Case4:O9-cv-01967-CW Document957-7 Fi|edO1/13/14 Page1of9 EXHIBIT 5 Case4:09-cv-01967-CW Document957-7 Filed01/13/14 Page2 of 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Michael P. Lehmann (Cal. Bar No. 77152) Arthur N. Bailey, Jr. (Cal. Bar No. 248460) HAUSFELD LLP 44 Montgomery St., 34th Floor San Francisco, CA 94104 Telephone: (415) 633-1908 Facsimile: (415) 358-4980 Email: mlehmann@hausfeldllp.com abailey@hausfeldllp.com Michael D. Hausfeld (pro hac vice) Hilary K. Scherrer (Cal. Bar No. 209451) Sathya S. Gosselin (Cal. Bar No. 269171) HAUSFELD LLP 1700 K Street, NW, Suite 650 Washington, DC 20006 Telephone: (202) 540-7200 Facsimile: (202) 540-7201 Email: mhausfeld@hausfeldllp.com hscherrer@hausfeldllp.com sgosselin@hausfeldllp.com Plaintiffs’ Class Counsel with Principal Responsibility for the Antitrust Claims 14 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 15 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 16 OAKLAND DIVISION 17 18 19 20 IN RE NCAA STUDENT-ATHLETE NAME & LIKENESS LICENSING LITIGATION This document relates to: 21 ANTITRUST PLAINTIFFS’ ACTIONS 22 23 Case No. 4:09-cv-1967 CW DECLARATION OF MARY C. WILLINGHAM IN SUPPORT OF ANTITRUST PLAINTIFFS’ COMBINED OPPOSITION TO NCAA’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND REPLY IN SUPPORT OF MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT Judge: Date: Time: Courtroom: 24 25 Honorable Claudia Wilken February 20, 2014 2:00 p.m. 2, 4th Floor 26 27 28 4:09-cv-1967 CW DECL. OF M. WILLINGHAM ISO APS’ COMBINED OPP’N TO NCAA’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND REPLY ISO OF MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT Case4:09-cv-01967-CW Document957-7 Filed01/13/14 Page3 of 9 1 2 3 DECLARATION OF MARY C. WILLINGHAM I, Mary C. Willingham, declare that the following is true: 1. I have been employed by the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 4 (“Carolina” or “UNC”), for the past 10 years. Currently, I work in the Center for Student Success 5 6 and Academic Counseling (CSSAC). I also serve as a Clinical Instructor in the Department of 7 Education, and as a Senior Academic Advisor in the Graduation Division (College of Arts and 8 Sciences). I was originally hired by the University in 2003 as a Learning Specialist in the 9 Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes, where I worked until 2010. 10 11 2. My previous positions include High School Teacher and Corporate Human Resources Manager for two Fortune 500 companies. I have a B.S. in Psychology from Loyola 12 13 14 University and an M.A. in Liberal Studies from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. I earned a lateral entry North Carolina Teaching License, K-12 Learning Disabled, and am a 15 trained Reading Specialist. My research includes studies on the National Collegiate Athletic 16 Association (NCAA), university admission procedures for revenue-sport athletes (hereafter I will 17 refer to these as ‘profit sports’ – Division I men’s football and basketball), and those athletes’ 18 basic skills deficits, as well as the incidence of Learning Disabilities and Attention Deficit 19 Disorder in that community. 20 21 3. I applied for jobs outside of athletics at UNC beginning in 2009 because the 22 pressure to keep students eligible had eclipsed learning and academic integrity. The cheating in 23 ‘no show’ paper classes and in our mentor program (e.g., writing papers for players) had become 24 overwhelming. In addition, I was tired of seeing the disparity between privileged students and 25 underprivileged football players in particular. I remember so vividly the day at the end of one 26 semester around lunch time when 3 or 4 football players were in my office talking about the lack 27 of food available to them (training table was closed and they were out of food money) and I 28 4:09-cv-1967 CW DECL. OF M. WILLINGHAM ISO APS’ COMBINED OPP’N TO NCAA’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND REPLY ISO OF MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT Case4:09-cv-01967-CW Document957-7 Filed01/13/14 Page4 of 9 1 looked out the window to see another student pull into the staff parking lot in a brand new BMW 2 convertible that his father had bought him. 3 4. In April, 2013, I won the prestigious Robert Maynard Hutchins award from the 4 Drake Group, a national faculty reform group that holds its annual meeting during the yearly 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 conference of the College Sport Research Institute (CSRI). The Hutchins award honors a university employee who has stood up for integrity in the face of college sport corruption. 5. During my seven-year tenure as a Learning Specialist in the Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes, I worked with hundreds of athletes, a great majority of them football and basketball players. These individuals impacted my life in a way that I never expected. Our athletes wear Carolina blue so proudly and represent this university well. Their 12 13 14 families are very proud of them, and rightly so. Many academically prepared athletes receive distinguished awards for excelling in the classroom every year, which is something to celebrate. 15 At Carolina we have approximately 800 varsity athletes. About 400 are on the ACC honor roll or 16 dean’s list in any semester; 200 achieve satisfactory academic results and can follow a major of 17 their choice; but 150-200— predominately basketball and football players—are academically 18 underprepared, many of them seriously underprepared. As a Learning Specialist, I worked one- 19 on-one with 36 students during any given week of the semester; they were my ‘contact’ students. 20 21 6. The gap in academic readiness between my group of 36 and their peers in the 22 general student body was large. Roughly 40-50 athletes enroll in our lowest level composition 23 class each year, while 98% of our freshman class tests out of it. The athletes that I worked with 24 struggled mightily. I attempted to tutor underprepared learners with 4th grade literacy skills who 25 were already enrolled in 12 hours of college classes (4 classes). They had to write papers and 26 take tests, all while trying to learn basic skills typically obtained between the 5th and 12th grades. 27 And literacy deficits affect learning. Imagine showing up in a university classroom with reading, 28 4:09-cv-1967 CW -2- DECL. OF M. WILLINGHAM ISO APS’ COMBINED OPP’N TO NCAA’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND REPLY ISO OF MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT Case4:09-cv-01967-CW Document957-7 Filed01/13/14 Page5 of 9 1 writing and vocabulary skills so far below your classmates that nothing makes much sense. 2 During my seven years working with athletes from 8 am-3 pm and again from 7-9 pm every day, 3 including evenings on Sunday (for which I earned an annual starting salary of $35,000), I began 4 to realize that the help I was offering as a Learning and Reading Specialist was not enough to 5 6 address the gap in college readiness. Teaching letters, short vowel sounds and sentence structure 7 to struggling college learners became the most important and time-consuming part of my job. 8 Between these persistent obstacles to learning and the athletes’ physically demanding, full time 9 “jobs” with travel and frequent injury (especially in football), I do not believe, as an educator, that 10 11 this is a manageable state of affairs. 7. I have also reviewed data that is consistent with my experience. During the last 12 13 14 decade at UNC, where I have obtained permission from the institutional review board to collect data for research purposes, the majority of our football and basketball players have entered the 15 institution woefully underprepared for the classroom. At UNC, we routinely tested for learning 16 disabilities any athlete who attended a 2nd summer school session before the first year. Of the 182 17 athletes screened between 2005 and 2012, a great majority (85%) come from the profit sports, 18 19 although several teams are represented in the group. About 60% (110) of these athletes had reading scores below the 50% range—constituting 4th-8th grade reading levels. More than a 20 21 22 23 dozen, 8-10%, were functionally illiterate, and 39% were found to be learning disabled and/or have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. 8. The college football and basketball players that I worked with sometimes earned a 24 degree, but they did not get an education. They simply did not have equal access to a real 25 education because the academic experience for athletes is separate and unequal. They arrived 26 unprepared and remained unprepared because of institutional priorities. They did not have access 27 to all courses and degree programs. They did not participate in study abroad, internships or 28 4:09-cv-1967 CW -3- DECL. OF M. WILLINGHAM ISO APS’ COMBINED OPP’N TO NCAA’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND REPLY ISO OF MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT Case4:09-cv-01967-CW Document957-7 Filed01/13/14 Page6 of 9 1 research opportunities. They were prohibited from enjoying any of these opportunities because 2 they conflicted with practice, tournaments, summer school, or spring football. They were not 3 given the freedom to explore courses and fields of study they found intriguing. At UNC, there are 4 roughly eighty majors in the college of arts and sciences. But athletes in the profit sports 5 6 predominantly pursue three majors – Communication Studies, Exercise and Sports Science, and 7 African American and Diaspora studies. Nor are the athletes trusted to forge relationships with 8 faculty on their own. Part of this is a result of institutional denial: I was often told at UNC that 9 “we don’t do remedial instruction here.” But another cause of the separate and unequal treatment 10 11 to which profit-sport athletes at UNC are subjected is the NCAA imperative to stay ‘eligible,’ educational consequences aside. In my experience, football and basketball players are ushered 12 13 14 through a special curriculum constructed just for them. The courses in that curriculum, though they usually make no sense as a coherent course of study, have one thing in common: they are 15 known to be easy, manageable, or friendly, and they therefore “help” athletes, and the compliance 16 office, with eligibility. 17 18 9. One illustration of this is the 2013 Belk Bowl UNC football team. A cohort of seventeen starters and other regular players on that team had a combined GPA of 2.3 (the UNC 19 average GPA is 3.2), and together they had 29 F’s, 53 D’s and 10 semesters of academic 20 21 probation. They had also taken an inordinate number of Drama classes, though none had a major 22 or minor in Drama. They took those classes only because they are historically passable. One 23 academically prepared player in this cohort originally intended to study sciences for a potential 24 career in the health field. The time required for football practice, conditioning, lifting weights, 25 and watching film did not afford him the time (12-15 hours per science class per week on the 26 average) needed to pass even the entry level science classes. 27 28 4:09-cv-1967 CW -4- DECL. OF M. WILLINGHAM ISO APS’ COMBINED OPP’N TO NCAA’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND REPLY ISO OF MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT Case4:09-cv-01967-CW Document957-7 Filed01/13/14 Page7 of 9 1 2 3 10. I personally saw UNC athletes deprived of the opportunities that their non-athlete classmates take for granted. One football player was artistically gifted and wanted to teach art while another wanted to coach middle school football back in his hometown. Their athletic 4 schedules, their need for intensive academic support, and costs not covered by their scholarships 5 6 did not allow for either of these pursuits. Art, for example, is a very expensive major, and the 7 scholarship does not cover all of the supplies. Teaching requires a strong GPA and a semester- 8 long student teaching assignment was impossible in light of athletic expectations. Another athlete 9 hoped to someday build a YMCA in one of North Carolina poorest counties – but the Kenan- 10 11 Flagler Business School and the School of Education were both untenable for the same reasons. Yet another aspired to be a school counselor so that he could intervene when, as had been his 12 13 14 experience, a 5th grade teacher tells a young child that he will never learn to read or write. This, too, was impossible for the reasons stated above. 11. 15 At UNC, we have also sadly admitted to tolerating a system of no-show classes 16 (which preserved eligibility) that existed in our African and Afro-American Studies Department 17 for more than two decades, a system that athletes, advisors, coaches and administrators all knew 18 about, but for which only two people have been blamed. Athletes were not the only students in 19 these fake classes, although they were the overwhelming majority in most of them. This scandal 20 21 was investigated eight times and is the subject of the recent Martin Report (The University of 22 North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Academic Anomalies Review, Report of Findings). 1 Each 23 investigation concluded, to my disappointment, that the institution had done nothing wrong; it 24 was the fault of just two people. I remained silent and ashamed from 2010 to 2012 while I waited 25 for my institution to do the right thing – to admit the cheating was system wide, and not just the 26 fault of two people. Finally, I spoke out. 27 28 1 http://www.unc.edu/news/12/UNC-Governor-Martin-Final-Report-and-Addendum.pdf. 4:09-cv-1967 CW -5- DECL. OF M. WILLINGHAM ISO APS’ COMBINED OPP’N TO NCAA’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND REPLY ISO OF MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT Case4:09-cv-01967-CW Document957-7 Filed01/13/14 Page8 of 9 1 2 3 12. Many basketball players and football players told me what they would like to apply themselves academically if given the time to do so. Instead, UNC directed them to an array of mismatched classes that have a very long history of probable eligibility. In my experience, as a 4 result of their treatment by the schools and the NCAA, Division I basketball and football players 5 6 7 are first and foremost athletes—not students. 13. I understand that the NCAA has suggested that its blanket prohibition on 8 compensation, from any source and for any purpose, is essential to improving the educational 9 experience for athletes and advancing the educational mission of colleges and universities. Based 10 11 on my experience, I disagree. The NCAA’s prohibition on compensation does nothing to safeguard the educational experience of athletes, whom I have seen exploited for their physical 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 talents rather than being encouraged to cultivate their minds. And athletes’ ability to obtain compensation—whether now or after the end of their eligibility—poses no threat to the educational mission of the schools. 14. As a college instructor and academic advisor, it is my privilege to write countless numbers of recommendation letters for students (many of whom are also on scholarship at the time) when they apply for part-time jobs and paid internships. Students’ work experiences—and 19 the accompanying compensation—enhance the learning experience in the classroom and permit 20 21 students to begin working towards financial independence from their parents (for those 22 individuals who are lucky enough to receive any means of support from their families). I have 23 taught and advised students who were earning compensation in a range of areas of talent and 24 expertise, including music, art, journalism, and academic tutoring, among others. These students 25 derive personal satisfaction, motivation and a sense of self-worth from such compensation, 26 however small or large. In my experience, this sort of work and compensation does not detract 27 from students’ educational pursuits or alienate those students from their peers. 28 4:09-cv-1967 CW -6- DECL. OF M. WILLINGHAM ISO APS’ COMBINED OPP’N TO NCAA’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND REPLY ISO OF MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT ta.) case4:o9-cv-01967-cw Document957--7 Fi|edO1/13/14 Page'9 of9 15. While non--athlete student body can seek ernployment and pay during their free time, our basketball and football players enjoy no such luxury because of their considerable tirne commitinents, putting them at a disadvantage as soon as they arrive on our college campus. Often players would arrive without some of the basic necessities for college life, and, as noted above, their scholarships often do not cover the real cost of attendance. 16. I In my opinion, truth and integrity will only belrestored to college athletics when our talented athletes are afforded a real education and the ability to earn compensation for the use of their names, images, and likenesses--rights and privileges that all of our other students already enjoy. I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on anuary 10, 2014 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 274%/1 I .9 Mary C. Willingharn DECL. OF M. WILLINGHAM ISO COMBINED TO NCAATS ION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND REPLY ISO OF MOTION FOR SUMMARY IUDGMENT cw - 7 --