North Carolina is rather startling.
UPDATE: The paper shown in the above photo was a final essay for an introductory course. The A- received was for the entire course and not the essay.
