TPAC Chairman: Directives Didn't Come From Moeser

Knight said Thursday that he had hoped TPAC members would be able to reach an agreement on a budget recommendation if he told them the five elements of an acceptable Department of Public Safety budget proposal that Knight outlined at Wednesday's meeting came from Chancellor James Moeser.

"I was trying to do something dramatic to get them to come to a consensus," Knight said. "These five things came from me. I did misrepresent that."

Many TPAC members at Wednesday's meeting expressed outrage after Knight said Moeser and his Cabinet had drafted the five guidelines, saying they felt the administration was encroaching upon their responsibilities.

The meeting was scheduled to be TPAC's final session before members presented suggestions to the chancellor's office regarding the DPS budget. DPS is facing a projected $2 million shortfall for the 2002-03 fiscal year, and the budget recommendations are intended to increase revenue sources.

Proposed changes include charging for night parking and increasing daytime parking fees.

Moeser said Thursday that he and members of his Cabinet met Tuesday but did not direct Knight to announce any guidelines at the TPAC meeting, as Knight suggested Wednesday.

Knight was not in attendance at Tuesday's Cabinet meeting.

"I have no idea where (the guidelines) are coming from -- they didn't come from me," Moeser said. "I think they are Bob Knight's best judgment."

Moeser said it was possible that Knight gathered the ideas from a later discussion with Nancy Suttenfield, vice chancellor for finance and administration, whose office presides over TPAC.

But Knight denied Suttenfield's involvement, saying he had been given the freedom to lead TPAC himself.

"(Suttenfield) is not a boss who micromanages," he said. Suttenfield could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Sue Estroff, Faculty Council chairwoman and a TPAC member who was at Wednesday's meeting, said Knight's statements gave her the impression that the directives were from Moeser's office. "There is no question in my mind that what was conveyed was that this is what (the administration) expected," she said.

Many members also said Wednesday that they thought TPAC was being stripped of its advisory role by what they thought were the administration's directives.

Graduate student Emily Williamson, a TPAC member, said Thursday, "For Bob Knight to come to the meeting and say 'these are the guidelines' was inappropriate."

Knight said he regretted that many TPAC members believed the hotly contested directives came from Moeser.

"I didn't mean to put words in the chancellor's mouth," he said.

Knight said Thursday that he plans to send an e-mail to TPAC members clearing up any confusion he might have caused.

"If I said something that put (Moeser) in a bad light, I didn't mean to do that."

Moeser said his administration is still considering all options about transportation and parking issues. "I think a lot of people on this campus believe the whole TPAC process is a charade, and somewhere a decision already has been made on all these issues," he said. "I just want to tell you that that is categorically not true."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.