The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) Board of Trustees has voted not to sanction the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in connection with past academic irregularities in the Department of African and Afro-American Studies.
The University remains accredited and in good standing with SACSCOC. The campus will be asked to provide a monitoring report by next June on continued progress with academic procedures in the department.
Chancellor Holden Thorp was notified by telephone about that decision today (June 20, 2013) as part of a biannual review of the accreditation status of degree-granting higher education institutions in an 11-state region. Chancellor Thorp sent the Carolina community an email message about the board’s decision.
In an email to the campus community, Thorp said, “We are very pleased with this decision. Throughout this process, the University has been treated fairly by SACSCOC. We have provided information, responded to all questions, taken necessary actions, and documented the comprehensive reforms that we have put in place over the past two years because of issues related to the unprofessional and unethical actions of two former department employees.
“We are confident the sweeping changes we have made, based on the results of seven internal and independent, outside reviews or investigations, will prevent any recurrence of these irregularities.”
For more information about SACSCOC and this issue, visit the University’s accreditation website.
Published June 20, 2013.