Dive Brief:

• Mary Willingham, a whistleblower in the University of North Carolina student-athlete academic scandal, is accused of plagiarism, but isn’t offering up excuses.
• The 2009 master’s thesis of the former UNC learning specialist has several instances of quoted material without quotation marks or attribution, The News & Observer reported.
• Willingham’s work, called “Academics & Athletics – A Clash of Cultures: Division I Football Programs,” criticizes the NCAA and its colleges for giving priority to revenues over educating their athletes.

Dive Insight:

Willingham has been a target of UNC boosters ever since her accusations regarding no-show classes for athletes and other improprieties became public, and this gives her critics some fresh fodder. She resigned from the university in May, citing a hostile work environment, and she has also filed a lawsuit against the school. According to two plagiarism experts interviewed by The News & Observer, the apparently copied passages in her master’s thesis are a small percentage of the content, but significant enough that the paper should be evaluated again by UNC-Greensboro, where she received her master’s degree. Willingham told the newspaper, regarding the apparently plagiarized passages: “There’s nothing I can do about it.”