The Board of Trustees met Wednesday to talk everything from Gov. Pat McCrory’s proposed UNC system budget cuts to students’ efforts to rename Saunders Hall.
UNC to absorb at least 30 percent of system-wide cuts
Early budget projections from Governor McCrory reveal UNC-Chapel Hill would absorb about 32 percent of system-wide cuts to UNC schools.
"We account for 20 percent of the budget, and we’re taking one and a half times that in cuts," said Steven Lerner, chair of the Finance and Infrastructure Committee.
The committee balked at one projection that said UNC would have to swallow 27 percent — or about $2.1 million — of cuts made to the system's budget for paying utility bills like electricity and water.
"How do you cut that?" said Donald Curtis, a member of the Finance and Infrastructure Committee. "The electricity is the electricity. The water is water. Are they going to limit the number of commode flushes?"
Members of the committee said they felt like UNC, which has saved $25.4 million through the energy conservation measures it put in place, was being disproportionately punished.
"It seems like the logic is a little bit convoluted," Lerner said. "If you become more efficient, you end up losing the money you saved to become more efficient."
Student activists push trustees to rename Saunders Hall
Student activists from the Real Silent Sam Coalition attended the meeting to ask trustees to rename Saunders Hall, which houses the religious studies and geography department. The building is named after UNC alumnus and trustee William L. Saunders, who was also a Grand Dragon for the state Ku Klux Klan.
Student and member of the coalition Taylor Webber-Fields said she was excited to come to UNC because it was her dream school, but was disheartened to hear about Saunders Hall’s racialized history.
“To learn that the KKK is immortalized at this institution is not something I wanted to digest. I somehow wanted to believe Carolina was different ... I cannot help but feel I am an unwanted student of color,” Webber-Fields said.
More than 800 students signed a petition to rename the hall and the religious studies and geography department support the change, the members of Real Silent Sam Coalition said.
The trustees’ university affairs committee did not make a decision about the building name, but thanked the students for coming.
New sexual assault policy will be unveiled this summer
The Title IX Task Force, a group of faculty and students that has met for a year to revise UNC’s sexual assault policy, should issue its findings to Chancellor Carol Folt this summer, said Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Winston Crisp.
Similarly to the national discussion about athletics, campus response to sexual assault is complex and changing on a system-wide and national level, which has added to the group’s work, Crisp said.
He said the group has scheduled a meeting at the beginning of June to sign off on the changes.
Capital campaign planning underway, expert contracted
The University will embark on a new capital campaign soon, and it's reached out to expert John Glier to help implement it.
Glier, from Grenzebach, Glier and Associates, will help University administrators conduct organizational and pricing reviews to get the best returns on the new capital campaign.
David Routh, vice chancellor for university development, said he was excited to have Glier on UNC's side going into the campaign.
Routh also gave an update on the University's current fundraising efforts. Cash gifts from individuals are up 19 percent this year, but grants from organizations are down 4 percent, Routh said.
Athletic working group to issue progress report soon
Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham presented an update on the Student-Athlete Academic Initiatives Working Group, which is evaluating all the processes related to athletics, such as recruitment and support.
He said the group has evaluated about 10 of the 22 processes and has also added student-athletes to its meetings.
“It’s been more helpful than we have anticipated,” Cunningham said, saying a midterm report could be issued in the summer. “I thought that at the conclusion of this working group we’d be done … but it’s becoming very clear that it’s an ongoing process, it will never end.”
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