What the h*ll is going on in Chapel Hill?

[Hibush]

CHE has an article on a new group trying to improve matters at the University of North Carolina. The group,  Coalition for Carolina, ran a provocative ad in the Alumni News, whose headline I used for this thread. You can see it in yesterday's Daily Tarheel.

The CHE article makes the point that "Chapel Hill has played host to some of the most striking clashes between higher education and state politics". Indeed, for such an august institution, it has an outsized share of governance challenges and petty scandals.

One of the groups founders says "The current environment puts Chapel Hill leaders in a position where they're afraid to do anything that could anger state lawmakers. They fear it could jeopardize the university's budget and derail spending on needs like faculty raises and scholarships for low-income students. "

I wish them well.

I marvel at the contrast between the steady stream of trouble at UNC and the relative quiet at NCSU, yet they must share a lot of the same political pressures. Anyone have insight into the reason for the difference?

[Mobius]

Large part is related to tenure controversy surrounding Nikole Hannah-Jones.

[liszt56]

I guess they got away with the fake degree thing:
https://www.cnn.com/2014/04/08/us/unc-academic-fraud-investigation/index.html

[mahagonny]

A furor because people get degrees in African American studies but no one insisted that they be able to read? LOL. Sunlight is good.

[jimbogumbo]

I don't recall the degrees, rather classes. The furor is that almost all the students were scholarship athletes, and there was strong evidence the Athletic Department and coaches knew these were no show classes. Additionally, the scope of the operation seemed unusual even for an industry that is ripe for abuse.

[marshwiggle]

I don't recall the degrees, rather classes. The furor is that almost all the students were scholarship athletes, and there was strong evidence the Athletic Department and coaches knew these were no show classes. Additionally, the scope of the operation seemed unusual even for an industry that is ripe for abuse.

A rather hilarious point.:

Meanwhile, the Student-Athletes Human Rights Project has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education over UNC's paper classes. The student-athlete advocacy group, based in Durham, North Carolina, alleges the classes violated Title IX because the number of male students taking them was disproportionate, and Title VI because too many black students took them.

Dang straight. Fraud should be equally available to all.

[Hibush]

The article emphasizes the inappropriate role the current trustees are playing by preventing the school's efforts to be a top school. But the scandals predate that particular problem. Is there a common thread? Are there internal processes that are broken?

The Jones debacle was all about trustees interfering in a functional internal process.
The fake classes debacle was about missing internal controls. Trustees fulfilled their role differently during that period, so I'm not aware that they encouraged the fraud. But could it be athletic boosters as a different external force corrupting the established academic processes and controls.

UNC faculty are by and large some of the most serious scholars in the country. They have a lot of standing and influence. I can't imagine them tolerating the stuff that creates the scandal. Have UNC faculty grown too weary of the disfunction and interference to fight? Have the administrations not been politic enough to divert the scandal?
How is NC State different? They have many of the same conditions, yet not the same problems.

[mythbuster]

Over the last decade, North Carolina has been a total political battle ground. Part of this has to do with the demographic changes that are happening there. It's state that is having a real influx of diversity. Especially in areas like the Triangle that have seen economic success. It's also been the breeding ground for many of the farther right political efforts.
   As evidence, I give you this story about the Wake County school board. Wake County is Raleigh, and until 2010 had a very progressive system of bussing and student distribution, which led them to be the best district in the state. The the GOP decided to grab control: https://indyweek.com/news/wake-county-goes-hell/. They dismantled the entire lauded system in just a few months
   It looks like now that effort is extending to the universities. Chapel Hill is the clear flagship, so it's the one that matters. NC State is "just" the Ag school- no matter that some of their programs are better than those as UNC. What happens at UNC make the national news, while State scandals only make the local news.

[Hibush]

Thanks for clarifying those differences that make UNC the national scandal showcase.