John T. Benjamin: Why a second paper class?

Regarding Morgan Randall’s June 27 letter “UNC players not at fault in scandal”: In that letter, Randall quoted coach Butch Davis as saying: “If you wanted to get a real education, you should have gone to Harvard.”

Randall, a former football player at UNC, stated that the student-athletes were just doing as they had been told when they took the specious paper courses at UNC.

I did go to Harvard, and I was a student-athlete there. I was on the track and cross country teams, which took five hours a day, seven days a week, not counting the endless bus rides we took to meets.

I remember a course I took there titled “Criminology.” I received an A for going to class and writing one 15-page paper. The class was filled with many athletes, mostly hockey and football players.

I decided that my time was too valuable to take courses like that again and decided not to take another one like it, and I didn’t.

Randall stated he took two paper courses at UNC. So my question is: Why take the second paper course after finding out the first paper course was a sham? He had a responsibility to get the best education available, and he didn’t do that.

This story was originally published June 30, 2015 at 5:47 PM with the headline "John T. Benjamin: Why a second paper class?."