If Guskiewicz goes, good for him. But it could get bad for UNC-Chapel Hill | Opinion

UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz says he’s weighing whether to accept a new job as president of Michigan State University.

That’s like a man in a burning building weighing whether to leave.

No one understands this better than Guskiewicz. As a neuroscientist who has researched the effects of concussions, he knows that repeated blows to the head can lead to mental impairment. Now he knows that repeated blows to the head of a university can lead to career endangerment.

Since becoming chancellor in 2019, Guskiewicz, 57, has stood between radical Republicans in the state legislature who see the university as a liberal indoctrination center and those who respect the quality of the nation’s oldest public university and the principle of academic freedom. Circumstances have forced him to be more of a buffer than a leader.

Only Guskiewicz knows how many political intrusions he has diverted, delayed or quietly accommodated. He deserves credit for doing well in a compromised role.

There have been blowups over a Confederate statue, tenure for Nikole Hanna-Jones and ignoring health officials’ call to hold off on bringing students back to campus at the height of COVID. But overall, the chancellor has kept controversies from growing into crises.

Faculty members are thankful for what the chancellor has been able to fend off and are apprehensive about who might take his place. Now that worry is likely to be realized.

Since gaining full control of the General Assembly in the 2010 election, Republican lawmakers have increasingly expanded their power to shape North Carolina.

They’ve locked themselves into legislative control by extreme gerrymandering. They’ve politicized the courts in their favor. They control the Department of Public Instruction. They’ve peeled away appointments that belonged to the governor and have overridden his vetoes. They’ve filled the UNC Board of Governors with appointees whose main qualification is their allegiance to legislative leaders.

Now there is one more conquest to make: Take complete control of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Republican lawmakers have provided $4 million to fund a new School of Civic Life and Leadership at Chapel Hill. Its supporters say the school’s curriculum will counter a liberal academic culture that they say makes conservative students feel intimidated and unwelcome.

A provision in this year’s state budget ends state contributions to endowed professorships in the humanities, where the Republican lawmakers’ loudest critics are often found and where that alleged liberal indoctrination takes place.

For a sense of what may be yet to come, consider the model state legislation being backed by conservative groups, including North Carolina’s James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. The proposed bill, blandly named the General Education Act, would effectively overhaul public universities, starting with the flagship schools.

John Wilson, author of “Patriotic Correctness: Academic Freedom and Its Enemies,” described the General Education Act this week in Inside Higher Education:

“If the model legislation were to be enacted, lawmakers would force public colleges to adopt a uniform general education curriculum devoted to conservative values, give a new dean near-total power to hire all faculty to teach these classes and then require the firing of many existing faculty members in the humanities and social sciences, including tenured professors.”

Maybe Republican lawmakers would not pass legislation that would subvert one of North Carolina’s greatest assets. But a new chancellor will be chosen for his willingness to go along with radical changes opposed by much of the faculty.

It’s unlikely that a distinguished academic, experienced administrator and strong leader would want such a job. But, of course, it’s also unlikely that those seeking to reshape the university would not want such a chancellor.

Associate opinion editor Ned Barnett can be reached at 919-404-7583, or nbarnett@ newsobserver.com