Turbulent year has created chances for reform

Reading this year’s headlines gives the impression of a University marked by tragedies and scandals. There is truth in that perception, but it should not deflate our sense of purpose.

Because the University community has been engaged in discussion about the problems that plague us and the tragedies that have shaken us, there is a window of opportunity to actually address the major issues of the year with concrete, participatory and thorough solutions.

Having the University’s dirty laundry aired to the public — sometimes to a national audience — was not an easy process. But it can create the pressure necessary to encourage leadership to implement needed reforms that leave the University better off. That is — as long as the discourse is productive and solution-oriented, rather than focused on blame.

This year closes with significant shifts in leadership against the backdrop of a sexual assault policy badly in need of reform, questions of the validity of a student-run honor system, state-level threats to public higher education and a general re-evaluation of the role of collegiate athletics.

An NCAA investigation in 2010 sparked a number of revelations including the discovery that a tutor gave improper academic help to UNC football players and a University report revealing aberrant or irregularly taught classes packed full of athletes in the Department of African and Afro-American Studies.

Discussion this fall centered on accusations of the department’s academic fraud reaching back years. Alumni, faculty and students sent in letters expressing their dismay at how the scandal has eroded UNC’s reputation.

The community has continued to grapple with tough questions about the role of collegiate athletics. Many question the priority athletics are given over academics, and rightly so. But because athletics bring money, recognition, community bonding and a means for alumni to remain connected, it’s not as simple as divorcing athletics and academics.

However, Chancellor Holden Thorp’s suggestion that university chancellors should not control collegiate athletics is not the answer. This would only decrease oversight and increase athletics’ prominence over academics.

Though athletics shouldn’t take precedence over academics, the current exploitation of athletes is unacceptable. College athletes deserve to be paid for their contributions and should be allowed to earn money from their names and likenesses.

But beginning last winter, the spotlight shifted away from athletics as reports began to come out of students claiming to be mistreated by the way the University handled their sexual assault cases.

The University can begin by treating rape as the violent crime it is. UNC should remove those cases from the authority of the quasi-judicial body that took control in these cases from Honor Court’s jurisdiction.

The issue of sexual assault brought to the surface a host of problems that have placed the future of student-led honor system in uncertainty. Although it needs reforms, dissolving the institution for being imperfect is not the answer. Instead, there should be a re-evaluation of whether criminal charges belong in the honor system’s jurisdiction.

Considered among all of these issues, a shift in leadership could contribute to the sense of instability at UNC. But it’s also an opportunity to utilize fresh eyes and ears to contribute reforms — and to the preservation of UNC’s core charge of enriching the minds of youth.

Chancellor-elect Carol Folt’s main challenge next year will be protecting and defending the value of a public liberal arts degree.

The N.C. General Assembly and Gov. Pat McCrory have already proved to be hostile to the role and needs of higher education in this state. This is evidenced by dramatic slashes in the budget, degrading comments toward liberal arts as well as the UNC system, and the propagation of a philosophy that the purpose of higher education is merely economic in nature.

This editorial board believes such a philosophy could not be farther from the truth — instead, we respect the value to society of education for education’s sake.

And this is what is worth protecting; this is why, despite the challenges the University has faced, the turbulence is worth riding through and overcoming.