Our Perspective

The Trump administration is yet again meddling in higher education, this time by issuing a 10-page “Compact for Excellence in Higher Education” to an assortment of nine of the nation’s top universities. The universities, which received letters including the compact on Oct. 1, …

We are happy to share some good news this week. For the 21st-straight year, UNC-Chapel Hill ranked as the No. 1 best value among public universities by the U.S. News & World Report and No. 4 overall among public institutions. The University also …

Sometimes, our work of providing information and commentary on the actions of the UNC Board of Trustees feels a bit niche – hugely important and consequential for Carolina, but not always attention grabbing to the masses. That changed when former Provost Chris Clemens …

“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 …

Big news in higher education yesterday, with Harvard landing a legal win against the Trump Administration that had cost the university billions in research funding. We updated you last week on the many battles universities around the country are facing, including hefty politically …

A new school year calls for a news update: the attacks on universities have continued. The latest at Carolina came just this week as the conservative group The Oversight Project requested the syllabi of 74 UNC courses using keywords including “DEI,” “LGBTQ+” and …

It’s a great day (and week) to be a Tar Heel! Thousands of students have descended on campus to start the 2025-2026 school year. It should certainly be an interesting one. Many of us have fond memories of arriving on campus for the …

With all the uncertainty going on in academia and higher ed at this time, it’s more important than ever that Carolina protect tenure for our talented faculty. A few weeks ago, we covered a recent Board of Trustees meeting where a tenure vote …

We received overwhelming response to last week’s newsletter about recent threats to the independence of Carolina’s alumni association. This week, we wanted to cover another topic that has been in the news recently but perhaps isn’t getting the attention it deserves: the overhaul …

Just as Carolina is the oldest public university in the country, Carolina Alumni (previously known as the UNC General Alumni Association) is the oldest independent alumni association, founded in 1843 by 31 UNC graduates, including Governor John Motley Morehead. Despite its independence, the …