Collateral damage

by | Feb 19, 2015 | Editor's Blog, Education, UNC | 6 comments

The UNC Board of Governor’s review of “240 centers and institutes centers and institutes that conduct research, service or policy analysis across the UNC system” was little more than an elaborate ruse. The goal was to punish UNC law professor Gene Nichol for his outspoken criticism of the current Republican leadership in Raleigh. For anybody paying attention, their recommendation to close UNC-Chapel Hill’s Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, which Nichol runs, was a foregone conclusion. East Carolina’s Center for Biodiversity and N.C. Central University’s Institute for Civic Engagement and Social Change were just collateral damage to make the review appear legitimate.

The current UNC Board of Governors has diminished its role from protectors of academic freedom and promoters of our vaunted University system to hatchet men for vengeful, thin-skinned legislators. A few weeks ago, they fired UNC President Tom Ross but couldn’t give a reason. Now, they’re beating up Nichol. Next up, eliminating a few of the historically black colleges and universities in the UNC system.

The UNC Board of Governors has always been a political body. Members get their seats through appointments by the legislature and, often, appointees are big donors who get their seats as rewards for their support. The seats are coveted because of the prestige of being part of one of the finest university systems in the country.

This Board, though, shows little independence from their legislative masters. They are more concerned with ideological purity than intellectual rigor. Saving money is more important than helping people. And like the Big Government Conservatives in the General Assembly, they choose authoritarianism over local control.

Like the state as a whole, the UNC system will survive. Unfortunately, both will be diminished by narrow-minds and heavy hands. In their goal to turn North Carolina into a free-market utopia, we’ll all end up collateral damage.

6 Comments

  1. dennisberwyn

    Hysteria reigns in the low-oxygen realms of progressivism.

  2. Hayes McNeill

    Terrible for NC and its profile in the nation. Terrible for the reputation of our state university system. This should be our Niemoller moment.

  3. Apply Liberally

    Mainstreet: You asked, so here’s at least one answer. Beyond the impact of 2011 gerrymandering (which makes GOP electoral wins and NCGA majorities near-givens), NC voters keep the GOP in power because a large base of them (40%?) are much like their parents, grandparents and earlier ancestors in resenting change (especially of the progressive sort), the federal government, and minorities of any color.

    Relative specifically to this blog, this base has yet to understand/believe that the University provides any real benefits to them or to the state beyond entertaining basketball. They likely believe that the jobs the University directly provides are filled by “leftist” faculty and their supporting cast, and that IF the University is indirectly the reason for jobs via commercial development at RTP or via other business spin-offs, those jobs only go to “over-educated,” progressive-thinking newcomers to the state.

    Thus, I fear that the NCGOP’s voting base of regressivists will continue to call the shots—-until demographics (population growth, Baby Boomer mortality, in-migration rates, etc) and the realization that NCGOP policies are hurting, not helping, take hold (see other blog “A Taxing Situation” and its poster comments). Which could be 10-15 years away (longer if 2021 redistricting is done by the GOP).

    • Apply Liberally

      I meant to include the URL below in my post above (where I mentioned my belief that a big chunk of the state residents don’t believe/understand in the benefits wrought by universities). Despite the study’s finding that the state’s annual investment of $4.3 billion to support higher education results in essentially a 4-fold annual return, that finding goes largely ignored or underappreciated, IMO.

      http://wunc.org/post/study-higher-education-has-635-billion-impact-nc-economy

    • Eilene

      And don’t forget that they think liberals are “godless heathens” who want the right to be sexually promiscuous, the right to deal with the consequences of such with abortions that they believe are paid for by the taxpayers, and generally to do everything and anything they can do to kick God out of schools and government… despite the fact that there are plenty of religious Democrats. I just don’t get it.

  4. Someone from Main Street...

    FYI – NC is NOT a freemarket utopia – the NCGOP’s hand is not at all invisible – instead, the “hand” of the NCGOP as expressed in NC governmental actions is easily wielded to smash the state into profit centers for its cronies. NCGOP is quite proud of the state’s status as a “right-to-work” state – but the employees of this “right-to-work” state gain poverty-level wages for the privilege of maintaining this ideological status.

    With the decision to close centers that study poverty, civic engagement/social justice and biodiversity, NCGOP/Art Pope/UNC-BOG play their hand. Why study poverty when you can increase it? Why study biodiversity when its existence threatens the ability to frack? Why study civic engagement when NCGOP policies are clearly designed to limit it?

    But again, NC voters seem intent on keeping the NCGOP in power. Why? It’s a mystery to me…

Related Posts

GET UPDATES

Get the latest posts from PoliticsNC delivered right to your inbox!

You have Successfully Subscribed!