The proportionally skewed political identifications of the Board of Governors’ members reflect an institutional unwillingness on the part of the N.C. General Assembly to select a board of equal representation and intellectual diversity.
As of last Thursday’s selection, only one of the eight new members chosen by the N.C. House of Representatives to act on the Board of Governors for the upcoming fiscal year was a democrat. None of the eight chosen by the Senate identified as a Democrat.
The board’s failure to include one of the state’s two major political parties is not a good sign for any other dynamic of diversity. Representative racial, economic and ethnic diversity are just as far off.
This sole Democrat, Walter Davenport, is burdened with the task of representing the party’s perspective by himself. North Carolina’s voting citizens identify as 36 percent Democrat and 35 percent Republican, yet the Board of Governors will boast just over 3 percent Democratic membership.
One would hope that a board which has been given national scrutiny for its inexplicable dismissal of UNC-system leader Tom Ross would be more fairly selected.
An attempt to appoint more Democrats to the board could ensure state politicians and University bureaucrats are more accountable to the people.
But these appointments confirm that students, professors and all members of the UNC community who identify with the Democratic party continue to be unduly excluded from a wide variety of important decision-making processes.
