BOG ?nishes long-standing plans

The UNC system Board of Governors tied up several loose ends, such as UNC-Charlotte’s potential football program, paid leave policy for university presidents and chancellors, and a policy for dealing with hate crimes at its meetings Thursday and Friday.

Increasing fees for football

UNC-C’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved a plan last month to start a football program by 2013 and are now seeking the approval of the Board of Governors to start the process.

“The student body has been very vocal in its support for UNC-C football,” said UNC-C Student Body President Joey Lemons.

Most board members agreed that the university needs a football program. But some were concerned about the lack of private donors and the impact of the additional costs on the students.

The university’s financing model calls for increasing student fees to cover 60 percent of the costs of the program.

So far, the university has collected $4 million through the sale of seat licenses, which allow people to own a set of seats for games and the right to own or sell tickets for those seats.

“The total cost of entry for football are as good as they are going to get,” said UNC-C Chancellor Philip Dubois.

Leave policies scaled back

The board officially approved revisions to UNC-system leave policies for university presidents and chancellors.

The policies govern the process of moving from those administrative positions to the university faculty.

Leave time — which provides time for the former administrators to prepare for returning to a teaching position — was decreased from one year to six months.

Salaries also were significantly scaled back. Former chancellors and presidents will now receive a salary comparable to similarly-ranked faculty members beginning with the leave time.

The personnel and tenure committee first began work on the policy in September. It will now begin addressing leave policies for senior administrators.

New student conduct code

The education and planning committee approved a new system-wide student conduct code that addresses hate crime.

The policy is a response to an incident at N.C. State University in November 2008. Four NCSU students wrote messages about then U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on the walls of the campus Free Expression Tunnel that former chancellor James Oblinger deemed “racist and hate-filled.”

The policy disallows discrimination and slurs about race, gender and sexuality, among other things.

The full board will vote on the proposed policy in February.

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.