Opinion: Chancellor Folt must take stands where necessary

What does Chancellor Carol Folt really think? Regarding the call for Hurston Hall, political attacks on centers and institutes, the Wainstein report and other pressing campus issues, students, faculty and staff have often been left wondering where the chancellor stands.

Indeed, instead of addressing these issues, Folt often steers the conversation away from constructive and critical dialogue and toward an idealistic image of UNC.

Folt’s November letter on the Wainstein represents this tactic well. It begins by proclaiming the importance of “many acts of character on our campus” and thankfulness for the “constructive criticism” offered after the report’s release. Yet, it quickly shifts from somber reflection to joyful pride in four student and staff accomplishments completely unrelated to the concerns of students regarding athletics or the AAAD department.

In regard to continuing efforts to establish Hurston Hall, Folt stated, “A part of Carolina’s history is inextricably linked with difficult issues of race and class, and how we address those issues today is important.”

Statements like these are devoid of a truly principled stand. Instead, they demonstrate a willingness only to recount facts that are already evident and uncontroversial proclamations of the University’s values.

While it is important to commend Chancellor Folt’s stated commitments, which range from promoting a more inclusive campus to leadership in college affordability, these statements mean little when they are not paired with the bold action required to make them realities.

At a meeting to discuss the potential closing of several UNC centers and institutes, Chancellor Folt was asked why students should trust the BOG to act with the best interests of students at heart in light of their previous decisions to cap and freeze tuition-funded financial aid and end plans for widely supported gender non-specific housing on campus. She asked students to simply trust that the BOG saw each of these matters as separate issues, and she said she had faith they would consider these actions carefully.

This is often what we as UNC community members are left with: pronouncements that each of us needs to have faith that everything will be okay as the details are worked out behind closed doors.

Now that the UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity and other centers across the state are likely being forced to close for political reasons, her reassurances ring hollow. This situation has required a forceful defense from her office. It has been absent.

As the review of centers and institutes has taken up the bulk of observers’ attention, Folt has quietly backtracked from her promises to attempt to halt further tuition increases. While we understand the need to stay competitive with other universities, shifting an even greater financial burden onto students is unacceptable. UNC cannot continue to promote itself as a “University of the People” as it heads toward further financial inaccessibility.

We must ask if the job of our chancellor and the chancellor’s office is to respond thoughtfully to student concerns or whether it is to appease the forces that control the financial and political power of the University through carefully calculated public relations campaigns.

Public attempts to redirect conversations, while at the same time assuring students that important discussions are happening behind the scenes with these power holders, suggest the latter approach is being taken.

We must be concerned with this approach, as it implies the chancellor’s malleability with regard to the UNC community’s most pressing concerns. All of us deserve to know where our chancellor stands — not just in broad proclamations of her values but in how she intends to apply them.

While it is important for the chancellor to reserve judgment at times and gather input before stating her opinion, many of our concerns boil down to questions regarding the chancellor’s priorities. We urge Folt to use her position to answer them.