A look into the politics of UNC governance

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article included incorrect information about the membership regulations of the Board of Trustees and the makeup of the UNC Administration and Faculty Governance. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for these errors.

As Lee Roberts steps into his new role as interim chancellor at UNC, some members of the campus community are questioning the influence of politics at the University. 

The top offices of UNC's administration include the chancellor and provost. Interim chancellors are appointed by the UNC System president. To hire a permanent chancellor, a search committee must present a number of candidates, of which the UNC Board of Trustees selects at least three. The UNC System president nominates a candidate from the search committee's selection who is then approved by the UNC System Board of Governors. Roberts — who worked as budget director for former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory — was appointed as interim chancellor by current system President Peter Hans in December.

The provost is hired by the chancellor and is approved by the UNC Board of Trustees.  Christopher Clemens has been provost since 2022.

There are 24 voting members that sit on the BOG, all elected by the N.C. General Assembly. The BOG oversees 17 universities in the state of North Carolina, including all the UNC System schools. 

On the BOT, there are 15 members, four of whom are elected by the N.C. General Assembly and eight elected by the BOG. In November, the BOT expanded and welcomed two new members in accordance with a bill passed by the General Assembly. The student body president, currently Christopher Everett, acts as the 15th ex-officio member.

Everett is the undergraduate student body president and Lauren Hawkinson is the current graduate student body president. Candidates are elected each school year and the next sitting members will be elected on Feb. 14. 

Political science professor Frank Baumgartner said that since coming to the University in 2009, he has found the level of political involvement in University governance to be troubling.

“North Carolina in the last 10 years or so has been subject to a lot of controversies and a lot of insertion of pretty raw politics into university life,” he said.

Since 2011, there has been a Republican majority in the General Assembly, even if the governor is affiliated otherwise.

On the BOT, there are currently 10 registered Republicans, one registered Democrat and two registered unaffiliated members. Two members of the BOT, Malcolm Turner and Ramsey White, do not reside in North Carolina, and it is not clear what their political affiliations are. 

While Roberts is registered as unaffiliated, he has a long history of voting mostly for Republican candidates, based on information that is publicly available via the state Board of Elections. 

Jennifer Halsey Evans, who was appointed to the BOT in 2023, said while it is known that the bodies who appoint the BOT are for the most part Republican, she has never been directed or asked to vote a certain way based on her party. 

Evans said if people bring issues to the board, they aim to find a responsive, engaging and open board that wants to work hard to solve problems on campus. 

“So the challenges that we have on our campus, that's really the reputation that we — that I — personally intend to support and that I think a lot of my colleagues are focused on,” Evans said. 

Jacob James, chairman of UNC's College Republicans, said that the right-leaning representation in the University’s governance makes sense because he believes that UNC’s politics should match the state's politics. 

“I think that recently the Board of Trustees has been moving to make sure that the University is more reflective of the state and is better serving the state,” James said. 

UNC Young Democrats president Sloan Duvall said that while she feels a lot of student groups on campus have been upset with the new interim chancellor appointment, the group has been able to host political events, including a rally for gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein last week. 

“As long as they don’t attempt to quiet any of the progressive voices on campus and they give the same opportunities to students on all sides of the spectrum, there’s no reason why we can’t work with them and we can’t be successful on this campus,” Duvall said. 

As student body president, Everett is a voting member of the BOT and is the only registered Democrat. He said throughout his time in the role, he has built relationships across the aisle and will continue to do so going forward. 

“It’s difficult,” Everett said. “It’s complex. But I would hope that there’s some assurance that you have student leaders like myself, like Lauren Hawkinson, like Tj Edwards, and everyone else that’s willing to stand in the gap and make that regardless of who’s in office, we’re making sure that we’re building these external relationships with folks to get certain issues solved.”

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