Sign Our Petition: Stop the Political Meddling That Chased Away Chancellor Guskiewicz

To President Peter Hans and the UNC System Board of Governors:

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faces a crisis. On December 8, 2023, we lost yet another Chancellor, Kevin Guskiewicz – because of political meddling by members of the UNC Board of Trustees.

We petition you to:

• Stop trustees’ improper interference at Carolina.
• Ensure that the next Chancellor at Carolina maintains the standard of excellence that we all expect at America’s oldest and greatest state public university.

President Hans, your selection of the next Chancellor will be the most important decision of your presidency.

Members of the Board of Governors, it is time for you to rein in the intrusive overreach by some members of the Board of Trustees.

Make no mistake: Kevin Guskiewicz is leaving Carolina – for Michigan State – because he had enough of political meddling.

Michigan State won. We lost.

Chancellor Guskiewicz put integrity, academic excellence and the good of our campus community ahead of partisan politics.

For that, the current Board of Trustees hounded him out of Chapel Hill.

Now, our campus is thrown into unnecessary turmoil and Carolina’s reputation for excellence, integrity and independence hangs in the balance.

All because of political interference and governance overreach by trustees.

We urge the Board of Governors to:

• Determine which members of the UNC Board of Trustees have overstepped their proper statutory and ethical responsibilities.
• Review the division of authority between the Board of Governors and the Board of Trustees.

We urge President Hans to:

• Appoint an interim Chancellor who will maintain stability, earn the trust of the campus community and resist improper overreach by trustees.
• Appoint a diverse and broadly representative search committee that will identify a great Chancellor who will lead Carolina for years to come.

When William Richardson Davie laid the cornerstone for Old East in 1793, the University of North Carolina became a beacon of public higher education in America. We must keep it shining bright.

History is watching. 

Sign the petition here.