[View the story "UNC halts research highlighting student-athletes' illiteracy rates" on Storify ]UNC halts research highlighting student-athletes' illiteracy rates Decision cites alleged school policy violations. Storified by AJAMStream · Fri, Jan 17 2014 14:22:48
As news of the university's decision spread, many took to Twitter to express their opinions.
@theobserver So rather than praise for caring & discovering serious challenges to academic integrity, deny & undermine credibility. Typical.Barbara Cochlin
All y'all need to know is that everything Mary Willingham studied, said or thought is gospel. Completely infallible. #UNC #sarcasmJP
Richard Southall, Willingham's co-investigator, openly questioned the decision when he told Charlotte Observer that the data was shared with Provost Jim Dean:
“My question is, ‘Did that violation occur when the data was forwarded on to the provost?’charlotteobserver.com
Multiple UNC officials
dispute the research findings, saying the data they gathered independently doesn't support Willingham's claims. Before formally reviewing the data, school officials issued a formal statement
criticizing Willingham.
We do not believe that claim and find it patently unfair to the many student-athletes who have worked hard in the classroom and on the court and represented our University with distinction.goheels.com
The UNC student body has released a
statement echoing the claims put forth by school officials, as well as saying that Willingham's data was not
peer-reviewed .
Willingham presented the data that she had compiled as factual evidence of her claim, but she had a limited data set that she argued was representative of the entire student-athlete population from the years 2004-2012 and her data was never sent for peer review.execbranch.web.unc.edu
The lack of a formal review process also raised questions with people following the story.
I mean, if Willingham's data wasn't peer-reviewed, that seems like an important thing. That's a pretty key part of academic research.Ivan Corriher
@MissionSound @sganim passing along the claims of one person as though it's a peer-reviewed study. Irresponsible to startBrian Frederick
The study can
move forth if Willingham explains to the school's Internal Review Board (IRB) how she plans to protect participants' identities. In an email sent to the Associated Press Thursday night, Willingham explained that she is
willing to go through the process. She also expressed her belief that the university is shortchanging its student-athletes.
"Until we acknowledge the problem, and fix it, many of our athletes, specifically men's basketball and football players are getting nothing in exchange for their special talents."abcnews.go.com
Some online questioned UNC's decision to make Wilingham state her case in front of the IRB.
@blackredsoxfan not unusual to require IRB approval, but no doubt they are out to get her. This whole thing is a travestyLibby Fisher
By making Willingham apply to UNC's IRB, UNC kills her story in the newspapers for next several weeks/months. That's bad.Fake Gimel
However, some outside of official UNC channels agree with Willingham's conclusions.
I just talked to psychologist who administered aptitude tests to athletes in Willingham's study. Has "utmost confidence" in Willingham.Sara Ganim
Willingham has been under scrutiny since
2011 , when she spoke out against UNC enrolling athletes in classes that never met in an effort to keep them academically eligible. After complaining about the practice to no avail, Willingham stopped working primarily with athletes and is now a learning specialist. Regardless, Willingham has been an outspoken critic of the university, as the following quote indicates:
“How can you take someone who’s got fourth-, fifth-, sixth-grade reading levels, enroll them in 12 hours of college curriculum and expect them to be able to pass those classes while you’re trying to do some remedial work with them to catch all those missing years up?” Willingham said. “It’s fraudulent. It’s impossible. You’ve got to have a system of cheating in place.”newsobserver.com
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