An ominous sign concerning who’ll be UNC-Chapel Hill’s next leader | Opinion

The UNC Board of Governors has again dispatched a crucial university leader. Like Tom Ross, Margaret Spellings and Carol Folt, Kevin Guskiewicz was sent packing because his political allegiance was deemed somehow imperfect. Yet another Chapel Hill chancellor learned that, with this crew, you don’t get to keep your job even by agreeing not to do your job.

Guskiewicz departed saying, “I’m not running from a terrible situation.” No one believed him.

The campus shudders to contemplate what happens next. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that “most expect Lee Roberts,” a member of the BOG, to be named “interim chancellor and to hold an inside track to the permanent job.”

This was the path deployed when the Board of Governors (BOG) selected Darrell Allison as chancellor at Fayetteville State — another of their members with no higher education administration experience. We’re working our way toward limiting the pool of candidates for what are deemed our most important jobs to people who would not be considered by any other university in the nation. Some plan that.

Of course that particular scheme might dovetail nicely with the reality that no accomplished academic leader in the United States would even contemplate coming to Chapel Hill. Unless you are a Republican lackey, you’d have to be an idiot to take a leadership role at Carolina. All that matters here is supine submission. “Yes sir, Senator Berger, what can I do next?” is not a very appealing job description if you have other options.

There is a good deal more to be said about this than can be squeezed into a 700-word column. Four quick points.

First, and most obvious, this isn’t merit-based decision-making. For folks who claim to be definingly committed to competition, rigor, standards, professionalism and the sacred nature of open markets — this is the opposite. It is no great calling card to explain “we hire people who don’t know anything about the job, or the world, they are entering.” But that’s now Carolina’s motto. And these are hard jobs. Among the hardest.

Second, and related, it is corrupt. We don’t broadly believe that copying the habits of the Sons of St. Tammany constitutes “best practices.” Handing out critical, defining, extraordinarily demanding and highly compensated jobs to one’s political cronies is faithless and unethical. It betrays foundational obligations to the people of North Carolina. And it illegally rejects more qualified potential candidates, including women and persons of color.

Third, it destroys the competitive edge of one of America’s greatest public universities. Republicans think that UNC-Chapel Hill can be stacked chock full of unqualified partisan sidekicks and remain one of the nation’s most highly prized institutions of higher learning. But, in fact, the academy is intensely competitive. The great will flee and the promising will stay away. In a decade or two, when these horrifying politicians are long gone, the “priceless gem” will be no more.

Fourth, it was one of the great fortunes of my life to become a student and friend to Bill Aycock and Bill Friday. Both returned from a world war and dedicated their lives to the challenging uplift of their beloved Tar Heel state. Both taught that it can take generations, or even centuries, to build great institutions. But they can be wounded, even mortally, in a moment.

The essential democratizing work of the nation’s first public university is, now in real time, being surrendered. Its foundations are being decimated and looted as partisan spoil. I miss these two giants of Carolina. I’m glad they didn’t live to see this.

Contributing columnist Gene Nichol is a professor of law at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.