Opinion

JOHN P. PREYER: UNC-CH's pro-democracy school is a big plus, not a minus

Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023 -- The School of Civic Life and Leadership's evolved over several years as an outgrowth of the university's ideologically diverse Program for Public Discourse and its forward-thinking Ideas in Action curriculum - led in large part by Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz himself.

Posted 2023-11-28T23:25:44+00:00 - Updated 2023-11-29T17:00:10+00:00

UNC chancellor 'weighing' departure for Michigan State University

EDITOR'S NOTE: John P. Preyer, a Chapel Hill entrepreneur, is chairman of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees. This is a response to a Nov. 22, 2023 column from Paul Fulton, "Little wonder why UNC's Guskiewicz might leave," which follows below.

One thing North Carolinians can be grateful for this holiday season is the professional commitment to accuracy and fairness by at least some in the state’s news media, usually including WRAL.

Paul Fulton’s Nov. 22 WRAL guest column, however, includes a major misstatement amid his meandering speculation why Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz might want to leave UNC-Chapel Hill for another university: “A surprise resolution by the Board of Trustees to create a conservative School of Civic Life and Leadership, blindsiding the chancellor and the faculty.”

As has been documented thoroughly, that’s neither the school’s purpose nor how it originated. Instead, it evolved over several years as an outgrowth of the university’s ideologically diverse Program for Public Discourse and its forward-thinking Ideas in Action curriculum – led in large part by Guskiewicz himself.

Top university administrators and key faculty members – including Guskiewicz and Provost Chris Clemens – visited similar schools elsewhere for inspiration. Last year they drafted a memo outlining the new school and its funding needs before our Board of Trustees adopted a resolution in January urging its acceleration. The school is an excellent idea, but it wasn’t ours.

This is not a minor distinction. People might disagree about the value of a public university’s promoting respectful political discourse and civic engagement in a democracy – particularly if they’re used to dominating the campus debate – but they shouldn’t misrepresent its genesis.

More important, Chancellor Guskiewicz has consistently supported the new school publicly and privately. Its launch by him and others can’t logically be a reason why he would leave UNC-CH.

“This is not something that dropped out of the sky,” Guskiewicz noted during the university’s Oct. 6 Faculty Council meeting. “I’m excited about the opportunities that I believe it presents. …This is something that we can be very, very proud of in the coming years.”

Guskiewicz explained how the concept grew out of the university’s Ideas in Action curriculum.

“We as a faculty recognized that we were not doing enough to educate our students on, number one, how to have difficult conversations – how to engage with somebody that you know disagrees with you, how to listen, how to form your own opinion and your own values and defend those,” he said. “And then also how to be really a part of the civic life of a democracy.”

Dean Jim White of the College of Arts & Sciences likewise emphasized to the Faculty Council the school’s vital role in reinforcing civil discourse and responsible citizenship.

“We’re very much in the arena of trying to not just educate our students in the major or majors in which they’re interested, but also take seriously our responsibility to produce for this state and for this country well-educated citizens who own and know how to nurture a democracy,” he said.

Consider, too, the university’s job posting for the school’s inaugural dean:

“Faculty will aim to provide the productive culture of free and civil discourse, open inquiry, and scientific literacy necessary for members of a democratic society to explore humanity’s highest purposes and potential. The curriculum will invite students to develop democratic competencies and key virtues such as intellectual humility, curiosity, and generosity as they engage perennial questions of morality, aesthetics, religion, politics, economics, health, law, and science.”

That’s far from the right-wing barrio its critics claim, but rather a fundamental function of public higher education in a pluralistic society. (And, for that matter, of journalism.)

Meanwhile, nine UNC-CH faculty members are developing the school’s vision and curriculum while leading the search for its dean.

As Carolina climbs in national higher-education rankings and its applications and enrollment are surging, the university’s unique leadership on civic engagement will only add to its luster.

Chancellor Guskiewicz knows this, and that’s why he supports Carolina’s new pro-democracy school. So should Mr. Fulton and his readers.

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PAUL FULTON: Little wonder why UNC's Guskiewicz might leave

EDITOR'S NOTE: Paul Fulton, of Winston-Salem is a former president of Sara Lee Corp.; former dean of the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC; former trustee at UNC-Chapel Hill; former member of the UNC Board of Governors; and Chair of Higher Ed Works.

There’s little wonder why UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz is entertaining a new job.

Guskiewicz is reportedly a finalist for the presidency at Michigan State University. Though he is a nationally renowned expert in neuroscience and concussions, a MacArthur Genius Award winner and a deft administrator, that’s a step down from the chancellorship at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Maybe we just don’t want geniuses running Carolina.

Just look at the environment as Guskiewicz, who became interim chancellor in 2019, navigated the university through one of its most tumultuous periods, including:

The pandemic, with ever-shifting signals on whether it was safe for students to return to campus.
The General Assembly stripped the Governor of any appointments to university boards of trustees and eventually appointments to both state and local community-college boards.
The aftermath of the removal of the Silent Sam statue on campus, including an abortive deal to give the statue to the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
The UNC Board of Governors didn’t accept a single one of his and a former Board of Trustees Chair’s recommendations for appointees to the Board of Trustees.
Foot-dragging by the Board of Trustees on tenure for Nikole Hannah-Jones as a Knight Chair in Race and Journalism, and her subsequent rejection of Chapel Hill.
A surprise resolution by the Board of Trustees to create a conservative School of Civic Life and Leadership, blindsiding the chancellor and the faculty. This was followed with orchestrated coverage by Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, as well as $4 million and orders from the General Assembly to hire 10-20 faculty members from outside the university.
A new law requiring state universities to switch accreditors every time they renew accreditation. This is costly, time-consuming and adds no value.
A new law that says the state will match donations only for distinguished professorships in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) in the future. The new law explicitly precludes state matches for distinguished professorships in journalism and law.
A public scolding from the now-Chair of the Board of Trustees for pursuing a case to defend what used to be considered the law – consideration of race as one of many factors in admissions.
Departures of a number of key faculty, including Kelly Hogan, Suzanne Barbour, Deen Freelon, William Sturkey and Andrew Perrin.

MORE BROADLY, consider what’s become of public education in North Carolina. Guskiewicz can be seen as a casualty of a toxic environment that has politicized public education from top to bottom:

The state ranks 50th for the percentage of its GDP (gross domestic product) it invests in K-12 public education. In other words, we’re plenty able to invest more in public education, yet we don’t do it to the extent any other state does.
Before adoption of a new state budget in October, we ranked an abysmal 46th in starting teacher pay and 34th in average teacher pay.
As a result, we saw a 50% drop in the number of education majors across the UNC System from 2010-22.
Public schools across the state started this school year with 3,500 K-12 teacher vacancies – and an accompanying increase in classrooms with non-certified teachers.
And the new state budget includes a plan to expand vouchers that give students tax dollars to attend private K-12 schools from $95 million in 2022-23 to $520 million by 2032-33, which will likely divert funds from public schools. The budget also removes any income limits for these subsidies for private schools.

AMID THIS ENVIRONMENT of political and ideological interference, it’s no wonder Guskiewicz is considering other options.

Yet as noted above, he has steered the University through some of the most trying times in its 234-year history. He has shown courage and independence in the process.

He likes to speak of the university’s “low stone walls” – a metaphor for how researchers from different disciplines readily collaborate in their work.

There is real beauty in that.

It’s exemplified by the critical research of virologist Dr. Ralph Baric and the work of alumna Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, who oversaw the rapid development of a vaccine for Covid – a development not just for North Carolina or the United States, but for all of humanity.

A week after the U.S. Supreme Court banned use of race in admissions this summer, he announced the university would cover tuition and fees for any student from a family with household income under $80,000.

That’s a laudable effort to stay true to the University’s tradition of access for students from all income levels – even if members of the Board of Governors didn’t like it.

Though no one could blame him, if and when he does leave, it will undoubtedly open an opportunity for still more political meddling by Republican legislators and the Board of Governors.

I sincerely hope that doesn’t happen. But recent experience tells me it will.

I WAS A REPUBLICAN all my adult life, until both parties became too extreme and I saw the micro-meddling by Republicans in the NC General Assembly in our world-renowned University of North Carolina System.

I’m now unaffiliated with any political party. The largest group of voters in North Carolina – voters who favor public education – is unaffiliated as well. There’s a reason for that.

Republicans are clearly now a minority political party. Yet they are clearly in charge of public education in our state.

Is this what we want? I don’t want either party dabbling in public education. It was not that way when I was on the UNC Chapel Hill Board of Trustees or the UNC System Board of Governors.

And it should not be that way today.