Opinion: UNC's next president shouldn't govern for profit

Every two years, the Board of Governors educational planning committee evaluates degree programs across the state. The review, which began in 1995, makes decisions on which programs should be cut based on program productivity and efficiency.

Last week, the board discontinued 46 degree programs across the UNC system.

Steven Long, the vice chairman of the committee on educational planning, explained the committee’s recommendations as a matter of capitalism.

“We’re capitalists, and we have to look at what the demand is, and we have to respond to the demand,” he said.

This view is misguided and harms the ability of our colleges and universities to pursue intellectual growth.

The Board of Governors recently opened a survey on the selection of a new system president. The survey allowed members of the public to rank qualities that they think should be prioritized by the search committee.

Consider this our submission: When searching for a new system president, the Board of Governors should find a candidate who is willing to challenge the notion that higher education should be a capitalist enterprise.

They should select a president who takes a more holistic view of higher education. The next president should understand that the University system’s responsibilities sometimes require maintaining services that are not financially lucrative.

Much has been made of changes to North Carolina State University’s women’s and gender studies and Africana studies programs. Deborah Hooker, director of N.C. State’s women’s and gender studies department saw the major consolidated into an interdisciplinary studies program along with the school’s Africana studies major.

Hooker, however, clarified that the program remains completely intact but that the change will require an active effort to have visibility for the concentration on campus.

Still, it is disturbing that Long characterizes the process of evaluating programs as one based around capitalism.

Money is a factor in higher education, but it is not the only factor. This is why the system needs a president who does not view education as a capitalist enterprise.

Tom Ross articulated the problem of this view in an op-ed in The (Raleigh) News & Observer.

“We increasingly view our colleges and universities as nothing more than factories that must demonstrate an immediate return on investment for consumers,” he wrote.

When higher education is viewed as a capitalist mechanism, the liberal arts are the first on the chopping block. Board members justified closing the Center on Poverty by saying that its operations could continue without an independent center. Many degree programs were cut because they weren’t productive enough.

When a new system president is chosen it is vital that they ensure that programs like women’s studies are not judged by the money that they bring in, but by the intellectual growth and understanding that they bring to students.