“This kind of coverage is obviously troubling. It’s not what anybody would want.”
Those were the words of UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts after the story “A Leader of UNC’s Civic Life School Is Fired, Adding to Turmoil” headlined the Chronicle of Higher Education’s homepage recently.
Carolina has been in the news too often recently for less-than-desirable reasons.
The Chronicle’s story was the latest in the ongoing saga of UNC’s School of Civic Life and Leadership (SCiLL), a school that was hastily created with improper input by the UNC Board of Trustees and without input by UNC faculty and has since been mired in controversy. Of the nine inaugural faculty at SCiLL, only one remains. It’s a highly concerning track record for a school still in its infancy.
If you look at recent failures and criticisms of the University, most stem from an abandonment of the formal processes that have helped Carolina function so soundly and fairly in years past.
Whether it’s Trustees quietly tabling tenure nominations without explanation, their inappropriate input into the admissions of potential students or their influence in the expensive proposition of hiring Bill Belichick, it seems the new standard operating procedure is to not have any standard operating procedures – at least as far as the Board of Trustees is concerned.
The good news is, University officials are pushing back and appear committed to maintaining processes that will help Carolina succeed in this volatile new world of higher education.
Chancellor Roberts confirmed at a Sept. 5 faculty meeting that SCiLL is currently under independent investigation.
Interim Provost Jim Dean also provided strong leadership recently in response to a conservative group’s request to obtain syllabi and course materials from over 70 UNC courses for blatantly political purposes.
WUNC reported that during a recent faculty council meeting, Provost Dean told attendees:
“Faculty members have the opportunity to provide their course materials to whoever is doing the request, but are explicitly not required to do so. Per university and UNC System policy, the faculty member is the holder of the copyright for their course materials. I think that’s a really important point to stress.”
Maintaining long-held processes and providing clear guidance is key to Carolina’s success in the future. If running a top-tier university weren’t challenging enough, Carolina is now facing an environment where research budgets are being slashed, political vitriol is taking hold of campuses and their governing bodies and institutions of higher education are increasingly under attack and their value being questioned.
A productive path forward won’t be through the whims of individuals and their personal and political priorities. It will be through fair, objective and steady leadership.