RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - An accreditation agency important to colleges receiving federal funds says University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is on probation for a year over its academic fraud scandal.
The board of Southern Association of Colleges and Schools' Commission on Colleges decided Thursday to sanction the school - the country's oldest public university - over failing to comply with several key operating principals including integrity and control of intercollegiate athletics.
The agency previously opted against punishing UNC but acted after learning last fall of the scope of fake classes and artificially high grades in one academic department. A report revealed that the fake classes in the African studies department had gone on for nearly two decades. About half the 3,100 students who took the classes were athletes.
Campus officials had no immediate comment Thursday.
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