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Professor at center of UNC’s academic fraud case to face felony charges

Roy Williams

The Julius Nyang’oro case took another turn this week, as the former UNC African-American Studies professor was indicted by a grand jury in North Carolina.

He’s facing a charge of obtaining property through false pretenses, a low-level felony with a maximum punishment of 30 months in prison, although according to the Raleigh News & Observer, he likely isn’t going to get jail time.

Essentially, Nyang’oro is being charged with swindling UNC out of $12,000. He was paid that much by the university to teach a lecture-style course in the summer of 2011. The class? AFAM 280: Blacks in North Carolina, which should sound familiar. It’s one of the classes that has received intense media and NCAA scrutiny, as it was created shortly before the summer period began and had 19 enrollees, 18 football players and one former football player.

Nyang’oro and the classes that he taught are at the center of UNC’s academic scandal, but this isn’t an issue that the NCAA will be punishing North Carolina for. Because of the presence of non-athletes in Nyang’oro’s classes, the NCAA views it as a university and academic issue, not an NCAA one.

Crazy, right? Read the details here.