Tagged: UNC Board of Governors

Carol Folt couldn’t’ stop smiling as she waited her turn to address the UNC Board of Governors. Color coordinated with her husband in Carolina Blue, the current interim President at Dartmouth College nearly jumped out of her seat after the Board unanimously voted to make her the new chancellor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“Oh I just have to say I am deeply honored to lead the oldest and finest public university in America,” Folt said.

It will be a busy week for the UNC Board of Governors. In addition to hiring a new chancellor at UNC-Chapel Hill this Friday, the Board is trying to make its case to the legislature and avoid tens of millions of dollars in cuts. 

Including budget cuts and reversions, the Legislature has cut the UNC system’s budget by more than $1 billion in recent years.  If they take Governor Pat McCrory’s suggestion, another $140 million or so will get cut next year.   

A UNC Board of Governors panel says it agrees with most of the findings from an earlier investigation of academic fraud at UNC-Chapel Hill.

The UNC Board of Governors voted today to change the way new tuition revenue can be allocated to need-based financial aid. The new rules allow individual campuses to determine what percentage of tuition revenue can be used to help low-income students. The old policy said 25 % of new tuition revenue had to be set aside for financial aid. The Board also fielded a lot of questions on the future of UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp. Thorp has dealt with scandals involving football, the department of Afro and African-American studies, and the school's top fundraiser.

A review panel is meeting to take a closer look at how academic fraud at UNC-Chapel Hill was investigated and handled.

Dave DeWitt: The five-member panel was created by the UNC Board of Governors. They are meeting today behind closed doors to investigate an academic scandal that involved no-show classes, changed grades, and other improprieties in the African and Afro-American Studies department at UNC Chapel Hill.

Last spring, the UNC system voted to allow campuses to once again raise tuition. As part of the last several rate hikes, schools were mandated to set aside at least 25 percent of new tuition revenue for need-based financial aid for low-income students.

But the UNC Board of Governors will soon decide whether to change that rule. Some Republican members of the Board say the set aside is a “hidden tax” on students who pay full tuition.

The debate over funding need-based financial aid appears to have a political bent.