Listening to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill law professor Gene Nichol’s radical riff ripping trustees and the UNC system’s Board of Governors as cowards, and Republican lawmakers as … Continue reading “Starving the Beast Prompts Choleric Call to Fatten a Sacred Cow”
As each year comes to a close, I take some time to review what the Pope Center accomplished during the previous 52 weeks, to analyze what challenges we still face, … Continue reading “Your Generosity Is Helping to Improve Higher Education”
Recently, a legislative proposal aimed at improving graduation rates at the University of North Carolina system’s 16 institutions was nixed due to vehement opposition from university leaders. In its place … Continue reading “The Higher Education Establishment’s Self-Interest Goes Unchecked—Again”
On November 16, thousands of students at public and private universities across the country walked out of classes to protest the election of Donald Trump to the presidency. One of … Continue reading “Should Universities Be “Sanctuaries” for Illegal Immigrants?”
Recently I attended a meeting of a committee of the University of North Carolina system’s Board of Governors that has a mission of “setting goals for economic impact.” Higher education’s … Continue reading “Educating for the Workplace: A Dilemma”
An unlikely champion of more university oversight emerged at a recent University of North Carolina system Board of Governors (BOG) meeting. During a discussion about the board’s long-term strategic goals … Continue reading “UNC Leaders Should Keep a Closer Eye on Underperforming Degree Programs”
In February 2015, the University of North Carolina System’s Board of Governors (BOG) concluded an extensive review of the 237 academic centers and institutes housed across the 16 UNC campuses. … Continue reading “UNC-Chapel Hill’s Center for Civil Rights Continues Leftist Agenda Unabated”
Among the duties of a university’s board of trustees, there is perhaps no bigger responsibility than helping to select the leader of the campus—the chancellor/president. Such an important responsibility requires … Continue reading “Should Universities Be Outsourcing Their Chancellor Searches?”
The UNC System is flush with foundations that raise money for their associated universities, and researchers who have looked at these types of organizations on a national level have called them “slush funds” and “shadow corporations” that too often operate in secrecy, despite spending taxpayers’ money. The unusual practice in North Carolina in which foundations buy property, then lease space back to their universities, has raised eyebrows among some of those experts.
In the last few years, the rights of students in North Carolina universities have received some significant new protections. It is important that state legislators and educators continue to do so, for such rights—pertaining to free speech and due process of punitive proceedings—have been under assault on college campuses nationwide in recent years.