The Quad: The Last of His Kind?

The Last of His Kind?

When UNC Greensboro Chancellor Frank Gilliam reached a decade in office last year, he had a lot to celebrate.

Reaching 10 years was itself a milestone in today’s UNC System, where longevity and stability in top leadership roles is increasingly rare. Gilliam is tied with UNC Pembroke Chancellor Robin Cummings, who also began in the summer of 2015, as the longest serving current campus leaders in the system. 

N.C. A&T State University Chancellor Harold Martin and N.C. State University Chancellor Randy Woodson had served 15 and 14 years, respectively, when they retired in 2024. But four to five years has become a more common tenure for a chancellor in the system. Surveys have found that college leaders’ tenure is getting shorter at universities across the country as well.

There are a lot of reasons for that, Gilliam said.

“These are bigger enterprises now,” he said. “Chancellors and presidents are expected to do much more, both in functioning more like chief executive officers and less like academics, and in the fundraising aspect.”

When he took his first faculty job in 1983, Gilliam said, chancellors went to cocktail parties and glad-handed faculty members, alumni, and donors.

“It’s really changed,” he said.

“The public, alumni, and trustees want to see results,” Gilliam said. “We’re not quite like football coaches, but they want to see results, and they want them quicker now.”

— Joe Killian

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

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The North Star

What’s happening with Carolina North? That’s a question on the minds of many—including us here at The Quad—going into 2026. 

It’s been nearly 20 years since UNC-Chapel Hill leaders first proposed a plan to develop the property, which sits north of campus off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. But the initial vision of Carolina North becoming a mixed-use extension of the main campus hasn’t come to fruition, which the university attributed to “a sustained period of constrained resources.”

Chancellor Lee Roberts, who is entering his third year on the job, has made it clear that development at Carolina North is one of his top priorities. Doing so, he’s said, would provide some of the needed infrastructure as the university seeks to expand its undergraduate student population by 5,000 students in the next decade, as well as support housing needs in Chapel Hill. 

“Over time, we think it can be a full-blown satellite campus,” Roberts said last August on the Carolina Insider podcast produced by the university’s athletic department.

That would be a major change for the university and its footprint, to be sure. But, as is often the case at UNC-CH, basketball is driving much of the conversation—and generating lots of headlines during our publishing pause—about Carolina North.

Campus leaders for years have been discussing the future of the 40-year-old Dean E. Smith Center. Roberts has noted that, at the very least, the building needs a new roof, which he estimates would cost at least $80 million (which also includes restroom and concession upgrades and changes required by disability laws, per UNC-CH) and would require the men’s basketball team to play off-site during construction. In 2024, a working group formed by Roberts named Carolina North as a possible location for a new arena, should officials decide to move the Smith Center from its current spot.

Roberts hasn’t committed to moving the arena to Carolina North or any of the other three locations considered by the 2024 working group, though he said he wanted to announce a decision about the Smith Center’s future by the end of 2025. That deadline came and went with no announcement—and some notable onlookers spoke out against a move to Carolina North last month.

Roughly 90 former UNC-CH basketball players, coaches, trustees, and donors signed a December 12 letter to Roberts expressing their wishes for the arena to stay on campus, where students—many of whom live in dorms just steps away from the Smith Center—could more easily access games. 

“We are interested in a far less expensive and far more fan and student friendly experience of a renovation or rebuild of the Smith Center on South Campus to include needed surrounding enhancements and amenities, long promised and underdelivered. We further wish to honor Dean Smith’s request that our cherished basketball brand and legacy always remain on campus,” read the letter. Inside Carolina first reported on the letter, which we’ve since obtained. 

The letter also criticized the university’s discussions about a possible move, saying those who signed the document felt they had “not been included to date in any known process.” The university disputed that characterization of the discussions in a statement, saying campus and athletic leaders, donors, and other stakeholders had participated in workshops, surveys, focus groups, and other forums for input about the arena’s future. 

Still, Roberts and other officials have made new efforts to hear from those concerned about a move, holding meetings throughout December with people who signed the letter. Roger Perry, a former trustee who signed the letter, attended a December 30 meeting with Roberts and said that the chancellor “did a really nice job of laying out the pros and cons of each option.” 

But few, if any, attendees changed their minds, Perry said.

“I think we understood the chancellor’s perspective and viewpoint on it,” Perry said. “But I don’t think anyone was persuaded to it.”

Campus officials haven’t announced a new timeline for any announcement about the arena.

Correction: An earlier version of this item incorrectly said Roberts is entering his second year on the job. It is his third.

— Korie Dean

Class Introductions

Some folks around the state are starting new jobs in 2026—or did so at the tail end of 2025—so it’s time for another round of introductions.

Jamesia Harrison is the new director of university communications at N.C. A&T. Harrison, who is an alumna of the university, previously was senior director of marketing and communications at Shaw University in Raleigh.

Also at A&T, Kecia Williams Smith was named dean of the Willie A. Deese College of Business and Economics, a role she had filled on an interim basis since July. Smith, who joined the A&T faculty in 2019, is the first alumna to lead the school.

LaDaniel Gatling II is Elizabeth City State University’s new vice chancellor for university advancement. Gatling, who started at ECSU December 15, previously held advancement roles at Greensboro’s Guilford College and Bennett College.

Fayetteville State University Provost Monica Leach retired December 31. Leach had been at FSU since 2021, following previous roles at N.C. Central University and N.C. State. Sonja Brown, the university’s vice chancellor for academic and faculty affairs, is filling the provost role on an interim basis.

Jeff Stein was named chief integration officer and executive vice president for Elon University, overseeing the merger between Elon and Queens University of Charlotte that was announced last fall. Stein, who worked at Elon for more than 20 years before leaving to serve as president of Mary Baldwin University in Virginia, will be based in Charlotte.

— Korie Dean

Assigned Reading

In the Public Eye: Syllabi for all courses in the UNC System will soon be considered public records and made available online under a rule issued over the holiday break by system President Peter Hans. The final version of the policy, which takes effect January 15, includes some changes from an initial proposal, like a new requirement that syllabi include a disclaimer that the inclusion of an assigned reading in a course does not imply an endorsement of the material by the professor. Catch up with my story here.

Show Me the Money: The U.S. Department of Education announced Monday it had awarded $169 million to colleges, universities, and accreditors for efforts in line with several of the Trump administration’s priorities. The department’s press release contained few details of the awards, but Inside Higher Ed published a helpful breakdown using information the agency briefly posted online. Four awards have ties to North Carolina: Davidson College received nearly $4 million for civil discourse; Central Carolina Community College received about $662,000 to fund its switch in accreditors; UNC-CH received about $3.7 million for research on how educators can use artificial intelligence to support students with autism; and the Commission for Public Higher Education received $1 million to help the organization as it seeks to accredit its first cohort of 10 public universities.

Squeaky Clean: The state auditor’s office issued a clean audit to N.C. Central for the 2025 fiscal year, marking the first time in three years that the historically Black university had no findings from the agency. Last March, the auditor’s office said the university’s financial reporting was “grossly inaccurate” and included more than $45 million in errors. NCCU attributed its improved standing since that report to a “comprehensive new financial structure put in place over the past 18 months.”

Sue Me: A former UNC Charlotte employee has sued the school for discrimination after she was fired following her appearance in a secretly recorded video alleging that the university was continuing to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. The lawsuit alleges the employee, Janique Sanders, never spoke to university investigators and was not given specific grounds for her firing. The Charlotte Observer has more.

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