As we shared last week, and as we all know from reading the news every day, the University is facing perilous, unpredictable times. Nearly every day brings some new uncertainty.
Now is the time for the Board of Trustees to work hard and advocate for the University.
As the UNC System’s flagship campus and one of the most respected in the country, we should always be innovating and setting the standard for what world-class education looks like.
Our Board of Trustees should be leading the charge on making sure that’s happening. But where is the leadership? Where is the advocacy to state and federal officials to intervene in the daily crises taking place on campus right now?
The Board of Trustees is appointed and empowered by the GOP-led legislature and the Board of Governors. The Republican Party has sent numerous officials to Washington, DC to act as North Carolina’s muscle in influencing federal policy. Yet our Trustees either cannot or will not focus on lobbying their contacts to stop the current crisis for our academic institutions.
Why aren’t John Preyer and his colleagues calling Senators Thom Tillis, Ted Budd and their friends in Congress and telling them to advocate for our university grants and funding as they are under attack from their very own party?
This is exactly what we need from John Preyer and the Board, and the moment we need it is now.
Instead, Preyer has instigated numerous setbacks for the University, seemingly far more concerned with micromanaging to assert his own interests than serving our school with regard to athletics, admissions and academic programs.
This has finally hit a crisis level, requiring UNC System President Peter Hans to insert new guardrails to keep Trustees from meddling, following the most recent intrusion into management when certain Trustees got inappropriately involved in athletics hiring Bill Belichick.
As Hans detailed in a Jan. 16 memo to Preyer:
“Independent and unilateral actions continue to create substantial legal risk to the University jeopardizing the North Carolina taxpayers’ money by blurring the lines of actual and apparent authority when these athletic departments negotiate business transactions with third parties, including but not limited to current, former, and future athletic employees.”
Yes, it’s bad. And of course, it’s not an isolated incident.
There was the similar memo Preyer received from Hans just last year telling him and other Trustees to stay in their lane in personnel matters.
It’s clear John Preyer knows how to get attention and take action when he feels compelled.
It would be nice if he found the brutal assaults on our University compelling.
We need strong leaders now more than ever. Preyer and several other Trustees are not rising to the occasion.
We commend UNC System President Peter Hans, the UNC Board of Governors, Chancellor Lee Roberts, and certain other Trustees for their willingness to find common ground to put the University on the right path.
Unfortunately, the current leader of the UNC Board of Trustees is a distraction, and too many times, the very cause of much of the chaos surrounding UNC governance.
We need Trustees who are screaming from the rooftops about what is happening right now at UNC and on campuses across the country. John Preyer and others have relationships with the power brokers in Raleigh and Washington who can actually have some influence in these matters. He is who we need to step up in this moment. It’s his job to step up. But does he refuse?
It’s time for leadership from John Preyer and the Board of Trustees. We urgently ask them to play the role that Trustees have played so often. That is, talking to political leaders and constituencies about policies that affect the University. The crisis potentially facing research universities is real. The need for added voices is real. We just hope Preyer and his Board will step forward into a role that is definitely within the Board’s purview and protect Carolina during these uncertain times.
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