New interim chancellor isn’t what UNC-Chapel Hill needs in its next leader | Opinion

When news broke that Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz would depart UNC-Chapel Hill to be Michigan State University’s next president, the immediate reaction was one of fear. The worry was that his successor would be someone entrenched in Republican political circles — the culmination of the legislature’s gradual takeover of higher education in North Carolina.

That reality began to set in Friday when UNC System President Peter Hans named Lee Roberts to fill the position on an interim basis. Roberts seems to be that kind of political appointee — he was appointed by GOP lawmakers to the UNC System Board of Governors in 2021 and worked in the administration of former Gov. Pat McCrory. He has no leadership experience in higher education. Being interim chancellor puts him on track to possibly earn the permanent role — Guskiewicz served as interim chancellor for nine months before he was officially chosen in 2019.

“Now that there’s an opening in the chancellor position at Chapel Hill, the legislature has a chance to put someone in a position who will offer no resistance at all,” Jay Smith, a UNC history professor and president of the North Carolina AAUP, said. “And indeed, they will be enthusiastically behind whatever the legislature proposes for higher ed here.”

Republicans surely see this as an opportunity. Which is why it is especially important that UNC’s next chancellor is someone with a backbone, given how much undue influence trustees and UNC System leaders attempt to exert over UNC and other public universities. Take, for example, the creation of a new school for conservative thought. Or interference in hiring decisions. Or the controversy over the future of a toppled Confederate statue — an ordeal that led to the resignation of Guskiewicz’s predecessor. All were scandals that attracted national attention, but they would have been even worse had the chancellor simply succumbed to pressure from outside forces. Political pressure is unfortunately part of the job, and UNC won’t fare well if it’s led by a pushover.

It would also be preferable, of course, for UNC’s next leader to have a background in higher education. It would be even better if that background included administrative experience. Higher education may be a business, but it’s not a Fortune 500 company, and universities ought to be led by people who know the difference. Virtually every chancellor in UNC’s history has had an academic background, whether a member of Carolina’s faculty themselves or an administrator from a peer institution. Roberts, by contrast, comes from the real estate investment and finance industry.

Smith and other faculty would like the next chancellor to have a commitment to principles such as academic freedom, shared governance and transparency. Those principles are the ones that have been most threatened by people seeking to influence higher education in North Carolina — the national AAUP issued a report in 2021 that resoundingly criticized “broken governance” and “severe violations of academic freedom” within the UNC System.

“Those principles have served higher ed in this country very well for over a century,” Smith said. “And it is concerning that at so many institutions around the country, legislatures and culture warriors of various kinds are launching attacks against those principles and trying to undermine them.”

Those principles are so important that the person who takes the job should be willing to lose it if necessary, Smith said.

“You, as chancellor, have to be the chief defender,” he said.

There’s still a chance that Roberts could be that kind of person, or that the permanent gig will be given to someone who is. But there’s also plenty of reason to believe that Roberts is the kind of political appointee that Republicans have been waiting for — someone who will lead according to the best interests of those in power rather than the university itself. And at a time when so many people are apprehensive and mistrustful of the UNC System and who it picks to lead them, Roberts may not be what UNC-Chapel Hill needs to restore that confidence.