Sanford native shares his story of UNC AFAM courses

With UNC’s athletics department appearing before the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions today, one Sanford native is speaking out about his own experiences taking the much-maligned African American Studies courses.

John Nance, a graduate of the now-closed Greenwood High School in southern Lee County, wrote in an article in The Sporting News that the AfAm independent study course he took at UNC were anything but fake.

“I just felt the coverage of the scandal and everything was maybe a little one-sided, and the portrayal that it was a class for athletes was nowhere near accurate,” Nance said. “I still cherish my degree, and I feel very privileged to be able to go to Carolina. There’s just too much generalization going on. I’m not trying to OK or sanction anything that didn’t go the way it was supposed to, but there’s just too much generalization.

“There was nothing fake at all about the work I did.”

You can read Nance’s full account of the course here.

A scandal that has become ridiculously convoluted, with both sides twisting themselves in knots to justify the ends they hope to achieve, is hopefully nearing completion after more than seven years. Once today’s hearing takes place, the Committee on Infractions will make a ruling that may not be publicized. Final punishment will likely be levied in the fall, with UNC likely filing suit to move the case to the legal system. So, actually, it may never end.