UNC’s lack of transparency in hazing case came at a high price

Here’s something the North Carolina public wasn’t supposed to know about its public university: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill paid a former football player and his family $795,000 to settle an off-campus hazing incident.

The settlement had been sealed, and the family was restricted from discussing it. But the effort to bury what the size of the settlement was, in an apparently serious incident of physical injury, fell apart when The News & Observer obtained a copy of the agreement.

The case involves an alleged concussion suffered by former UNC football player Jackson Boyer while the team was staying at a Chapel Hill hotel during its preseason camp. Boyer was a nonscholarship wide receiver at UNC when the incident happened Aug. 4, 2014. Four players involved, three of whom are still on the team, were suspended for the first game of the season. Boyer has since transferred to the University of Southern California, where he is a walk-on member of the football team.

The so-called hazing incident has been under wraps since it occurred. Police were not called at the time and the university provided no details of what happened. Apparently it was all supposed to go away with a sealed agreement and a big check.

This was clearly an incident that the public had a right to know about. How can the football program be held to account if violent, off-field encounters by players are not reported and, when discovered, not discussed?

After enduring a years-long scandal involving athletics and sham classes, UNC-CH should know that openness is the best policy.

This story was originally published June 22, 2016 at 6:50 PM with the headline "UNC’s lack of transparency in hazing case came at a high price."