TO THE EDITOR:
I chaired the vetting process for the executive board officer candidates that The Daily Tar Heel recently criticized for lack of diversity.
More people applied for the Opere administration than any other in recent years, but for certain positions, a very specific set of background qualifications in student government is necessary to be successful. This may be a problem with student government, but it has not previously hindered the diversity of these positions. With this same process, about half of executive branch officers over the last seven years were women. This year, five different committees’ top choices for five of the eight positions happened to be white males. We hope that the lack of diversity among them is nothing more than an anomaly this year, but if it proves to be systemic, I hope student government changes its selection process. Opere selected the best people available given the applicant pool, and they are absurdly qualified.
He did the same for his three senior advisors — “one person of color and two women” — and it’s insulting that the Editorial Board would belittle and ignore them to fit their narrative (they won’t have “management responsibility”?).
Lack of diversity in executive and government leadership is a problem in this country. No one has delusions about that. The Daily Tar Heel has not had a single non-white editor-in-chief since Rob Nelson in 1999, who was one of only two black editors-in-chief in the paper’s 123-year history. As you recently wrote, few women have been elected SBP in recent years, and this issue is reflected in local and national elections. But Opere’s options this year were what they were. The board may be disappointed, but the hopeful candidate is not the decision-making leader. This is just reality.
Matthew Leming
Chief Justice
Student Supreme Court
