From committee to chancellor: A look back at the chancellor search process

Just under eight months after stepping into his role as interim chancellor, Lee Roberts was named UNC’s 13th leader on Aug. 9.  

The chancellor search that led to his appointment was marked by controversy: from scrutiny about student representation throughout the process to concerns about partisanship and the speed of Roberts’ appointment. 

With new policy, a changing timeline and and calls from students, here’s a look at how it all went down. 

‘The better part of a year’

Roberts’ selection as interim chancellor was announced on Dec. 15, eight days after former Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz accepted the role of President at Michigan State University. 

In an interview with the The Well, Roberts laid out four steps for his time in the role: do no harm, ensure a “smooth transition,” make sure the campus community has what they need and leave the campus better than he found it. 

Guskiewicz was interim chancellor for 10 months before stepping into the role full-time, but the process to replace him was different due to a new UNC System policy change.

In May 2023, the Board of Governors adopted an updated policy allowing them to be more involved in the search process — the number of voting members on the committee were reduced from 20 to 13. 

While the previous policy excluded members of the BOG from serving on the committee, the new version requires their participation. BOG Chair Randy Ramsey and member Kellie Hunt Blue served on the committee to find the University's next chancellor. 

In a Q&A with The Daily Tar Heel last winter, UNC System President Peter Hans said the change was made in hopes of unifying the search process across the System. He said he expected the process to take “the better part of a year.” 

The traits listed in the UNC Chancellor Leadership Profile include honesty and integrity, profound devotion to the public mission of the University, as well as intellectual humility. Hans said identifying traits like these often comes from listening forums throughout the process. 

“We want people to have that opportunity to participate and be part of the process,” he said. “They may reveal things that we have not thought of, but those tend to be constant with me about what I'm looking for in a chancellor.”

Student representation

The members of the chancellor search advisory tasked with picking candidates for the job were announced on Feb. 12.

 The 13-person committee included President Hans, Board of Trustees Chair John Preyer and 2023-2024 Student Body President Christopher Everett. 

No graduate, doctoral or postdoctoral students were selected for the committee despite explicit requests from Graduate and Professional Student Government President Lauren Hawkinson in a January Board of Trustees meeting.

The advisory committee held two listening sessions during the Spring semester. At the undergraduate forum, the only members of the search committee present were 2023-2024 undergraduate student body president Christopher Everett and alumnus Jim Phillips Jr. The only member present at the graduate student forum was Everett.

During both sessions, students expressed the importance of a chancellor being accessible, addressing student concerns and prioritizing the University over politics. 

Students also called for the administration to support a ceasefire resolution passed by the Graduate and Professional Student Government in the spring and expressed that they wanted more opportunities to opt in.  

On April 24, student advocacy groups joined together to hold their own listening session.

The groups delivered invitations to the BOT, BOG and committee members on April 16, and published an open letter signed by over 500 students, expressing their disappointment in the lack of attendance at previous forums. 

“It is our right that the chancellor search process be accessible to us, and it is your responsibility to be available to us,” the letter said. “As the individuals responsible for guiding our University's future, you must engage directly with those whom your decisions will impact the most.” 

At the student-led session, the majority of students who spoke said they did not want Roberts to be the next chancellor because of his lack of administrative experience in higher education and emphasized the need for a leader who would support diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at UNC.

Despite assurances from the UNC system that more sessions would be held throughout the year, summer and fall sessions were all canceled as the search process sped up in its final stages. 

No committee or board members attended the student-led forum. 

Political ties

From the start of his time as interim chancellor, students, faculty and community members expressed concerns about Roberts' political ties. Roberts has consistently denied they will impact his work. 

Roberts served as the state budget director under former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory from 2014-2016. While serving on the BOG in 2021-23, Roberts reported donations to the Republican Party.

Though he is registered as an unaffiliated voter, he requested a Republican ballot in eight out of the last nine primary elections.

Roberts also served on the board of directors of Variety Wholesalers, Inc. The CEO and chair of the private retail company is James Arthur “Art” Pope, a conservative donor, former state government official and UNC BOG member. 

One of the student groups that organized the student forum, TransparUNCy, also held teach-ins throughout the spring semester about the chancellor search and Roberts’ connections to right-wing lawmakers. 

 Roberts attended one of TransparUNCy’s teach-ins, and spoke about his relationship to Pope and Variety Wholesalers, Inc.

“Art Pope has a lot of ideas — so do a lot of other people,” Roberts said at the event. “He cares a lot about Carolina — so do a lot of other people. He doesn’t always get his way — I don’t think that anybody does.”

In a February interview with The Daily Tar Heel, Roberts assured that his connection to Pope was nonpartisan.

According to Senior Director of UNC Media Relations Kevin Best, Roberts has not spent time on Variety Wholesalers or been compensated since his appointment as interim chancellor. He stepped down from the board when his position was made permanent.

Parker Executive Search

In late March, a panel of search committee members selected Parker Executive Search to assist with the recruitment and vetting of chancellor candidates.

“The panel assessed that the consultants would be highly effective in facilitating the campus listening sessions and sourcing highly qualified candidates for consideration,” stated the contract with the firm, signed on April 8.

Parker Executive Search was previously involved in controversial appointments at multiple universities.

In 2015 the firm selected a candidate for president of the University of Iowa despite a lack of experience in higher education and reportedly submitting a resume with errors and omissions.

The same year, the search for a new president at Eastern Michigan University was caught in controversy after reporting from The Chronicle of Higher Education found that faculty felt shut out of the process. 

Also in 2015, the firm assisted in the hiring process for the University of Minnesota Twin Cities athletic director who later admitted to sexually harassing at least two women. Similarly, in 2013 the firm failed to uncover verbal abuse allegations against an athletic director at Rutgers University.

 Laurie Wilder, the president and co-owner of Parker Executive Search, denied a request for comment from The Daily Tar Heel.

During the first public meeting featuring the search firm on April 17, committee members questioned how why the search process was taking so long. At the meeting, Wilder emphasized the need to expedite the selection process because of the University’s “profile.” 

Roberts' selection

Four months after hiring the search firm, Roberts was officially selected by the committee and approved by the BOT and BOG on Aug. 9. The selection received praise and well wishes from some members of the search process and the UNC campus community. 

“Now that he has been elected, we look forward to working with him as he continues to guide our University with humility, empathy and determination,” search committee Chair Dr. Cristy Page and BOT chair John Preyer, said in a statement released after the announcement. 

However, many members of the campus community — especially students — expressed outrage online about Roberts’ appointment, casting doubt upon the chancellor search process.

At the start of his interim chancellorship Roberts said in Q&A with The Daily Tar Heel he planned to do his job in a nonpartisan way. 

“It doesn't matter what my own personal views are, my role is to make sure that we have a really robust debate about the issues of the day on campus,” he said in the interview. “I'd like to make sure it's a respectful dialogue and a dialogue that lives up to our academic traditions, but we need to foster as much dialogue as we can.”

On April 30, after protesters replaced the American flag in the center of campus with a Palestinian flag Roberts led police through students and demonstrators to the pole. Multiple student protesters reported injuries afterwards, saying the police used excessive force.

While Roberts, surrounded by police, helped clip the American flag back on members of the UNC media relations team took pictures.

In the days afterwards, the University announced a temporary closure of the Campus Y, the student center for advocacy and public service, citing safety concerns. The co-presidents of the organization said they were not in violation of any policy and called the closure politically motivated and punitive.

Following the events of April 30, Roberts was commended by multiple Republican legislators. 

N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland, Rutherford) said Roberts should 100 percent take over the chancellorship full-time in the wake of the incident. N.C. Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger (R-Guilford, Rockingham) also praised Roberts’ actions and said on social media that he showed true leadership.

Following April 30, the Affirmative Action Coalition at UNC  created a vote of no confidence petition. At the time of publication, the petition has over 5,000 signatures. 

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article stated that members of the UNC Systems Media Relations team took pictures. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for this error.

@l_rhodsie

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