A battle has emerged, pitting the faculty against the Board of Trustees (BOT) at the University of North Carolina (UNC) after the trustees voted unanimously to accelerate the creation of a new school – the School of Life and Civic Leadership. The school’s goal is to promote democracy and benefiting society.
What seemed like a good idea to the trustees has been widely criticized by present and former faculty members, who do not think the university needs balance.
“The board doesn’t have any ability to propose a class, to propose a degree, or — for God’s sake — to propose a school,” said Holden Thorp, who served as UNC’s chancellor from 2008 to 2013, to the Daily Tar Heel student newspaper. He added that the BOT’s resolution is an example of the “worst governance” he thinks he has ever seen.
Mimi Chapman, chairperson of faculty, told the student newspaper that she was “flabbergasted.” She claimed that the faculty was excluded from providing input in the decision, which she considered to be an attack on shared university governance.
In reality, the outrage of Thorpe, Chapman, and other faculty members has nothing to do with their perceived belief that the BOT doesn’t have the ability to create a new school, or that faculty input wasn’t considered. The meeting was broadcast over YouTube and it was an open meeting, which they could have attended but apparently ignored. However, the fact that this new school would be free of liberal ideology which permeates most of higher education (including UNC).
The offended parties felt blindsided by this development because they never expected the BOT to actually take their role seriously and try to improve the university, rather than just sit back, raise money, and let the school continue on its merry path of liberal indoctrination. Now, the faculty is stewing in their own righteous indignation.
