Editor’s Note: Jack Largess is a member of The Daily Tar Heel Editorial Board.
TO THE EDITOR:
I protest with no personal ill will toward UNC-system President Margaret Spellings.
She is well-qualified to walk the political tightrope of the UNC presidency. Spellings speaks of her hope to see more students graduating in less time and earning more money.
She promises to bring a new level of accountability to our professors and classes, ensuring that the university respects students’ time, effort and money and provides them with the best education possible.
Perhaps even Spellings’ presidency could usher in a new era in which the University is no longer bound to politically fickle state funding and instead relies — as we increasingly do — on support from the very companies who hire new graduates.
Spellings represents a new future of UNC. I join the student walkout at 11 a.m. today because I know this future to be wrong for UNC, wrong for North Carolina and wrong for our world..
Though long treated as such, public education should not exist to serve business interests. Our education is not improved by a focus on itemized achievement. It is improved by a focus on collaboration, empathy and community.
