A UNC Student Got an A- for a 146-Word Plagiarized Essay

What's This?

North Carolina's offensive line sets up during the Tar Heel's first NCAA college football practice of the season in Chapel Hill, N.C., Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

Image: Gerry Broome/Associated Press

By Sam Laird2014-03-28 22:08:47 UTC

There's slacking off in school, and then there's this.

What was until now a murky athletic and academic scandal at the University of North Carolina became a lot clearer this week, when apparently the most damning (and viral) piece of evidence yet hit the web.

In an interview with ESPN that went live Tuesday, former academic specialist Mary Willingham produced what she says was a final essay assignment for a bogus class an athlete took at the school. The essay about civil rights legend Rosa Parks, written by an unidentified athlete, was 146 words. Willingham says it received an A-minus.

Rosas Parks: My Story

On the evening of December Rosa Parks decided that she was going to sit in the white people section of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. During this time blacks had to give up there seats to whites when more whites got on the bus. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. Her and the bus driver began to talk and the conversation went like this. "Let me have those front seats" said the driver. She didn't get up and told the driver that she was tired of giving her seat to white people. "I'm going to have you arrested," said the driver. "You may do that," Rosa Parks responded. Two white policemen came in and Rosa Parks asked them "why do you all push us around?" The police officer replied and said "I don't know but the law is the law and you're under arrest.

Astute Twitter users pointed out that it bore a remarkable similarity to Rosa Park's own autobiography — the very first page.

North Carolina has been embroiled in allegations of widespread academic fraud since Willingham claimed massive misconduct in November 2012. She said athletes were given passing grades for subpar work and special easier classes had been set up for them by the athletics department. UNC denied that the problem was so systemic, but a wave of resignations ensued.

Meanwhile, other college athletes are taking legal action to form a union, and a basketball player publicly eviscerated NCAA hypocrisy on Thursday morning before playing in a March Madness game.

What a time for college sports.