Mary Willingham

Mary Willingham (born 1952) is an educational specialist best known for raising awareness of widespread cheating and unethical practices in collegiate sports when she was at the University of North Carolina. She won the 2013 Robert Maynard Hutchins Award, "given annually to a university faculty or staff member who defends the institution’s academic integrity in the face of college athletics."
Career
In January 2014, she claimed that in researching 183 football and basketball players at UNC from 2004 to 2012, 60 percent were reading at fourth- to eighth-grade levels and roughly 10 percent were performing below a third-grade level. An independent review board, hired by UNC, disputed Willingham's findings and claimed her methodology to be not appropriate. The board went on to say that Willingham's methods for measuring literacy were inappropriate and incorrect.
The University
In April 2014, she announced she would resign from the university at the end of the school year, stating she and the school's chancellor Carol Folt have "clearly have different ideas and opinions."
In June 2014, former University of North Carolina basketball star Rashad McCants publicly agreed with some of Willingham's claims, although all 16 other members of the 2005 National Championship team released a statement disputing McCants's account.
Kenneth Wainstein, a former federal prosecutor, was appointed by the university to perform an independent investigation into the athletic allegations.
On June 30, 2014, Willingham filed a civil lawsuit against the university. In it, she claimed ""widespread, unethical, and even corrupt academic assistance that she had personally witnessed various student-athletes receiving from university officials and staff."

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