Oct 24, 2014 03:09 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

The academic scandal at the University of North Carolina (UNC) - Chapel Hill did not have to be as bad as it was and the problem was exacerbated by a lack of oversight.

According to the Associated Press, former U.S. Justice Department official Kenneth Wainstein found in his report UNC administrators ignored or missed signs of a potential problem. Concluding his investigation, Wainstein said UNC Chapel Hill had "paper classes" within its African and Afro-American Studies (AFAM) department for nearly two decades.

Wainstein also found that more than 3,100 students took them, more than half of whom were student-athletes supposedly trying to stay academically eligible in their respective sport. The report indicates the classes, which rarely met (if at all) and required its students to only write one paper for a final grade, ended in 2011.

"Bad actions of a relatively few number of people were definitely compounded by inaction and the lack of really appropriate checks and balances," UNC Chancellor Carol Folt told the AP Thursday. "And it was together that really allowed this to persist for such a length of time."

While Wainstein's report said coaches and staff members within UNC's athletic department knew their players were taking easy classes, they probably did not know to what extent. However, the investigator said academic counselors were deliberately steering students toward taking the paper classes.

From 1993 to 2011, Wainstein found that athletic coaches, university leaders and other faculty members ignored or missed such indications that these classes existed.

"If we go back with the NCAA in our joint review, and... if we've identified that we have played students who were ineligible, then obviously we would have to vacate wins at that time," UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham told the AP. "But as long as the courses and the credits and everything count to the accrediting agency, we're very comfortable with our certification process - that our students were eligible to compete when they competed."

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