[1]BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. (BP)–One day after revelations of academic tampering surfaced at Gardner-Webb University, the school’s faculty delivered a vote of no confidence in the leadership of GWU President Chris White.
Faculty members voted 63-39 during a Sept. 10 meeting. Their vote will be forwarded to the university’s trustees. Prior to the meeting, White pleaded for forgiveness and asked for “no mad rush to judgment” at the emergency faculty meeting. Classes at GWU were canceled so the entire faculty could attend, according to The Star of Shelby newspaper.
White came under fire after it was discovered he allegedly ordered the school’s registrar to use a different grading policy for a star basketball player who had been caught cheating, according to a newspaper report.
White’s signed memorandum on the issue resulted in the player becoming eligible.
The memo has led the NCAA to look into that and other aspects of the Gardner-Webb athletics program, sources told The Star. Gardner-Webb’s athletic program recently moved into Division I.
The athletics department issued a statement Sept. 10, saying, “We have self-reported to the NCAA and they will be visiting our campus next week.”
[2]White, who wrote the memo regarding Gardner-Webb basketball star Carlos Webb, said the decision had nothing to do with athletics and that he made the change because “a student was badly advised.”
Webb led the team in scoring his senior season. He was caught cheating in a religion class in 1999 and was given a failing grade. He retook the class in the summer semester and made a D.
Gardner-Webb is a four-year university affiliated with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.
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