UNC Board of Trustees look to move away from coal

The University moved one step closer to a coal-free endowment Wednesday.

The finance and infrastructure committee of the Board of Trustees approved a resolution sponsored by the Sierra Student Coalition to target clean energy in future investments for the University’s $2.1 billion endowment.

The resolution does not affect current coal investments.

“It’s a really important step through which the student activist group demonstrated to the Board of Trustees (that) we were able to use compromises to take small steps to the greater goal, for the greater good,” said junior Jack Largess, one of the Sierra members who presented to the board.

Largess said the student activists will work with the Board of Trustees and UNC Management Company to follow through on the resolution.

“It was a nonbinding statement of intent, which we think — and the Board of Trustees I think would also say ­— is an excellent place to start a new chapter in the conversation about coal and energy policy.”

Night Parking

Charles Streeter, chairman of the Employee Forum, told the Board of Trustees Wednesday that he solicited staff opinions on night parking and received more than a hundred responses in less than an hour.

He eventually received countless phone calls and 397 email responses, some several pages long, which he has compiled into a 65-page document for University administrators.

“The majority of the staff felt that there should not be nighttime parking (fees), but about a third of respondents said no, that they felt that the nighttime parking should happen,” he said.

Streeter said staff members had various reasons for their opinions, which the Employee Forum will be exploring in the next several months.

“We are very appreciative of the University for taking a step back and saying let’s not do this right now and have, you know, a very detailed look at what’s happening,” he said.

Streeter said he knows action needs to be taken on night parking but is not sure how to resolve the issue.

“It is a very big topic, it’s very touchy, it’s a conundrum,” he said.

Entrepreneurship update

Judith Cone, special assistant to the chancellor for innovation and entrepreneurship, said more resources are needed for UNC’s startups to expand.

“This is not rocket science, this is an investment, and I think we’re at the moment when we’ve got to have a greater investment,” she said.

The University needs a central space dedicated to supporting entrepreneurship, Cone said. Cone said many other universities have programs like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, where creative entrepreneurial ideas can find resources and support.

During the finance and infrastructure committee meeting, Vice Chancellor for Research Barbara Entwisle gave a presentation on the benefits of UNC’s 80 centers and institutes, which might see a $15 million cut from the UNC Board of Governors this year.

The centers and institutes only receive about six percent of their $465.1 million budget — or about $30.7 million — from state general funds.

The University must support its research, instructional and service-based centers and institutes to honor its commitment to innovation, Cone said.

“We have patchworked together great spaces on the campus on a shoestring with our deans footing the bill and helping Barbara split up some money,” she said.

“We got the town and the county. We’re a really scrappy group of people that make things happen.”

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