FOOTBALL UNDER INVESTIGATION
Tutoring Athletes: Structure, Stability
for ‘Student Time’
To hear John Blanchard tell it, ath- letes at Carolina have always been able to turn to someone for help
with their schoolwork. Blanchard, senior
associate director of athletics, has heard tales
of a tutor working with Tar Heel football
legend Charlie Justice ’ 50 in the late 1940s.
But “Choo-Choo” wouldn’t recognize
what is available for today’s athletes. Players
have help managing their course schedules,
developing study skills, learning to take
good notes and understanding how to
write a term paper. They have counselors
and mentors as well as tutors, and all play
different roles in helping 775 varsity athletes do as well in the classroom as they do
on the field or court.
“It’s a realization of the intense demands
of athletics in such a highly competitive
academic environment,” Blanchard said.
“We really strive for excellence, and it’s not
a balance. It’s 100 percent student when
you’re in student time, and it’s 100 percent
athlete when you’re in athletic time.”
To help with the “student time,” the
University has what is formally known as
the Academic Support Program for Stu-
dent-Athletes. The program came under
scrutiny in August after University officials
discovered possible instances of academic
fraud involving a tutor and members of the
football team. The tutor, who was dismissed
from the program, also worked for the
family of Coach Butch Davis.
University officials have provided few
details of what might have happened with
the tutor and members of the football
team, declining to discuss specifics of the
investigation until it is finished. That investigation includes an examination of the
Academic Support Program and what
changes should be made.
Chancellor Holden Thorp ’ 86, in
remarks to the Faculty Council in September, noted that a faculty advisory committee looked at the Academic Support Program in spring 2009. The committee, in its
report, said that it “was overwhelmed by
the attention to integrity and found the
Academic Support Program thoughtful in
its program planning and responsive to the
needs of student-athletes.”
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November/December 2010
“Nevertheless,” Thorp told the council,
“it’s an opportunity for us to think about
how we might change our processes so that
we can avoid having this happen again in
the future.”
The program in place at Carolina got its
start in 1985 with Blanchard, a former col-
lege athlete who has a master’s degree in
social work, as its first director. He started
with one part-time staffer and, until staff
was added throughout the ’80s, focused
their efforts on the football team. Carolina
athletes are free to take advantage of aca-
demic tutors and counselors available to all
students, but such campus services often are
not available at nights and on weekends
when athletes need them.
In 1988, control of the program was
moved from the athletics department to
the College of Arts and Sciences. The college continues to oversee the program,
which now has 11 full-time staffers and
two part-time staffers, as well as 25 tutors
and 25 to 30 mentors who are hired each
semester to work with athletes in 28 varsity
sports. The program’s annual budget is
$244,770, which is paid for by the athletics
department. Blanchard says the NCAA
mandates that universities have such a program, but it leaves it up to individual universities to determine how it is structured.
“The academic side is done by the academic people. That’s what we know. I don’t
know a bit about weight training,” said
Bobbi Owen, senior associate dean for
undergraduate education in the College of
Arts and Sciences.
The program is in temporary space in
Kenan Stadium’s Pope Box as it awaits
completion next August of a five-story
Carolina Student-Athlete Center for
Excellence being built as part of a $70 million privately funded project that is closing
in the east end of Kenan Stadium.
Virtually all of the work done by ath-
letes with their tutors and mentors takes
place in the program’s facilities, with tight
restrictions on the relationship between the
athletes and their academic coaches. Their
work, for example, is required to be face-
to-face, not by e-mail. Tutors and mentors
are expected to develop rapport with the
athletes but not become friends. University
officials are careful when hiring tutors not
to get rabid Tar Heel fans.
