Hi, everyone.
I’m Mimi Chapman, a professor at UNC Chapel Hill and co-founder of the Coalition for Carolina.
March was a big month here at the Coalition and we don’t want you to miss anything.
We began by focusing on emails obtained through a Freedom of Information act request.
They showed that two outside groups worked closely with two trustees, not with the campus administration, to arrange for Heather Mac Donald, a fellow with the right-wing Manhattan Institute, to speak to the trustees last fall.
The outside groups were the UNC Alumni Free Speech Alliance and the Martin center for Academic Renewal. The trustees were Ramsey White and chair John Preyer.
We learned that Mac Donald was paid $11,000 to come here and address the trustees, attack UNC, and attack our students and colleagues of color, as well as demean higher education across the country.
Next, we had a hugely successful webinar with interim chancellor Lee Roberts. 200 plus people attended at the time of the webinar and many have watched since. He said he hasn’t seen evidence of “a liberal bias” among faculty that affects their teaching at Carolina.
He said that the role of the trustees should be guidance, advice and advocacy, and that he reports directly to UNC system president Peter Hans. He believes that the controversial new School of Civic Life and Leadership will be a tremendous asset to UNC. We are not sure on that one, but we will certainly keep our fingers crossed.
Also, we were thrilled to receive a copy of a letter that was sent to interim Chancellor Roberts and to the trustees chair. This letter, which, excuse me, which was dated January 12, 2024 and sent by UNC system President Peter Hans and the board of Governors Chair Randy Ramsey, speaks to the relationship between the chancellor and the board of trustees.
The letter appears to be a reset for how the board and the chancellor should work together, including a collaborative process for creating BOT meeting agendas, changes in authority delegated to the board, among others.
You can read that memorandum on our website.
Reading this memorandum meant an awful lot to us. For two years, we have been drawing attention to how governance has been out of balance on our campus. As a researcher, I’m not going to infer direct causation, but we think our work is making a difference and we hope you’ll join us. We think this memorandum is exhibit A, and as Roger likes to say, Hark the Sound.
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