Coalition for Carolina

Coalition Survey Results

We wanted to know what you think about what’s going on at the University of North Carolina. So, we asked you. Almost 500 of you – 486, to be exact – responded to our online survey last month. Here is what you told us: You see an inherent value in pursuing higher education, and you […]

The Truth Matters

Once again, some members of the UNC Board of Trustees aren’t shooting straight with the University community. This time, it’s about origins of the ideologically driven “School of Civic Life and Leadership” that the trustees rammed through – with the support of politicians in the state legislature – without informing and adequately consulting the University’s […]

Important Accreditation Webinar Recording

If you missed our webinar on accreditation you missed a really great discussion. The recording is now available and you can access it here: Coalition for Carolina Accreditation Webinar Recording The bill to force an accreditation change is now moving through the NC House. Please contact your NC House Representatives and let them know whether […]

Carolina First

Coalition for Carolina Foundation Logo

In the 18 months since the Coalition for Carolina was formed, more than 22,000 people have joined our email and social media networks. We are alumni, friends, family, faculty, students, staff and supporters of the University. Many of us live in North Carolina, and others live in Utah, Maine, Florida, New York, other states, and […]

Roger Perry Responds to Trustee’s Attack

Coalition for Carolina Foundation Logo

Marty Kotis of Greensboro, a current trustee of UNC-Chapel Hill, last week published an attack on me, the Coalition for Carolina and the University itself. You can read it here.  https://nsjonline.com/article/2023/04/kotis-the-hypocrisy-of-the-coalition-for-carolina/ When I had the honor of serving on the Board of Trustees (2003-2011), trustees put party, politics and personalities aside. We put the University […]

Politicizing College Accreditation

The legislature, specifically the NC Senate, appears to be trying to make college and community college accreditation a political issue, which it never should be. Accreditation is a highly focused, disciplined process for all schools that receive certain federal contracts as well as those whose students receive certain scholarships, particularly Pell grants – federal needs-based […]

Threatening the Accreditor?

If the proposed new “School of Civic Life and Leadership” is not political, why did politicians write the accompanying letter to accreditor Belle Wheelan for simply doing her job?  Before we tell you what happened, let’s review what a college accreditor is and, specifically, who SACSCOC is and what their relationship is to Carolina. A […]

Is the UNC System Headed Down a Dangerous Path?

That is the question pondered by Inside Higher Ed. The piece begins like this; “The University of North Carolina system is grappling with accusations of partisan overreach by state legislators and their governing board appointees, fueling concerns that the system is headed down a dangerous path.” Inside Higher Ed goes on to describe several concerning […]

The GOP Playbook for Intervening in Higher Education

Yes. There appears to be a national playbook for the egregious governance overreach happening at Carolina.  The Chronicle of Higher Education obtained, through public-records requests and which have not been previously reported, emails which … “shine light on an increasingly popular mode of intervention into public higher ed. In establishing the Hamilton Center, Florida joined other states— […]

A Look at the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees’ Authority

(Spoiler Alert: It Doesn’t Include Creating New Academic Programs) Last week I read an editorial in the Wall Street Journal expressing consternation that the UNC-Chapel Hill’s accrediting agency plans to ask for more information about University plans—launched by its Board of Trustees–to create a new School of Civic Life and Leadership.  According to the WSJ, […]