UNC trustees’ power scaled back in reassignment

Top leaders in the UNC System wrote to members of UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees appearing to remind them of their responsibilities and scale back their powers, according to a memo obtained by The News & Observer.

As one trustee views it, the memo essentially told board members at the university that they need “to stay in our lane” though the board’s chair disagrees with that interpretation, telling The N&O he viewed it as purely administrative.

In the Jan. 12 memo, sent the same day Lee Roberts became interim chancellor of the university, UNC System President Peter Hans and Board of Governors Chair Randy Ramsey reassigned eight powers that had been previously delegated to the Board of Trustees. The change gave those powers “mostly related to personnel and salary” to Roberts instead of the trustees. Hans and Ramsey also reminded the board of the policies they should follow for public meetings, including setting agendas for those meetings.

Hans and Ramsey emphasized to Roberts and UNC Board of Trustees Chair John Preyer that trustees should serve “in an advisory capacity to the Board of Governors and the chancellor” and that trustees should not direct “matters of administration or executive action.”

The chancellor and Board of Trustees chair at Elizabeth City State University received a similar memo from Hans on the same day, redelegating the same powers from that board to Chancellor Karrie Dixon. But that memo, obtained by The N&O through a public records request, includes only information about Hans’ delegation of those powers; it does not include a statement reminding the board of its advisory purpose, nor reminders about public meeting procedures.

Ralph Meekins, an attorney who has served on the UNC Board of Trustees since 2019, brought the memo to light March 27 during a meeting of the board’s budget and finance committee.

While discussing the university’s annual budget process, trustee Jim Blaine, the former chief of staff to Republican Senate leader Phil Berger and a powerful political consultant, said he believed either the General Assembly or the Board of Governors would “follow Florida’s path” this year and potentially eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts at state universities. Blaine suggested university staff “develop a contingency plan for that expectation.”

Discussion on the potential, yet-to-be-seen changes to DEI continued for roughly 10 minutes. Meekins spoke on the topic twice, urging his fellow board members to not “jump the gun on those kinds of issues” and take actions without an actual policy directing them to do so.

Meekins said the board’s conversation was disrespectful to the Board of Governors and its authority.

“We’ve gotten a memo from them recently telling us to stay in our lane,” Meekins said. “And I think this is one area where we need to stay in our lane. Let’s wait and see what they say, and then we can adapt and we can meet whatever the ramifications are from any changes in our DEI.”

Meekins confirmed that the memo obtained by The N&O was the document he was referencing during the debate. He did not respond to requests for further comment.

Preyer, the board chair, told The N&O that he viewed the memo as “an administrative, housekeeping thing to bring UNC and the other school into the same position of all the system schools.”

Debates over governance structures have been persistent across the UNC System in recent years, and the UNC-Chapel Hill board, in particular, has been criticized for skirting structures meant to ensure “shared governance” with the faculty and making decisions outside the board’s scope of authority.