Thomas Ross reflects on challenges he's faced

In recent years, higher education in North Carolina has gone through a tumultuous period of change.

In 2011, Thomas Ross took the helm of the UNC system, which has faced a tough economy and repeated funding cuts from the state.

Since that year, the system — which encompasses the 16 public universities in the state as well as a two-year residential high school — has had nearly half a billion dollars erased from its state funding.

State & National Editor Madeline Will sat down with Ross to talk about his thoughts on the tuition increases, the health of the system, sexual assault on campus and more.

The Daily Tar Heel: Do you think you were prepared for some of the issues the system has faced?

Thomas Ross: I think it’s hard to be prepared for some of what we’ve faced. I think all of us knew the economic situation was difficult and it would continue to be difficult for a while.

We’ve seen a lot of transition in North Carolina, both in the legislature and the Board of Governors. The economy is transitioning, and the state is transitioning in a lot of ways. Some of that we can anticipate, some of that we couldn’t.

And then we’ve had a lot of other issues that you never know they’re going to come up and never know they’re going to happen until they do. You have to be prepared to deal with them, that’s part of the nature of the job.

DTH: In August, you said that you wanted to freeze tuition increases for in-state undergraduate students. How did you come to that decision?

TR: I think we’re sort of at a crossroads at the University. We’ve increased tuition significantly over the last several years before I came and even since I’ve been here.

I think there reaches a point where we are asking our parents and students to carry a heavy burden. I think if we’re going to provide an affordable and accessible public university, at some point we have to figure out how to structure the financial makeup of the University that doesn’t rely so heavily on the students and their parents. That’s why that state investment is so critically important.

What I’m hoping is that we can give students and parents at least a break for a year or so after several years of increases, and that we can also create a conversation about what the future of funding for higher education’s going to be.

DTH: There’s a mandatory tuition increase for out-of-state students at most system schools, including UNC-CH, next year. Are you concerned about that?

TR: Yes. I think out-of-state students that come to our universities often are extremely talented people and they oftentimes stay here once they’ve come because they realize what a great state it is.

I’m concerned about whether we can continue to attract them if tuition gets too high. I’m concerned about losing some that we already have that look at that big increase and say, you know, it doesn’t make sense for me to be here, I could go back home or go to another school much less expensively. I think it’s as much about the message that it sends — we’re going to make you pay, really, more than the cost of your education to come here, and I worry about that. I think it’s not the right message for our state.

DTH: What has your relationship been like with Chancellor Carol Folt since she started her job in July?

TR: When I first sat down to interview her, it did not take long to figure out that she was the right choice for UNC-Chapel Hill. She’s incredibly bright, she has passion, she has energy, she has a commitment to public higher education.

I’ve also been impressed by her judgment, the issues that she’s had to confront in her short time here so far.

DTH: You announced a campus security initiative in June to see if the system was on target in addressing allegations of crimes, including sexual assault.

TR: This is an important initiative for us, and it’s not being driven by what happened at Chapel Hill or any other school. (We want) to be certain that our students are safe first and foremost, second to be sure that when there are issues of student conduct … we have a process that works well and is fair to the student but also to the University.

We’re particularly concerned about sexual assault and how it’s handled — in some ways sexual assault and other violent kinds of assault are different because they intersect with the legal system in ways many other kinds of student conduct issues don’t.

Figuring out how to blend those different processes so that we’re sure we’re not in any way inhibiting or interfering with or damaging the legal process while at the same time, providing a thoughtful, careful process for the hearing of these matters on campus — it’s a complex issue.

It’s one frankly from my own personal experience that I’ve seen a lot of. I spent 17 years as a trial judge so I tried a lot of these cases and I know how difficult they are. We want to be sure we do it exactly the right way, the best way possible, use all the best practices.

DTH: Students from UNC-CH have been meeting with members of the system’s General Administration to discuss alternatives to gender-neutral housing. What is the status of that?

TR: I think they’ve got some follow-up conversations to take place. I know our (Association of Student Governments) leader is trying to work with the campus and others to think through some alternatives and options to ensure student safety because I think that’s been a concern that all of us want to be sure we’re on top of.

DTH: What’s the next step?

TR: We agreed to provide the written materials that were provided to us to our board chair. Then I think Robert Nunnery, who’s the ASG president, is going to be working with student leaders to come up with some options, and we’ll see where that leads.

DTH: At the last board meeting, a member brought up the possibility of consolidating a university. Long-term, where do you see the UNC system?

TR: There’s no proposal from anyone on our board at this point to consolidate a campus. I think that there are a lot of things that we would need to try and fail at before we’d ever get to that point.

I always ask students and faculty of a campus — what would this town be like if the university wasn’t there? Each of these institutions has a real role to play in their region so if you were to shut one of them down, it would have in many ways a devastating effect on the region, and I think we all have to think through that before we think that’s an easy solution for any budget problem.

The other thing I remind people of — this is a growing state. There’s going to be an increasing demand for higher education in the state.

I don’t think the future is going to lead in that direction for the University of North Carolina. I hope not because I think it would mean that things are not going well for the state, because if the state is thriving, then the University would thrive with it.

DTH: Is there anything in this job that keeps you up at night?

TR: I think we all worry about another crisis at one of our institutions, and how many more can you take? Any time you’re dealing with an institution that employs as many people as we do … and then you throw on top of that 220,000 students — there’s going to be crises, there’s going to be mistakes made. It’s our job to manage through those and try to resolve those as quickly as we can and successfully as we can and we’re going to continue to do that. I don’t lose sleep over those things.

But what I worry about more than anything is the success of our students and their safety and their opportunity and their ability to help provide the leadership and the development of our economy … because that’s who we depend on.

I was just watching a video from the University of Virginia about a young woman who was very highly regarded on campus, went to Washington, D.C. for a party and took a molly pill (and died). I worry about that a whole lot more than I do anything else.

All that’s going on with the University, is it hurting opportunities for students in some way? Are we cutting in the wrong places? Or doing something that might reduce their opportunity? Those are the kinds of things that keep me up.

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