Media's Watchdog Role Vital for Public Awareness

The University community witnessed a prime example of the power of the press at the end of last semester.

On Nov. 17, The (Raleigh) News & Observer published an article revealing that outgoing Vice Chancellor and General Counsel Susan Ehringhaus would be paid a hefty sum of money after her departure from the University.

An agreement made between Ehringhaus and Chancellor James Moeser stipulates that she will receive almost $320,000 for eight months of unrelated work in Washington, D.C., beginning this month, and a year of teaching at the UNC School of Law beginning this September.

Although it was later clarified that Ehringhaus would be paid with private funds rather than taxpayer money, the proposition -- and the article -- created quite a stir, from the ranks of UNC's own faculty all the way up to the N.C. General Assembly.

The deal prompted a great deal of harsh criticism of Moeser, who maintained that Ehringhaus' 32 years of service at the University -- and the fact that the money would come from private coffers -- warranted such compensation.

The critics, however, argued that the magnitude of the deal reflected poorly upon the University administration, which was forced -- and will continue to be forced -- to defend UNC's budget in a time when there's not enough money to go around.

As the press latched onto the story and editorial pages lambasted Moeser, top officials also took a stance.

On Dec. 2, the UNC-system Board of Governors' Personnel and Tenure Committee directed the Office of the President to draft a policy for salary negotiations with parting administrators, essentially guaranteeing that no mess of the Ehringhaus-Moeser sort would happen again.

UNC-system President Molly Broad called the agreement "indefensible" and "irresponsible," and a few weeks later, some legislators even went so far as to call for Moeser's firing, although Broad did defend the chancellor's ability to continue in his position.

The unrelenting flood of criticism unleashed by The N&O article finally prompted Moeser to publicly admit that the agreement was a mistake. Although he has no intentions of renegotiating the deal, Moeser wrote that he learned from his mistake and would not repeat it in the future.

All this from one newspaper article.

Had The N&O not published that story, Ehringhaus almost surely would have raked in that $320,000 without the public ever knowing, and no guidelines would have been put in place to regulate such negotiations in the future.

Considering that Moeser admitted that Ehringhaus' departure was a result, at least in part, of his desire to have his "own team" in place (i.e., there could be more administrators leaving in the near future), and considering that Ehringhaus was the third high-ranking administrator to leave UNC in 2002 (Marian Moore, vice chancellor for information technology, announced her departure in May, and Sue Kitchen, vice chancellor for student affairs, left in June), that's a scary -- and expensive -- thought.

The N&O story, and those that followed, served their purpose. Discussion and debate are always healthy when it comes to matters of the public and its institutions, and that is the ultimate goal of a responsible press -- to bring about change through discussion and debate.

The same is true here at The Daily Tar Heel. Whether we're covering something as large scale as the U.S. Senate race or as close to home as the race for student body president, our goal is to inform and prompt thought.

It's not every day that a story like the Moeser-Ehringhaus deal hits the spotlight, but there are plenty of issues coming up this semester that will grace the pages of the DTH and, I hope, prompt some discussion in the community -- hot topics such as the 2004 presidential race, the state's budget deficit, tuition, student elections and even parking on campus.

You can do your part by reading the paper -- ours or another -- and fulfill your civic duty by participating in that public discussion, as many did in response to the Moeser-Ehringhaus agreement.

Whether or not there was anything questionable about the deal, it still was a damn good talking point, and setting my own pride aside, I'm sure glad The N&O offered that story into the public forum.

As a taxpayer and member of the University community, you should be too.

Reach Daily Tar Heel Editor Kim Minugh, a senior journalism and history major from Mission Viejo, Calif., at kminugh@email.unc.edu.