Republican crusade to convert UNC-Chapel Hill will lead to its demise Opinion
The crusade to convert the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill into a Republican, nationally scorned university continues with unrepentant enthusiasm.
Recall that last summer the American Association of University Professors “resoundingly censured” the UNC Board of Governors for shocking “political interference,” repeated “breaches of faculty governance,” “severe violations of academic freedom,” continued “patterns of institutional racism,” and for demanding “cowardly top-down administration.”
In recent weeks, UNC’s governing boards have demonstrated they think they can do even better. Republican orthodoxy now demands an opposition not only to critical race theory and affirmative action, but also to diversity initiatives. It’s apparently unseemly, though, to harp against “diversity” — sounds too barbaric, too Jesse Helms. So a Board of Governors committee just proposed a new policy which bars faculty candidates from being asked about “matters of contemporary political debate.”
The law professor in me marvels at the breadth and vagueness of that prohibition. It may be the most unwieldy classification I’ve ever heard of. And if questions arise, they must be submitted, for approval, to the relevant Board of Governors committee. I kid you not — the same board that has a strong record of suppressing free speech. This isn’t overreach, it’s displacement.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/republican-crusade-convert-unc-chapel-194742250.html
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If anyone’s watched them in action over time they would have seen how the board has expanded exponentially to the point where they are practically sitting on top of each other in their meetings.
The appointments have become so bizarre that Governor Cooper ordered a review of their appointment process last fall.
Gov. Cooper orders review of how UNC System leaders are appointed
Korie Dean, The Charlotte Observer - Nov 1, 2022
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order Tuesday creating a commission to assess how leaders are appointed to public university governance boards in the state — and to offer potential reforms to the process, he said.
The Commission on the Future of Public Universities will evaluate the governance structure of the UNC System and each of the 17 public schools in the system, and make recommendations and proposals to the governor’s office “on how to improve existing governance,” including who should be tasked with appointing leaders.
The bipartisan commission will be co-chaired by Margaret Spellings, who served as U.S. secretary of education under President George W. Bush and was president of the UNC System from 2016 to 2019, and Tom Ross, a former N.C. Superior Court judge and president of Davidson College who served as president of the UNC System from 2011 to 2016.
In announcing the commission at a press conference Tuesday, Cooper cited “signs of trouble” with the current appointment and governance structure at both the UNC System and individual university levels, including “undue political influence and bureaucratic meddling.”
Snip...much more at the link...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gov-cooper-orders-review-of-how-unc-system-leaders-are-appointed/ar-AA13CDiq
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