TO THE EDITOR:
Bill Friday’s vision for and commitment to the UNC system is best reflected in the words of the late Charles Kuralt: “What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well or the bell or the stone walls … No, our love for this place is based on the fact that it is, as it was meant to be, the University of the people.”
Yet, Friday was one of the few members of the newly-formed Advisory Committee on Strategic Directions — charged with directing the future of the university system — who truly valued publicly funded higher education.
He was also the only member who was a tireless advocate of low tuition.
The advisory committee is otherwise filled with politicians and corporate CEOs, including some who have spoken out against public education, and others who voted to remove the minimum tuition set-aside of 25 percent for financial aid in the case of tuition increases. They don’t represent the “University of the people.”
I wonder how Bill Friday felt about the make-up of the committee.
He should be replaced, at the very least, by faculty who have demonstrated their commitment to UNC as a public institution.
Isn’t that what Bill Friday would have wanted?.
Andrew Frost ’08
Sociology
Durham
