Hear No Evil.
Reputationally speaking, UNC-Chapel Hill (Carolina) is parked by the side of the road, listing slightly, with one window that won’t roll up and a white T-shirt hanging from the driver’s side. That is to say, it still runs, but it needs some work and soon.
Ignore, for the moment, the misdeeds of the past – notably the Wainstein Report, which detailed an “Investigation of Irregular Classes in the Department of African and Afro-American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.” Between 1993 and 2011, two professors were accused of creating “paper classes” – courses that required no attendance and no course work other than a solitary paper. Apparently, at least one of those instructors (Karnak, the magician) managed to give high scores to papers that were submitted without the benefit of have read them. These paper classes yielded consistently higher grades than did other coursework in the Department. The report notes that the inflated grades had a significant impact on the GPA of students and student-athletes. Nearly half of the students in these classes were student athletes, while about 4% of Carolina undergrads are student-athletes.
That scandal accounts (in part) for the end of the tenure of Holden Thorp, the otherwise well-regarded young chemist, professor and entrepreneur who logged on as Carolina’s 10th Chancellor. He left in 2013, and was replaced by UNC’s first female Chancellor, Carol Holt.
Under Holt, the University spent about a bazillion dollars trying to defend itself from sanctions by the NCAA based on the Weinstein report, and mostly succeeded. (The NCAA concluded that the paper classes were not designed specifically to benefit student athletes. Apparently the administration as a body pretty much took the Fifth.) The University was put on probation for a year by their accrediting body. Life moved on.
In 2019, Holt moved on, complaining in her resignation letter about the “disruption” created by the Silent Sam controversy (see Act II). Enter Kevin Guskiewicz, Chancellor number twelve. More on him below.
In order to understand the situation that Chancellors face (then and now) it’s important to understand the power structure in the UNC system. It’s complicated.
UNC-Chapel Hill (along with 16 other “constituent institutions”) has a Chancellor at the helm who is selected by the 24 voting members of the Board of Governors (BOG) on the Board President’s nomination.[1] The Chancellor is responsible to the President. But wait – while the BOG maintains The UNC Policy Manual and The Code, which are based on the State Constitution, Statutes, Bylaws and specific campus policies – there is also a Board of Trustees (BOT). THAT 13-member Board “holds extensive powers over academic and other operations of its campus on delegation from the Board of Governors.” Broadly speaking, the general assembly has appointment powers (directly or indirectly) to both the BOG and BOT.
On top of all that, UNC-Chapel Hill “has a long history of shared governance at all levels. The faculty has played a key role in making decisions about academics and policy. . . regarding ‘who shall teach, what shall be taught and who shall be taught.’”[2]
In short, it turns out that Chancellor is the low person on a very tall pole. It appears that what makes a good Chancellor is someone who never says anything really definitive, or steps on any toes.
Enter Chapel Hill’s latest Chancellor – an interim appointee named Lee Roberts. It is considered that interim appointees have a good shot at a permanent role, and there’s little doubt that Roberts has the skids greased. He is a Republican (Correction 12/21 - registered Independent) who worked in the administration of former Governor Pat McCrory, and he was appointed to the BOG in 2021.
To his credit – his only credit, so far – he is the son of NPR’s Cokie Roberts. He has no prior connection to Carolina, and his sole academic credential (other than as an undergrad at – sigh – Duke) seems to be the appointment to the BOG. He’s described here and there as a “technocrat,” with no experience in academic leadership. There seems to be little doubt that he will embrace without hesitation policies suggested by the right-wing cadre of current BOG, BOT, and Legislative operatives. Those are the same people who are responsible for two of former Chancellor Guskiewicz’s biggest challenges: interference in hiring decisions, and the creation of a new school intended to promote conservative thought (Note: “conservative thought” is fast becoming an oxymoron.)
The tenure case of Nikole Hannah-Jones was a pure example of the politicization of Higher Ed, an assault on Black scholarship, and an insult to the integrity of academia in general. It was the Board of Trustees, mostly, behind this debacle. Former Chancellor Holden Thorpe has likened this Board of Trustees to “middle-schoolers,” and said, “The irony is that many of these board members think that the university should be run more like a business, but they conduct themselves in a manner no business would tolerate.” [3]
This same Board of Trustees fell all over themselves in their haste to take credit on Fox News for the creation of the new UNC-CH School of Civic Life and Leadership, in what they assumed would be a blow to the face of Snowflake Liberalism on campus.
The Board of Trustees had their way in both cases, and in both cases, they lost more than they gained. In the Hannah-Jones tenure case, after an unexpectedly angry outcry by the Carolina faculty and people of color everywhere, they relented and offered Hannah-Jones her well-deserved tenure. She responded “screw you,” and went off to teach at Howard. As for the School of Whatever It Is, I’m sure the Trustees were dumbfounded to learn that actual scholars, with impeccable credentials and elite stature at the University have been selected to fill the new faculty slots in that School.
And now we welcome Lee Roberts, likely shill for the middle-schoolers and their puppet masters. We are not filled with confidence that he will get Carolina’s reputation out of the breakdown lane and back in running order, nor inclined – given recent history – to give him the benefit of the doubt. Sorry, Cokie.
[1] https://www.northcarolina.edu/leadership-and-governance/board-of-governors/#:~:text=%5Bv%5D%20Each%20board%20of%20trustees,and%20the%20UNC%20Policy%20Manual.
[2] https://facultyhandbook.unc.edu/administration-and-governance/faculty-governance/
[3] https://www.newsbreak.com/news/3258998241845-former-chancellor-welcome-to-the-club-kevin-another-victim-of-unc-s-middle-schoolers-opinion?_f=app_share&s=i4&pd=07RVaAo7&lang=en_US&send_time=1702124172&trans_data=%7B%22platform%22%3A0%2C%22cv%22%3A%2223.48.2.3%22%2C%22languages%22%3A%22en%22%7D
It’s difficult to ❤️ this post. I’ve always loved UNC-CH because, even as a middle schooler, the campus always felt so welcoming. Admittedly I’m going back a goodly number of years though. It was apparent when the legislature turned bloody in 2010, they would go after our state institutions of higher learning and they didn’t disappoint their handlers. So now the BOG(s)&BOT(s)have managed to ruin a fine higher educational system because having a few public crown jewels dedicated to excellence in an affordable college experience can’t be tolerated by the wrong wing in North Carolina.