Is North Carolina’s university system headed for a down-sizing? The progressive nonprofit, N.C. Policy Watch, takes a look at recent reports and comments by UNC board members and legislators. Here are a few excerpts from the March 5 post, “Effort to ‘Right-Size’ the UNC System in the Works,” by Sarah Ovaska:
Significant changes may be on the horizon for the state’s higher education network, as the University of North Carolina’s governing board considers “right-sizing” the 17-campus system.
“The model should be much smaller than it is,” UNC Board of Governor member Harry Smith Jr. said about the UNC system last Thursday, during a committee meeting discussion about tuition and fee increases.
The system-wide review could result in recommendations to consolidate or shutter campuses and follows recent decisions by the UNC Board of Governors that have attracted public attention and criticism. The board, all appointed by a Republican-led state legislature, decided in January to replace UNC President Tom Ross by next year, and then last week moved to shut down three academic centers, including a poverty center run by a law professor critical of Republican state leaders. …
“We’re getting ready to plow into the sustainability of the model,” said Smith, a Greenville businessman, before the 16-9 vote to approve the tuition increases over the next two years.
See more at ncpolicywatch.com.
The “Political” Firing of Tom Ross
Dear University of North Carolina (UNC) Board of Governors (BOG): I am writing you today for two reasons. First, I wish to congratulate you for having the courage to fire University President Tom Ross and select a new leader for the UNC system. Second, as you endure a barrage of criticism for doing the right thing, I wish to offer you some insight into the true motives of your critics.
http://townhall.com/columnists/mikeadams/2015/03/06/the-political-firing-of-tom-ross-n1966084/page/full
John Edwards’ Successor Lives It Up
Political observers may recall that long before his adultery problems — after Edwards’s failed campaign to become No. 2 to a President John Kerry in 2004 — that UNC allowed him to create and lead the Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity at its law school. The project was designed to keep him in the public eye while at the same time giving his “Two Americas” class warfare rhetoric an appropriate vehicle for dissemination. As the multi-millionaire personal injury attorney/politician waited for the 2008 presidential election to arrive so he could run for the top office himself, the ostensible poverty expert had built a 28,200-square-foot home outside of Chapel Hill, which reportedly included a squash court, full-length indoor basketball court, and a man-cave called “John’s lounge.” The Edwards’s home was projected to be one of the largest in Orange County and its tax value was projected above $6 million.
http://spectator.org/articles/58015/john-edwards%E2%80%99-successor-lives-it