Intervention by UNC-system Board of Governors questioned

The recent centers and institutes review carried out by the UNC Board of Governors has sparked concerns that the board took its power over UNC-system campuses too far.

While system policy gives most oversight of centers and institutes to campuses, a new policy revision clarifies the board’s power to conduct reviews of centers and consider them for discontinuation. North Carolina law already gives the board this authority, but the policy now spells it out.

According to a memo from UNC-system general counsel Thomas Shanahan, the board “has clear authority to require chancellors to take specific actions as to campus centers and institutes, notwithstanding the provisions of any existing University regulation.”

Tamar Birckhead, a UNC law professor, said taking action on a campus-level issue — which is normally the concern of Boards of Trustees and chancellors — could possibly create a slippery slope.

She said while the board has given reasons for shutting down centers, she does not see how using this power is in the best interest of the UNC system.

“I don’t believe that the Board of Governors has articulated a legitimate reason for why they are invoking this statute to take such extreme measures,” Birckhead said.

Hannah Gage, former chairwoman of the board, said in an email that while reviewing campus centers is within the board’s authority, she does not necessarily think it should be used.

“There’s a delicate balance to the governing structure of the UNC system, and it has worked beautifully for many years because the central board has exercised discipline and resisted intervention on the campus level,” Gage said.

Board member Jim Holmes said because the board started the centers review, they wanted to finish it rather than pass it onto the universities.

“How irresponsible would it be of our committee and, in fact our board, not to take ownership of what we’re doing, and put it back in the hands of chancellors and others versus simply finishing it? To me, that’s just a very irresponsible action,” he said.

Holmes said it is the board’s responsibility to conduct such reviews — particularly given that this kind of review was past due. Many campus centers had never been reviewed, he said.

“We’re charged with the judiciary responsibility to oversee the system proper,” he said. “It seemed to be incredibly prudent to do it.”

Stephen Leonard, UNC-system Faculty Assembly chairman and a UNC political science professor, said the board has taken several actions recently that usually fall under campuses’ management.

“It looks like they want to take (the system) in a very different direction that entails quite a bit of centralized management and oversight of the campuses. That’s very unusual,” he said.

Holmes doesn’t agree. “This was not a statement of our ability to do stuff at the campus level,” he said.

Still, Gage said at the board’s meeting Friday that the centers review crossed a new line.

“It’s never been the place of the board to pass judgment on the merits of campuses’ academic activities.”

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