Fixing a lack of diversity by ending diversity

Shortly before Gov. Roy Cooper first took office, the leaders of the North Carolina General Assembly embarked on a power-grab that included seizing a governor’s authority to appoint some members of the boards of trustees for the 16 affiliate campuses of the University of North Carolina system.

The governor’s appointing authority traces back to, most recently, the massive 1971 reorganization of the UNC system and the power the legislature had to appoint all members of the Board of Governors. To balance out that power and provide for greater diversity, the governor retained authority to appoint a portion of the individual campus trustees.

It has long been a matter of ideological faith to the current leaders of the state legislature, that there is a “diversity problem” at the state’s universities. “University professors are far more liberal and Democratic,” they've complained.

So, what solution have these legislative leaders done about the perceived lack of diversity? They have made the campus boards – and the UNC Board itself – even LESS diverse and MORE partisan.

Legislators long ago abandoned the open and public process that was once in place to assure diversity in the nomination and election by the legislator of UNC Board of Governors members. Today that board is practically all Republican (Republicans account for a mere 30% of the state’s 7.2 million registered voters) and white. Twenty of the board’s members (83%) are white (whites account for 70% of the state’s population. Current minority enrollment at UNC system schools is 34%).

“This is a diverse state, but we don’t have a diverse Board (of Governors),” wrote former UNC Board Chair Lou Bissette. “A governing board should reflect the interests of the people it represents. Geographically and demographically, it should look like our student body and the people of our state. That’s how we make sure all voices are heard and our policies are broadly supported and sustainable.”

During a recent panel discussion over university governance hosted by the Coalition for Carolina Belle Wheelan, president of the Southern Association of Colleges and School’s Commission on Colleges (which provides accreditation to more than 800 institutions of higher education), observed there are inevitable political and ideological shifts on campuses and education governance just as there are in the broader society. But the shift hasn’t been from what some might consider an extreme to the moderate.

Until 2016 the governor appointed four of the 13 trustees on each UNC campus. Now legislative leaders control those four appointments. Former UNC Chancellor James Moeser says the result is even greater political polarization and a diminishment of ideological diversity on the campus boards of trustees.

Moeser and others on the panel pointed out that the campus boards have become more parochial. There are fewer trustees from outside the state which has had an impact – not just partisanship and ideology – on fundraising. Of the two members of the UNC-CH board who are from outside North Carolina, one is an executive for an online gambling operation with interests in betting on collegiate sports. None of the N.C. State University trustees are from outside the state and there’s only one woman.

North Carolina’s university system and its campuses should be governed by boards need to be diverse and reflect the broad constituencies they serve.

The latest efforts and appointments by the General Assembly’s leaders have been more directed at an ideological cleansing and installing more rigid partisanship on the boards.

To promote true diversity, the legislature needs to adopt a more open and transparent process for selection of UNC Board of Governor’s members and campus trustees. Further, it should diversify those appointments and go back to giving the governor – regardless of party – the authority to appoint some of the members of both the Board of Governors and the campus trustees.