I guess Julius Peppers wasn’t too upset about his transcript being leaked on North Carolina’s website.
The former UNC football star donated $250,000 to the university’s Light on the Hill Society Scholarship fund, which supports African-American students. Kudos to Peppers.
ESPN has the details.
The donation comes days after Peppers confirmed that it was his academic transcript that was found on the university’s website, showing that numerous classes in the Afro and African-American Studies department helped keep him stay eligible before he left UNC early for the NFL after the 2001 season.
That department has come under intense scrutiny over the last three months since an internal investigation showed poor oversight, grade changes and little or no instruction in 54 AFAM classes between summer 2007 and summer 2011. The school last week launched a new probe, led by a former governor, which aims to look farther back than 2007.
Peppers, who was an AFAM studies major, said in a statement over the weekend “that there is no academic fraud as it relates to my college transcript” and that he took every course with qualified members of the University faculty, and was never given preferential treatment.
Also in that statement, he thanked UNC’s academic and athletic staff for their help and guidance and said he was “thinking of ways that I can use my experiences and resources” to help support students early in their college career.
He opted to do it with a hefty donation.
“After considering the ways that I might be able to help young college students, I decided to continue my support of the Light on the Hill scholarship,” Peppers said Monday in a statement released by the school. “I would like to endorse this particular fund and encourage other former UNC students who have found success to reach back and assist the efforts of current and future Tar Heels.”