The Quad: Tenure Truce

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Tenure Truce

After UNC-Chapel Hill’s Board of Trustees delayed votes on tenure cases in most departments, it’s clear that the institution felt the heat. Less than two weeks after the delay sparked faculty concerns, the board approved 33 tenure cases, which Kevin Best, UNC-CH’s senior media relations director, told The Assembly included all those deferred from the May meeting.

“The University administration and Board of Trustees moved these personnel actions forward given the impact the deferral caused on departments,” Best wrote. “The university will continue to weigh all factors when considering the timing of expenditures given the current fiscal environment.”

Not long after the board’s vote, Inside Higher Ed scooped some emails between the trustees that provided further insights into the situation. Notable highlights from IHE’s report include:

• Trustee Jim Blaine wrote that he didn’t want to reverse course on the tenure votes and reward “bad behavior” from faculty. “It is not good governance to give your child a cookie every time they lay on the floor and scream that they want one,” he wrote. “The optics on this are terrible and make the administration look weak and irresolute. The reversal of course appears responsive to public groaning and gnashing of teeth—bad behavior by a few members of the faculty.”
• Blaine and trustee Marty Kotis expressed dislike for the tenure model. Blaine wrote that he had a “philosophical opposition to the outdated tenure model,” and Kotis said he found it “difficult to believe university professors uniquely require lifetime job security comparable to positions held by the Pope or Federal Judges.”
• Trustees Ritch Allison, Jen Lloyd, Ralph Meekins Sr., and Student Body President Adolfo Alvarez expressed an unwillingness to pull the rug out from faculty in the tenure process. “This email exchange is now a public discussion on the topic and email exchanges on a subject that is so important and critical to higher education is [sic] not the best forum,” Meekins wrote. He added: “I am against this aggressive approach. Our current faculty, our future faculty, and our students deserve better.”

While UNC-CH has not said what delayed the votes, board chair John Preyer told IHE it revolved around budget concerns. Still, the episode prompted concerns for faculty across the UNC System.

Read our write-up for more.

— Erin Gretzinger

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Thanks for reading The Quad, a higher education newsletter written by Matt Hartman and Erin Gretzinger and edited by Emily Stephenson. Reach us with tips or ideas at highered@theassemblync.com.

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‘Financial Exigency Is Imminent’

Guilford College’s interim Provost Kami Rowan did not mince words in a May 21 email to her faculty colleagues: “Without significant changes to our financial model, we simply do not have the cash flow or revenue to continue operating,” she wrote.

The school’s Board of Trustees is meeting this week, and administrators and faculty have been debating in recent weeks whether the situation merits formally declaring financial exigency—the first step in the process of laying off tenured faculty members.

In addition to the financial challenges we reported last month, The Quad has learned that only 54 percent of Guilford’s upperclass students have enrolled for the fall. The college’s draft budget for next year assumed 85 percent retention, according to a memo from Guilford’s budget committee, and even that would have left the school with a projected deficit.

The school announced a land deal with Piedmont Land Conservancy on Wednesday that would protect a large section of the beloved Guilford Woods and provide the school with $8.5 million. Unfortunately, PLC said Guilford won’t see the money until the end of a fundraising campaign that is expected to take two and a half years.

Read the full story for the details.

—Matt Hartman

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Assigned Reading

Take AIM and Fire: Not long after the conservative group Accuracy In Media (AIM) secretly recorded a UNC Charlotte administrator saying there are “covert” positions doing DEI work, UNC Charlotte said the employee did not work there anymore. The pattern repeated at UNC Asheville on Tuesday with another AIM video, this time of Megan Pugh, UNCA’s dean of students. A spokesperson told The Assembly Pugh is “no longer employed by the university.” AIM says it has videos at six UNC System schools showing administrators “bragging about continuing to push” DEI programs.

‘Duke, Don’t DOGE’: A coalition of Duke University employees and Durham community groups sent a letter titled “Duke, Don’t DOGE” to administrators demanding an immediate end to buyouts, instead proposing that the university’s highest paid administrators take a 10 percent to 25 percent pay cut. American Association of University Professors President Todd Wolfson also called on Duke to involve faculty in layoff decisions.

BOT Poli-Ticks: At a May meeting, members of the UNC-CH Board of Trustees questioned the independent structure of the nonprofit fundraising group Carolina Alumni, The Daily Tar Heel reported. Board chair Preyer compared the organization to a “parasite” living off the “host body” of UNC-CH, saying its fundraising efforts do not directly support the university.

Let us know what’s on your radar at highered@theassemblync.com.

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