MORE ON THE UNC SCANDALS: A former UNC dean recalls athletes unable to do college-level work.

Madeline Levine, a highly honored professor emeritus, said that as a dean, she was made aware of instances in which the university has admitted athletes with substantial academic challenges, including one she suspected was “functionally illiterate” during her tenure.

Levine also accused the university of resisting efforts to get to the bottom of a long-running academic fraud scandal that is drawing sustained national attention since it made The New York Times’ front page on New Year’s Day. She said Dean took the wrong tack two weeks ago in publicly lambasting whistle-blower Mary Willingham, a former learning specialist in the athletes’ tutoring program.

On Facebook, Don Surber comments: “How many non-athletic students cannot do the work? Colleges rake in bucks from students who take the 100-student classes in the freshman year (and remedial math and English) and then drop out after a year.” I’ve made a similar observation.