Assistant U.S. Attorney for National Security Kenneth Wainstein announces two sets of arrests involving espionage during a briefing at the Department of Justice in Washington February 11, 2008. A former Boeing engineer was arrested on Monday on charges of
Assistant U.S. Attorney for National Security Kenneth Wainstein announces two sets of arrests involving espionage during a briefing at the Department of Justice in Washington February 11, 2008. A former Boeing engineer was arrested on Monday on charges of stealing trade secrets for China related to several aerospace programs, including the Space Shuttle, the U.S. Justice Department said. It also announced a separate case in which a U.S. Defense Department official and two others were arrested on Monday on espionage charges involving the passing of classified U.S. government documents to China. REUTERS

The University of North Carolina is under close scrutiny after a report published by former United States Justice Department official Kenneth Wainstein showed that at least 1,500 students enrolled in so-called "shadow curriculum" that gave out grades to students who did not have to attend classes. The said irregularity has spanned almost two decades and places the university's athletic program on fire given that most students who benefitted from the arrangement belonged to varsity squads.

Entitled Investigation of Irregular Classes in the Department of African and Afro-American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the report triggered the firing of several employees and several others placed under disciplinary review. It is unclear if the NCAA will make its move soon or impose any penalties with regards to the developing scandal.

One of the personalities named is Indianapolis Colts coach Chuck Pagano who was the former defensive coordinator of UNC dating back to 2007. He was described in the report as one of the five notable personalities who refused to be interviewed on the matter. The investigating team did an extensive research, conducting 126 interviews to different personalities, perusing through almost 1.5 million e-mails and other documents.

The school for its part has not yet issued an official statement while Athletic director Bubba Cunningham is mum on whether what would be the next steps and the possible sanctions the school may face. The university was hoping that the investigation would close the chapter on the issue but instead it gave birth to a bigger controversy. Nevertheless, it admits it achieved its purpose, to get to the bottom of the controversy.

"The intent was really to get to the bottom of what occurred, and I think we did," UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham said per ESPN, "but we are in the middle of a joint review and investigation with the NCAA. So this is just one piece of that process, but it was helpful to bring closure to the campus issue."

In his report, Wainstein bared that many of the officials and coaches were aware of the scheme. The arrangement was that students enrolled in the class were required to turn in term papers which were graded automatically irrespective of content. These paper classes required no professor or actual classes and would only necessitate a paper submission by the end of the term. The grade results was so glaring given that students who took actual classes recorded an average GPA of 3.28 while those in the scheme generally got an average of 3.62 GPA.

As of press time, the NCAA and UNC has already released an official statement but has not clarified if it will mete out sanctions to those involved in the said "shadow curriculum" arrangement.

"The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the NCAA enforcement staff continue to engage in an independent and cooperative effort to review information of possible NCAA rules violations as announced earlier this year. The university provided the enforcement staff with a copy of the Wainstein Report for its consideration," it said per Yahoo Sports.