Tag: John Engler

As disputes at North Carolina and Michigan State take partisan overtones, can boards, leaders, faculty members and lawmakers back away from polarization to lead public universities effectively? On Monday, UNC Chapel Hill chancellor Carol Folt handed in her resignation at the same time as she decided to remove the remnants of the toppled Silent Sam Confederate monument. In North Carolina, Folt was a leader who had faced criticism for not acting as she unsuccessfully supported a middle-of-the-road solution between progressive activists who wanted the statue off campus and a conservative system board that did not. During Thursday’s meeting to accept Engler’s resignation, trustees maintained that they were acting in the university’s best interest, not in a political fashion. “It’s not a partisan decision,” said Dan Kelly, the board’s vice chair. The Board of Governors is elected by the state Legislature, which has been Republican since 2010. Chapel Hill’s Faculty Council unanimously voted in October to keep the statue off campus and remove its base, according to Sherryl Kleinman, professor emerita of sociology at Chapel Hill. Do faculty matter, or does the situation come down to the powerful boards and their dynamics with the chancellor, she asked. We should be, I think, leaders on those issues. At Michigan State, some trustees tried to look forward after accepting Engler’s resignation Thursday morning.