Higher Education

Inside the dramas at UNC-Chapel Hill: Boards, partisan politics and the flagship

The University of North Carolina is a prime stage for campus culture wars.

By Nick Anderson and Susan Svrluga
Today at 7:00 a.m. EDT

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The curtain never seems to fall on the drama here at the home of the Tar Heels of the University of North Carolina.

From the toppling of the Confederate statue “Silent Sam” one summer night in 2018, to the botched reopening of classrooms last year during the coronavirus pandemic, to the recruiting debacle that ended with award-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones turning down a faculty job after a long-delayed vote to award her tenure, Chapel Hill has proved an enduring stage of political theater in higher education.

The plotline running through all those episodes — and still more unfolding — is control of a prestigious public university in a state with deep partisan divisions. Now, debate is intensifying over the power Republican legislative leaders exert at UNC-Chapel Hill through appointments to its Board of Trustees and the state university system’s Board of Governors. One side says it wants to restore order to the flagship; the other fears micromanagement with a right-wing agenda. It is one of the most acute examples of campus culture wars flaring around the country.

[Colleges are divided on coronavirus vaccine mandates]

Democratic leaders, including Gov. Roy Cooper, are shut out of board appointments under a legal framework not found in most states. Faculty and some prominent alumni and former trustees are joining forces to promote an overhaul in an initiative they call Coalition for Carolina.

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By Nick Anderson
Nick Anderson covers higher education and other education topics for The Washington Post. He has been a writer and editor at The Post since 2005. Twitter https://twitter.com/wpnick

By Susan Svrluga
Susan Svrluga is a reporter covering higher education for The Washington Post. Before that, she covered education and local news at The Post. Twitter https://twitter.com/SusanSvrluga