Opinion: It’s our job to talk back

While the decision by the UNC Board of Governors to oust Tom Ross as the president of the UNC system without offering any credible explanation is disturbing enough on its own, it is totally in line with the board’s past behavior. It is outrageous, but it is not surprising. 

More disturbing has been the relative silence by those best equipped to demand answers from the BOG.

Many parties are guilty of weak-kneed responses. 

Our own student government released a statement that was fine in terms of content, but they have failed to press the issue or take any meaningful action to demand answers. 

Despite some bluster from segments of the faculty, as a collective, they have done little. 

And even the student activist community, which has done a good job of challenging the BOG on a variety of issues, has been slow to pursue visible protest actions in response to the board’s suspect decision.

But most disappointing has been the reaction of UNC’s administration.

At a meeting of the Faculty Executive Committee, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Jim Dean told faculty to refrain from questioning the BOG’s decision.

“They are dealing with a broad range of concerns, and it is their job to decide who serves as president of the system and how long they serve,” Dean said.

While it is important to understand that UNC’s administration has a vested interest in maintaining amicable relations with the board, essentially telling the faculty to pipe down and stifle their mild critiques is several steps too far.

Ross’ dismissal was a blatant enough political decision as to attract national attention. The board’s ability to get away with it without consequence threatens the very state of academic freedom in North Carolina.

Meanwhile, Dean has attempted to placate the faculty, saying, “This is one of the areas where there is some tension between our aspiration towards a great global public research university and their focus of serving the citizens of the state of North Carolina.”

The tension to which Dean refers has nothing to do with this situation. Ross has spearheaded attempts to make the University more accessible and diverse.

Firing a capable leader because he was an obstacle to the conservative reimagining of UNC, which is what appears to have happened, is a horrendous disservice to the state.

We very much wish that UNC’s administrators would be brave enough to defend the academic freedom of the university system themselves, but reinforcing the attack is totally unacceptable.