Even before she assumes control of the University of North Carolina system, former Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has become a lightening rod for attacks by faculty, students, and activists on the left. It is an attempt to intimidate her into acquiescence to the leftist faculty’s agenda.
The search for the next University of North Carolina system president has finally concluded. Margaret Spellings, secretary of the U.S. Education Department during George W. Bush’s second presidential term, was unanimously elected by the system’s Board of Governors on October 23. Spellings, who will take the helm in March 2016, is a moderate Republican, but one who shows some promise of developing into a reform-minded university leader—a very welcome possibility. She opposes what she calls universities’ “send us the money and leave us alone” approach, and some of her views on higher education challenge those of the academic establishment.
This paper by Jay Schalin, the Pope Center’s director of policy analysis, explores the teaching loads of faculty in the University of North Carolina system. It finds that the university overstates the actual teaching duties of professors and recommends that the UNC Board of Governors conduct a comprehensive study of faculty workloads.
Another bond package has been approved for the University of North Carolina system, but this one was done without voter approval. State legislators approved a nearly $340 million bond package to finance a what were deemed “necessary projects” for the UNC system, even though some did not appear on the UNC Board of Governors’ wish list.
N.C. community college leaders are asking lawmakers for $174.5 million to boost faculty and staff salaries, but key legislators say it will be difficult to fund all those needs in a tight budget year. A legislative committee is scheduled to discuss the matter next week.
N.C. A&T State University should learn who will be its new chancellor on Friday, March 19. As of press time on Thursday, March 18, President Molly Broad’s office had not made public the names of the four candidates for the position, except one name: Harold Martin, vice chancellor for academic affairs at N.C. A&T.