Two UNC BOT members to resign after winning state elections

David Boliek and Brad Briner, two UNC Board of Trustees members who have never held elected office, are stepping down from their positions after the 2024 general election. They won their respective races for state auditor and state treasurer, and are required to subsequently resign as members of the BOT. 

The BOT bylaws explain that those elected to state positions must resign from the BOT before they can be sworn into state office. Individuals cannot simultaneously hold state office and serve on the BOT. 

Thursday's BOT meeting was Boliek and Briner’s last as members of the board, according to an email statement from UNC Media Relations. At the meeting, Chancellor Lee Roberts congratulated them on their success and said that they will be missed. 

Boliek was appointed to the BOT by the UNC System Board of Governors in 2019, becoming chair of the BOT in 2021 and serving in the position for two years. He was appointed again as a member in 2023.

The BOG, which appoints eight of the 15 BOT members, will appoint a new member to replace Boliek and finish his term that ends in 2027. 

The BOG will make their reappointments for Boliek and Briner’s seats before the General Assembly elects new members next year. 

Six of the 15 members of the BOT are appointed by leaders of the N.C. Senate and N.C. House of Representatives, which appoint three members each. 

Phil Berger, the president pro tempore of the N.C. Senate, appointed Briner to serve on the BOT in November 2023, after the passage of a state bill that increased the size of the governing boards at UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University from 13 to 15 members. The president pro tempore of the Senate will appoint an individual to serve the remaining two years of Briner’s four year term. 

Toby Posel, co-founder of TransparUNCy, said he is skeptical that Boliek and Briner stepping down will have any impact on the BOT. He said the board has become increasingly politicized and that he doesn’t see this changing any time soon. 

Boliek and Briner have been a part of many controversial BOT rulings. In May, they both voted to reallocate $2.3 million in funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Boliek made the motion, stating that DEI is divisive and that the money could be better used somewhere else — namely public safety. 

UNC's DEI related budget changes were ultimately announced this September due to system-wide BOG guidelines.

Boliek was also one of four trustees who voted against tenure for Nikole Hannah-Jones in 2021, and he was an outward opponent of critical race theory and Hannah-Jones' 1619 Project.

Boliek also played a role in the creation of the new School of Civic Life and Leadership at UNC, which first became available to students during the Fall 2024 semester.

"We put in the School of Civic Life and Leadership so conservative professors would have a place to come and be able to teach,” Boliek said at a September UNC College Republicans meeting.

“I would like the ideological composition of the Board of Trustees to change,” Posel said. “I would like them to stop being so politicized, and I would like them to feel less empowered to advance a political agenda, whether it’s for the right or left.”

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