Top lawmakers say they ‘don’t meddle’ in UNC affairs. What they say about Guskiewicz.
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Both top leaders of the North Carolina legislature on Wednesday said they stay out of UNC-Chapel Hill’s affairs, but stopped short of saying whether they have confidence in the chancellor.
UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz was the subject of an emergency meeting called Wednesday by the university’s faculty chair because she worried that elected officials and others were working to oust him, The News & Observer previously reported. The faculty council approved a resolution supporting Guskiewicz.
The N&O asked House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger, who both lead Republican majorities in their chambers, if they have confidence in Guskiewicz.
Moore, a UNC-CH graduate, said Wednesday during an interview on the House floor that he has gotten to know the chancellor and likes him.
“My son’s a student there. I appreciate the work [Guskiewicz] has done. I do think that the situation with the professor tenure, I wish that had been handled differently, but regardless, it is what it is. I don’t meddle in the university’s affairs. I’m a member of the state legislature, and so I appoint trustees there. I don’t tell them how to vote, I don’t encourage them how to vote,” Moore said.
Earlier this summer, UNC-Chapel Hill’s offer to journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones for a position originally without tenure erupted into a national controversy. In the end, she turned UNC down for Howard University.
“If it were me, I would’ve never made her an offer for a position at UNC-Chapel Hill,” Moore said, citing questions about the accuracy of the New York Times’ 1619 Project that Hannah-Jones led.
“But at the end of the day, I don’t care what someone’s viewpoint is. I will tell you this. Some of my best professors in college and law school were people who were politically liberal, had very different views,” he said.
Berger has previously criticized Guskiewicz, calling his leadership “rudderless.”
The N&O asked Berger if he had confidence in Guskiewicz during a press conference Wednesday about Critical Race Theory.
“I have questions about the many decisions that have been made at the Chapel Hill campus. It is something that is up to someone else to make decisions as to what needs to be done about that,” Berger said.
Asked again if he had confidence, Berger said:
“I am not charged with the responsibility of the day to day management of any individual campus in the system, so whether I have confidence or not really has very little to do with the whole situation,” he said.
Later that day, asked if Guskiewicz should stay at UNC, Moore repeated that he likes him, but stopped short of saying yes or no.
“I like Chancellor Guskiewicz, I really do. I don’t even know where all this discussion about him staying or leaving is coming from, because I have not heard from anybody that anything’s happening other than what I have seen in the media,” he said.
Moore said he does not want to be chancellor at UNC-Chapel Hill, or at East Carolina University. A former ECU Board of Trustees member had previously described him as pursuing the ECU job.
“No, no. Apparently folks really want to get me out of the statehouse in a bad way. No. I’m happy doing what I’m doing,” he said.
Moore said he hasn’t given “any thought” to whether a chancellor should be an academic.
“I think the perfect chancellor is someone who brings a wealth of experience — understands academics but also understands business, understands public policy and understands the importance of our university system to North Carolina.”
“What I hate, and I hope you’ll include this, what I hate above all is of all the great things happening not just at my alma mater at Chapel Hill, but all our universities in the state, is it seems like the coverage is about this dispute or that dispute. Our universities are so key to a lot of research and development,” Moore said.
He touted the universities’ work on COVID-19 research, and he credited UNC System research for Apple’s plan to bring 3,000 new jobs to the state with a new facility in Research Triangle Park.
“Apple wouldn’t have come to North Carolina but for the investment we’ve made in our public universities and the research there,” Moore said.
Guskiewicz said Wednesday he’s “not going to speculate on rumors” about his status as leader of the university, as the Board of Trustees elected new leaders and faculty hastily met to address concerns about his removal.
“I’ve got a university to lead and I’m proud of that and proud of what we’ve been able to do together,” he told The N&O at the Board of Trustees meeting.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at link.chtbl.com/underthedomenc or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published July 14, 2021 at 7:59 PM with the headline "Top lawmakers say they ‘don’t meddle’ in UNC affairs. What they say about Guskiewicz.."
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