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Ethics at Carolina
A perspective from Butch Bracknell
Extraordinary reporting in the Daily Tar Heel revealed Carolina’s new senior IT director Mark Hoeting resigned from Georgia Tech for ethics violations. The main infraction was a romantic relationship with a vendor over whom he exercised procurement responsibility, with over $5M in sales being directed to her company. This latest unforced error comes hot on the heels of an implosion in the athletic department, with investigations into the football program reportedly substantiating inappropriate relationships, drug use and distribution, absence of oversight, and nepotistic relationships. The fallout included resignations of two senior program leaders, Michael Lombardi and Steve Belichick, along with separate possible NCAA NIL compliance inquiries.
Controversy is no stranger to the athletic department at Carolina, with extensive violations from long-term academic fraud (no NCAA penalty) and impermissible benefits resulting in a post-season ban, vacated victories and forfeited scholarships. In 2018, the US Department of Education found that Carolina had violated Title IX in the handling of sexual misconduct complaints, despite having well-paid compliance personnel on staff. In 2021, Carolina fumbled the hiring of notable journalism scholar Nikole Hannah-Jones, deterring her willingness to accept appointment as the School of Journalism’s Knight Chair over donors’ and trustees’ concerns about her views. This blunder struck a blow at academic freedom that became a boon to Howard University, who snapped her up quickly. There’s no telling how many other notable academics struck Carolina off their list as a result of the malfeasance — unknown opportunity costs based on hamhanded interference by a rich donor whose viewpoints on history diverged from those of a proven scholar. Less notorious disputes include former Provost Chris Clemens’ lawsuit against UNC over public records and open meetings violations, alleging UNC was conducting business in secret — another blow to institutional transparency.
The laundry list of violations, controversies and scandals indicts Carolina’s internal controls, culture of transparency and responsibility, and managerial oversight. Carolina’s well-worn pattern of significant scandals every couple of years leaves open the question of who exactly is minding the store in Chapel Hill. Worse yet, when Duke grads make jokes about class attendance for Carolina athletes, it is difficult to design a suitable comeback — our own history, including an 18 year academic-athletic scandal, shows they may not be entirely wrong, rumors of massive impermissible benefits to Duke athletes notwithstanding. The issue transcends chancellors, vice-chancellors, provosts and boards of visitors and trustees. Underneath it all appears to be an embedded culture problem that demands a deep dive and an institutional reset.
What does that look like? A UNC system high level review focused on governance and transparency would be a start. The legislature could be helpful if it could focus on meaningful bills instead of focusing on outlawing drag shows, facilitating over the counter ivermectin distribution, thwarting unisex bathrooms, and preventing cloud seeding. Devoting energy to oversight of the state’s flagship university, which drives about $30 billion in annual statewide economic activity, is a more helpful and commendable use of the legislature’s time, energy and resources. The value of transparency and integrity is hard to measure, but it is not hard to see when it is absent.
Butch Bracknell (UNC BA ’92) is a retired Marine and technology lawyer.
“Viewpoints” on Chapelboro is a recurring series of community-submitted opinion columns. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work or reporting of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com.
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