Following their graduation, seven trustees maintained an active connection to UNC by serving on the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Visitors.
Trustee Ralph Meekins Sr. said that when he expressed interest in being on the BOT to Tim Moore, the N.C. Speaker of the House at the time, Moore said it was a difficult position to obtain.
“He said a good place to start would be to be on the Board of Visitors, which he appointed me to,” Meekins said. “I served for four years on the Board of Visitors and was fortunate enough for him to have appointed me.”
The Board of Visitors’ website states that members assist the BOT and the chancellor with public and government relations and fundraising for activities that “help advance the University.”
Many entities within the UNC System, including the BOT, can nominate people for the Board of Visitors. The BOT then elects these members from the pool of nominated candidates. Linda Douglas, the Board of Visitors’ senior director of volunteer engagement, said in an email that the trustees have nominated about 15 people for the 40 available spots this year.
After their educational experiences, many of the trustees pursued backgrounds in politics and business.
Ballantine founded and now runs a government relations and consulting firm that offers “unparalleled access to the key decision makers,” according to its website. Blaine is also a partner at a strategic and public affairs firm, Martin and Blaine the Differentiators LLC.
Meekins has been a practicing attorney for over 30 years, primarily in personal injury and workers' compensation. He said he and Moore were lawyers in the same community and practiced together. Malcolm Turner is the head of strategy and corporate development for DraftKings, an online sports gambling platform. Previously, he served as vice chancellor and athletics director at Vanderbilt University.
Jones is a practicing anesthesiologist and partner at the East Carolina Anesthesia Associates, andLloyd began her career in health care investment banking at Goldman Sachs. Lloyd later co-founded and led an advisory firm focused on medical technology mergers and worked in various roles at Varian Medical Systems, a global leader in cancer therapy.
Samuel Scarborough, a sophomore at UNC and a student activist with the Southern Student Action Coalition, said understanding the trustees' business interests are as important as their political connections. He cited newly appointed Ritch Allison's role as former CEO of Dominoes, and currently on the board of governors for Starbucks Coffee.
"It's not just the fact that these are like partisan actors that are in these places, but these are also very wealthy people who have specific business interests," he said.
Six of the 15 trustees are appointed directly by state elected officials: four by the N.C. General Assembly, two by the president of the state senate and two by the speaker of the state house. A few of the trustees have political connections and experience themselves.
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In 2004, Ballantine campaigned for governor of North Carolina against Democrat Mike Easley and lost with a 42.88 percent vote against Easley’s 55.62 percent. He worked with current N.C. Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger before Berger appointed him to the BOT in 2023.
Trustee Jim Blaine worked his first political job as Ballantine's deputy campaign director during his 2004 gubernatorial campaign against Easley. Blaine also served as Berger’s chief of staff in 2010 when Republicans won the General Assembly majority for the first time in almost a century.
Preyer, first appointed to the Board in 2019 by the General Assembly taking over as chair in 2023, previously worked with Sen. Lauch Faircloth as a legislative director for environmental issues from 1992-1996. Rob Bryan III served in the state house from 2013-2016 and the state senate from 2019-2020. He was on the UNC Systems Board of Governors between terms, from 2017 to 2019.
Additionally, Perrin Jones, who has a medical background, served on the state House of Representatives from 2019-2021, replacing Greg Murphy.
Meekins didn't serve in state office, but raised concerns of the political makeup of the board as it is.
“It’s helpful to have diverse backgrounds and diverse thought on our board,” Meekins said. “Not to be hyper-critical of our particular board at this particular time, but we’re not as diverse as we once were. I mean, most of us are politically aligned, most of us are socially similar, and sometimes I’m concerned that we’re too alike.”
Although most board members have years of career experience, one trustee is a current student at UNC. The student body president serves as an ex-officio member of the board while they are in office.
Student Body President-Elect Adolfo Alvarez says that being the only student on the board takes not only the support of the student body but a lot of boldness.
“The idea of being on the Board of Trustees is very intimidating because you're supposed to go in and advocate for students with a board that has consistently shown to be dismissive of student voices,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez said that as a student, being a minority voice on the board makes it challenging to create the change many student body presidents set out to accomplish.
Despite these challenges, Alvarez says that having a student on the board brings an essential perspective to the room and allows the student body president to put weight on the administration.
“The main goal is that people feel like someone's actually going into that room and representing them,” Alvarez said. “I may not be able to change their mind, but I can show them what we think with 32,000 student voices behind me.”
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