UNC trustees upend honorary alumni awards, reject Trump critic and Black Democrat
A largely unnoticed dispute over honorary and special awards at UNC-Chapel Hill is emerging as a mini version of the school’s Nikole Hannah-Jones controversy, but with a twist. In this latest version, the trouble started when the faculty balked at a nominee backed by the Board of Trustees.
Hannah-Jones’ case involved the Board of Trustees – a group appointed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly and the UNC Board of Governors – questioning a faculty recommendation that Hannah-Jones, a Pulitzer Prize winner, be granted tenure at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media. The awards case involved only ceremonial stakes, but equally heavy-handed action by the board.
Since 1971, a UNC faculty committee – the Committee on Honorary Degrees and Special Awards – has invited and approved nominations for people to receive honorary degrees at commencement or a Distinguished Alumna/Alumnus Award on UNC’s Oct. 12 birthday, known as University Day. For decades, the faculty committee sent its nominees to the Faculty Council which, after a vote, submitted the slate to the Board of Trustees, where the nominees usually were routinely approved.
That process changed abruptly earlier this year. The Board of Trustees proposed a candidate it wanted nominated for university honors, but the faculty, which confers honorary degrees and the Distinguished Alumna/Alumnus Awards – had concerns about the nominee and refused to approve the nomination. That triggered a tit for tat in which the board changed the nominating rules in March. The change allowed nominations to be submitted to the board from across the university, effectively ending the faculty’s exclusive role in selecting nominees.
The result was a pileup. The board passed over two of the faculty’s five nominees for Distinguished Alumna/Alumnus Awards and added five others. On University Day this year, the faculty declined to write or read the citations for the board’s choices. Since then, a newly constituted board under its new chairman, David L. Boliek Jr., has agreed to suspend the change and the nominating process has reverted to its traditional form.
UNC Faculty Chair Mimi Chapman said, “We are happy that the current constellation of the board has reconsidered that (change) and we are attempting to work collaboratively again.”
The dispute over nominations is in some ways only an internal tiff, but it sheds light on how contentious university governance has become as mostly conservative board members try to reshape the character and image of a mostly liberal university.
The two faculty nominees not accepted by the board were Sallie Krawcheck, a former CEO of Merrill Lynch and co-founder of Ellevest, an investment platform designed specifically for women, and Valerie Foushee, a four-term state senator who earlier in her career became the first Black woman elected to the Orange County Board of Commissioners.
One strike against Krawcheck may have been her public criticism of former President Donald Trump. Foushee, who this week announced her candidacy for Congress, is, well, a Democrat.
Boliek would not confirm the faculty nominees who were passed over since the names of nominees are confidential, but he said those who are not chosen one year remain viable nominees for several subsequent years.
Former Board of Trustees Chairman Richard Stevens, who stepped down from the board when his term ended this summer, voted for opening the nominating process. ”I thought it was reasonable to get input from a lot of places, not just one.” He added, “The faculty should have a strong say, but should they have an exclusive say? I’d say no.”
That sounds democratic, but the effect is autocratic. The change eliminated the faculty as the overseers of nominations and it gave the board freedom to choose those who meet its members’ standards. It’s a change that was rightly suspended and should remain so.
The board does not comment on specific nominees, but in this case the previous board clearly wanted more say in the values and the people UNC honors. And it appears to have wanted to avoid honoring those whose work or politics the board’s members question.
This story was originally published November 19, 2021 at 2:15 PM with the headline "UNC trustees upend honorary alumni awards, reject Trump critic and Black Democrat."