RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A report by a special faculty committee at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is calling for an independent commission of outside experts in higher education to review athletics and academics at the university.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reports (http://bit.ly/QLJVLk) that the panel investigating the school's academic fraud scandal found an athletics program largely divorced from the faculty. The report also found academic counselors for athletes improperly involved in helping them enroll in classes and poor oversight of faculty administrators who have wide latitude in running their departments.

The report released on Thursday doesn't criticize UNC's efforts to find out why 54 classes within the African and Afro-American Studies Department had little or no instruction in four years. The classes were enrolled largely with athletes.

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Information from: The News & Observer, http://www.newsobserver.com