RALEIGH (March 3, 2021) – As we revisit our Making Governance Work series, we hope state legislators adopt a selection process and criteria that ensure that UNC System Board of Governors members reflect the demographics, needs, values and interests of all North Carolinians.
“A perfect Board of Governors is one that looks like North Carolina,” former Board of Governors Chair W. Louis Bissette Jr. wrote in his contribution to the series. “This is a diverse state, but we don’t have a diverse Board. Of the Board’s 24 voting members, only two live west of the Charlotte area, only three are persons of color, and only five are women.
“A governing board should reflect the interests of the people it represents. Geographically and demographically, it should look like our student body and the people of our state. That’s how we make sure all voices are heard and our policies are broadly supported and sustainable.”
A perfect board would also have more professional diversity, Bissette wrote.
“The biggest gap, however, between a board that looks like our state and the current board, is political. When I first started serving, Democrats and Republicans were just about equally represented on the Board of Governors. It functioned effectively. But today, the Board has no Democrats. That is simply not representative of our state and of the citizens we serve.”1
Former Gov. Jim Martin, a Republican, also noted that there are currently no Democrats on the Board of Governors.
“That’s different than the past,” Martin wrote. “Even when Democratic control of this state was absolute, registered Republicans were still appointed to university boards.”2
As he described the history of UNC System governance, D.G. Martin noted that following an initial transition period after formation of the UNC System in 1971, eight Board of Governors members were selected by the NC General Assembly for staggered terms of eight years.
Of the eight, one had to be from the minority race, one from the minority political party, and one had to be a woman. Term lengths were reduced from eight years to four in 1987. In 2001, when quotas were considered controversial, the designated positions for minorities, the minority party and women were eliminated. And in 2017, the board was reduced from 32 members to 24.3
Former UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp and Entrepreneur-in-Residence Buck Goldstein, who have written two books on reinventing the modern university, said boards must reflect the constituencies a university serves.
“The charter of the University of North Carolina called on us to ‘consult the happiness of a rising generation.’ In today’s world, the rising generation is one that is no longer mostly white men,” they wrote.
“Effective governing boards must therefore include a significant number of women and people of color if they expect to be treated with seriousness by the campus and the public at large.”4
Winston-Salem businessman Don Flow wrote that the selection process for the Board of Governors needs examination.
“If it is not de-politicized, I believe the UNC system will be significantly and permanently diminished. A politicized process creates dual loyalties that result in a lack of institutional alignment,” Flow wrote.
“There are realistic ways to do that. Nominating committees should evaluate candidates with publicly known merit-based criteria. Candidate names should be shared publicly for vetting well before voting. And we should explore banning lobbyists on governing boards and consider other restrictions on how financially intertwined board members can be with legislators and state funding.”5
Former Gov. Jim Hunt, a Democrat, said the selection process has simply become too partisan. “While I don’t know exactly what the new appointment process should be, I do suggest certain principles that might apply,” Hunt wrote.
“First, no lobbyists should be on the Board of Governors. They have too many conflicts of interest.
“Second, there should be more diversity – racial, gender, geographic and political.
“Third, I personally believe the Governor should appoint one half of the members of the Board of Governors and the 16 universities’ boards of trustees. The Governor is elected statewide…. The Governor must take a broader view than legislators, who answer to their 170 districts.”6
And former Gov. Martin wrote that a conservative board doesn’t balance a progressive faculty.
“Such a set-up breeds conflict, not balance,” Martin wrote. “We need diversity of thought at each level, not ideologically opposed governing bodies.
“The quickest correction can happen at the Board level. The majority party in Raleigh must appoint minority party members to our university boards. In fact, we should pass a new law requiring it. An ideal solution would include minority party appointments and at least some consensus appointments made jointly by the minority and majority parties.”
Empowering minorities in faculty and board leadership won’t change many decisions, Martin wrote.
“The majority still rules in these bodies. But inclusive decision making improves public trust. A minority voice gives every North Carolinian faith that their views are being heard,” he said.
“This is the people’s university and both progressives and conservatives should start acting like it.”7
1 https://hew.aveltsagency.com/2020/02/bissette-perfect-board-of-governors/.
2 https://hew.aveltsagency.com/2020/03/martin-diversity-classroom-boardroom/.
3 https://hew.aveltsagency.com/2020/01/martin-history-of-unc-governance/.
4 https://hew.aveltsagency.com/2020/01/thorp-goldstein-governance-reform/.
5 https://hew.aveltsagency.com/2020/02/flow-accountability-not-activism/.
6 https://hew.aveltsagency.com/2020/03/hunt-university-governance/.7https://hew.aveltsagency.com/2020/03/martin-diversity-classroom-boardroom/.
Richard Marvin says
I agree with the comments above. I am appalled that there are is no political diversity on the board and very little racial diversification and geographic representation. In addition we should have business representation. The current political makeup of the Board of Governors is diminishing the quality of our university system. My mother Helen Marvin was on the Board in 1990’s and was first appointed as a female representative after she served in the State Legislature. Even in those times the Board did not have the diversity that is now needed. Our University System is not a partisan issue and we must move quickly to create a Board of Governors that represents our state and its diversity.