The Daily Tar Heel recently sat down with Chancellor Lee Roberts to talk with him about what’s been going on at Carolina and, more specifically, the closing of the area centers that we wrote about last week.
The full interview is informative and worth a read. The DTH provided top-notch journalism, as always. We were especially interested in the final question that asked for Chancellor Roberts’s vision of the University’s priorities when tough decisions must be made.
“When future alumni look back at this moment in UNC’s history,” the DTH asked, “what do you hope they say the University chose to protect — and what it was also willing to risk?”
It’s an important question to ask, because it represents the realities the University is facing. Federal budget cuts wreaked havoc on universities across the country in 2025, and Carolina is cutting $70 million from its operating budget to offset the cuts.
Name, image and likeness (NIL) policies and the transfer portal have upended college sports – a major investment for a Division One school with a strong athletics program such as ours.
And there is a growing assault on academic freedom. The Trump administration’s higher education compact last year perhaps represented the most widespread and blatant attack on academic freedom and institutional autonomy. But it was not the first nor the last of its kind, and there have been many small cuts along the way targeted at programs that promote diversity and policies that protect free speech and free thought.
Tough decisions must be made, and the University must have a clear vision of what its priorities are. And the more we consider recent decisions, the more concerned we are that those priorities are misplaced.
Faculty and staff aren’t getting the pay raises they deserve, yet the University seemed to easily find the money to pay for Bill Belichick and his expensive football program.
Carolina prides itself on being a global university, yet it is shuttering area centers that give us a connection to the world and make us a leader among our peer institutions.
Conversely, we do seem to have the resources to create schools such as the School of Civic Life and Leadership (SCiLL) – a program hastily created outside of the normal process and one that’s been mired in controversy since its inception.
Recent announcements and decisions show whenever the University wants to find money for its priority projects, it can happen. Meanwhile, the University is tightening its belt in all the wrong places as it deemphasizes academics and withdraws from the world.
We have so much to be proud of at Carolina. Late last year, we highlighted Carolina’s three newly announced Rhodes Scholars, making us the number one public university for Rhodes Scholarships. That exciting announcement was one of many accolades Carolina holds among peer institutions.
The prestige of our university has never been better. Its value and esteem have never been higher. You see that in the accomplishments of our graduates and the 85,000 applicants who want to be the next generation of Tar Heels.
The Daily Tar Heel’s question is poignant and timely, though. Difficult decisions will have to be made. It’s important we know who we are and what we value so that we can make the right ones.
[Read the full Daily Tar Heel interview here.]
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Breaking News: We’ve just learned that former UNC Board of Trustees Chair John Preyer, who has been such a controversial lightning rod, has abruptly resigned from the board.
Read more here: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article314325272.html
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________