Editorial: Dysfunctional UNC board needs more diversity, governor's input
Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2019 -- Ideological inbreeding on the UNC Board of Governors leads to misguided groupthink that fails to recognize the sheer immorality of doing business with the likes of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. To assure at least a hint of diversity, it is time to give the governor at least a third of the appointments to the UNC Board of Governors.
Posted — UpdatedWhat do legislators have to say about the way members of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors are elected?
- “Is this the way they did the ballots in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics?”
- “There’s greater freedom in the Russian Duma, National People’s Congress in China and the Iraqi Congress than we experienced today in the N.C. Senate.”
- “(The UNC Board is) “a partisan political preserve of one party.”
Was it from frustrated Democrats during elections last legislative session?
Those Republicans – the others like them including current Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore – could have acted on their complaints and reformed the UNC Board member selection process. Instead, they tossed aside their indignation. They doubled down on the system they’d criticized.
It is time for change. Changing state law to give the governor – who has a statewide constituency -- at least a third of the appointments to the board would result in greater diversity and broader perspectives.
Today there are even fewer women (19% compared to 25%) and fewer African-Americans (11% compared to 22%) than 15 years ago. There are more lobbyists and others working in governmental affairs – directly beholden to the actions of the legislature.
The result is a UNC board that is utterly dysfunctional. Want evidence?
- The board is on it’s third president in three years.
- There are interim chancellors at four campuses (East Carolina University, UNC-Chapel Hill; Fayetteville State University; and UNC School of the Arts).
- Board members -- independently, without authorization, full knowledge of other board members or administrators -- hire private investigators to look into official university business
- One board member has been reprimanded by the state bar (for a non-board matter).
But even all that becomes pale in the light of the most recent management debacle.
As the interim chancellor has discovered since that day, the “matter” is hardly resolved.
This ideological inbreeding leads to the kind of misguided groupthink that fails to recognize the sheer immorality of doing business with the likes of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
It is a hurtful insult to the citizens of North Carolina. Alumni and students are astonished.
To assure at least a hint of diversity, it is time that law was changed. Give the governor at least a third of the appointments to the UNC Board of Governors.
Related Topics
Copyright 2024 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.