As the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill braces for the likely departure of its chancellor, many on the flagship campus fear that a successor will be chosen without their input.
Recent changes in the chancellor-selection process — and the gradual political takeover of the university system’s leadership by the state’s Republican power brokers over the past decade — have fueled fears that the new chancellor will be a political pick with little to no experience in the academy.
One name has recently been on the lips of anxious faculty members, trustees, and other UNC insiders: Lee Roberts, a member of the UNC system’s Board of Governors and a former state-budget director for Pat McCrory, the former Republican governor. Three sources with direct knowledge of conversations at the top levels of university governance said they expect Roberts, a Duke University graduate who has no leadership experience in higher ed other than his board seat, to be named the new Chapel Hill chancellor, first on an interim basis, then permanently. Roberts would have to resign his board seat to be named chancellor.
A spokesman for the UNC system, Andy Wallace, did not directly address a question asking if Roberts had already been selected, but did say that Peter Hans, the UNC system’s president, had begun the work of selecting an interim chancellor.
“In the event of a vacancy at UNC-Chapel Hill, it would be the president’s responsibility to appoint an interim; he’s begun to review a number of good candidates who could ensure a smooth transition while the university undertakes a full search for a permanent chancellor,” Wallace said in an email to The Chronicle.
Whispers that a candidate with close political ties to the state’s Republican power structure is already picked have raised alarms among many on the Chapel Hill campus.
“Whether the search is pro forma or not, you simply don’t have the same process that would give you confidence that a wide range of perspectives were sought and listened to,” said Mimi V. Chapman, a former chair of the faculty and a professor in Chapel Hill’s School of Social Work.
The President’s Power Over Searches
In May the system’s board adopted a new search process for chancellors. It places much of the power for a search in the hands of the system president, who names the search committee’s members (including its chair) after consulting with the chairman of the campus’s board; develops the criteria the new chancellor should fit; interviews the finalists selected by the search committee; negotiates the contract of the new chancellor; and presents the pick to the system’s board for signoff. That is a modification of a previous policy that allowed Hans to directly pick some finalists unilaterally. The change also allows Board of Governors members to serve on search committees.
Under the new policy, the search committee presents its candidates to the campus board, which then sends a list of three unranked finalists to the system president. However, the policy says that Hans can interview any of the finalists, or none of them, before sending his pick on to the Board of Governors.
You simply don’t have the same process that would give you confidence that a wide range of perspectives were sought and listened to.
The new policy still ensures local input, Wallace said. “The new UNC System chancellor search policy was implemented in May after eight months of research and public discussion,” he wrote. “This updated policy brings the UNC System chancellor search policy more in line with similar state university systems across the country. In fact, the policy specifically requires that the voting membership of the search advisory committee include representatives of the board of trustees, the faculty, the student body, the staff, and the alumni.”
Given the president’s authority over committee membership and ultimate hiring power, Chapman said she is concerned that the chosen chancellor will be more closely aligned with the system president and the Board of Governors than with anyone on the campus.
“That’s certainly the worry,” Chapman said. Why would the rules be changed, she asked, if leadership wanted a pick that came out of honest, broad deliberations?
Chapman said a choice without satisfactory input would face a skeptical campus. “There would be a lot of trepidation and worry and also hope that this person would be more open to more voices than we think they will be,” Chapman said.
Control of Public Universities
Critics fear the selection of a new chancellor may be the culmination of Republican politicians’ gradual quest to gain more control over the state’s public universities, including the flagship. That process started in 2010, with the Republicans’ takeover of the state legislature for the first time in 100 years. Since then, the General Assembly, which is still held by Republicans, has passed a law taking the ability to appoint four members to each Board of Trustees at system universities away from the governor’s office and giving it to itself. At the time the law was enacted, the current Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, was just about to take over from a Republican, McCrory.
Currently the legislature appoints four members of each Board of Trustees, and the system’s Board of Governors, which is appointed by the legislature, appoints eight members. The system board hires the system president, and each university’s chancellor reports to the president, not to the campus trustees.
When Kevin M. Guskiewicz, who is pondering a move to Michigan State University’s presidency, was hired as chancellor, in 2019, he went through a search process that was overseen by the chair of the Chapel Hill Board of Trustees. He was tapped for the position by the then-interim president of the system, William L. Roper, and approved by the Board of Governors.
Guskiewicz, a neuroscientist and career academic, has endured a tenure marked at times by controversy, including the fallout from the botched hiring of Nikole Hannah-Jones, as well as tensions with the system’s leadership. (Wallace said Guskiewicz and Hans “have a very strong professional and personal relationship.”) Sources previously told The Chronicle that Guskiewicz had informally agreed to leave his post by the end of the academic year.
The three sources with knowledge of governance discussions, who declined to speak on the record because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the leadership transition, said they expect an interim appointment for Roberts to be aimed at helping him learn the ropes of university leadership before assuming the permanent post. Asked by email whether he would be appointed chancellor, Roberts answered: “Carolina is an extraordinary university, and it has a terrific leader in Kevin Guskiewicz.”
If Roberts is tapped, it wouldn’t be the first time a member of the UNC system’s Board of Governors had been handed a campus. In 2021, Darrell T. Allison was named Fayetteville State University’s chancellor, which prompted a backlash on the campus. According to multiple media reports, Allison wasn’t recommended as a finalist by the search committee. He still serves in the post today.
Similar concerns were raised in the just-concluded search for the chancellor of UNC-Asheville, according to media reports. In that search, Hans appointed the entirety of the search committee, which included one faculty member. Roger Aiken, chairman of the campus’s board and a former member of the Board of Governors, was named chairman of the search committee. On Wednesday, Kimberly van Noort was named chancellor. Van Noort had served as interim chancellor, and had also worked as the chief academic officer of the UNC system and held several other administrative and faculty posts in a lengthy academic career.
In his email Wallace wrote that the UNC-Asheville process was evidence that the new policy was working well. “The feedback that we’ve received about the process,” he wrote, “has been very positive.”
