Chain of command: Chancellor answers to UNC President

After UNC Chapel Hill’s Board of Trustees voted last month to transfer $2.3 million from Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs to public safety, UNC System President Peter Hans made it clear the trustees don’t have that power.

Hans told reporters the Chapel Hill board’s action was “not in compliance with the Board of Governors’ policy” on university budgets, which only calls for an up-or-down vote on the campus chancellor’s budget and does not give trustees line-item budget authority.

Hans said a UNC System lawyer advised UNC-Chapel Hill’s lawyer that the trustees don’t have line-item authority, but the trustees “chose to disregard that advice.”¹

WITH TWO CHANCELLOR searches recently concluded² and four searches underway or looming at Chapel Hill, N.C. A&T, Appalachian State and Elizabeth City State, many North Carolinians and even some reporters don’t seem to understand that the chancellor at each UNC System campus answers to the UNC President – not to the campus Board of Trustees.

The UNC governance system is complex. But it’s spelled out quite clearly in the University Code that campus trustees’ role is an advisory one to the chancellor and the System Board of Governors:

“Each board of trustees shall serve as advisor to the Board of Governors on matters pertaining to its institution and shall also serve as advisor to the chancellor concerning the management and development of the institution.”³ (Emphasis added.)

When chancellors are hired, the campus trustees recommend at least three candidates to the System President, but it’s the President who chooses a finalist and recommends that candidate to the UNC System Board of Governors.⁴

Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts – a former member of the Board of Governors himself – has made the line of authority clear at least since last year.

“I don’t think there’s any ambiguity about the governance situation. The chancellor reports to the system president [Peter Hans],” Roberts said in one early interview.⁵

Hans and Board of Governors Chair Randy Ramsey also made it clear in a memo to UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees Chair John Preyer in January, on the day Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts arrived.

“In light of that chain of command, (UNC System policy) provides that board members shall refrain from directing matters of administration or executive action except through the chancellor,” the memo from Hans and Ramsey said.⁶

In other words, and in line with Public Ed Works’ 2020 series on University Governance:

Stay in your lane.

Don’t micromanage.

ASKED ABOUT the relationship with trustees in December, Roberts was diplomatic.

“The Board of Trustees is a group of really committed, really impressive Carolina alums who care a lot about the future of the institution and have got a lot of really good ideas. So who wouldn’t want that input?” he said.⁷

Of course, the trustees can make a chancellor’s life miserable, as they did when they forced out former Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz last year with their culture wars and micromanagement.

Ultimately, though, as spelled out in the University Code and any number of other communications, they are advisors.

That’s it.

They can be either constructive advisors or destructive advisors.

And the trustees who seem to control the board in Chapel Hill right now are clearly out to destroy the culture of the nation’s oldest public university.

¹ https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article288686745.html.
² https://publicedworks.org/2024/05/homecoming-for-a-new-wssu-chancellor/;https://publicedworks.org/2024/06/dixon-to-lead-nccu-what-next-for-ecsu/.
³ https://www.northcarolina.edu/apps/policy/doc.php?id=56, Section 403 A.
⁴ https://www.northcarolina.edu/apps/policy/doc.php?id=74.
⁵ https://www.theassemblync.com/education/higher-education/unc-roberts-chancellor/.
⁶ https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24533017/unc-chapel-hill-administrative-memorandum_january-12-2024-1.pdf.
⁷ https://www.theassemblync.com/education/higher-education/unc-roberts-chancellor/.