Former UNC VP: General Assembly leaders are ruining the UNC System’s reputation

NC leadership

I worked as a vice president in the UNC system from 1996-2002 under presidents Dick Spangler and Molly Broad. Those were days when the executive leadership and bipartisan Board of Governors was sterling and the university system was the envy of the nation.

It is beyond sad to see how the N.C. General Assembly has laid waste to the reputation of our beloved system of higher education. The current leadership of the N.C. House, Tim Moore, and N.C. Senate, Phil Berger, should be turned out of office for squandering our tax money, throwing aside talented leadership, and soiling the reputation of North Carolina’s higher education system across our nation.

Their ignorance of what they’re doing to kill the goose that is laying the economic golden egg in N.C. is reprehensible.

Charles Coble, Chapel Hill

Silent Sam

Protests over Silent Sam have continued for well over two years. A much older protest eventually led to the funding, design and building in 2005 of a monument honoring “the University’s unsung founders, the people of color, bond and free, who helped build the Carolina that we cherish today.” The Unsung Founders monument rests a mere few hundred feet from Silent Sam was. It’s meant to remind everyone of the university’s heritage and the importance of African-Americans to that heritage.

If we now remove Silent Sam forever, we are also removing the very impetus that led to the Unsung Founders monument. Fortunately, no one has suggested that the latter be removed, nor should it be, but it seems that both monuments and their history should be discussed thoroughly and in a public forum.

Arthur L. Finn, Chapel Hill

Bernie Sanders

Regarding Our View “Is Bernie Sanders worth the risk?” (March 1 Editorial):

This editorial was a call to fear and paralysis, rather than a way forward. What is the Editorial Board’s prescription for confronting our massive crises of poverty, racial injustice, wealth inequality, political and electoral dysfunction, and climate catastrophe? The implication that these disasters can be averted with another Democratic campaign in the Clinton-Obama mold, but without Obama, is pure fantasy.

Our only hope is to build a broad, multiracial, multi-generational grassroots movement that keeps pushing hard for profound reforms – well past the next election.

Christina Cowger, Raleigh

Coronavirus

In 2018 the Trump administration fired the government’s pandemic response chain of command, including the White House management infrastructure.

Trump ordered the National Security Council’s global health security unit shut down. The DHS counterpart team was pressured to resign. Neither of these epidemic teams have been replaced. The CDC’s global health section was so drastically cut in 2018 that much of its staff was laid off and the number of countries it was working in was reduced from 49 to 10.

Now, incompetent politicians who may not believe in science are running these highly scientific operations.

James R. Hammerle, Cary

Sick leave

Sick leave is not a right for approximately one quarter of American workers. More than half in service industries have no sick leave.

With the rising concerns about coronavirus, public health recommendations will likely require anyone with symptoms to stay home and avoid public areas for two to three weeks. The N.C. Institute of Medicine notes this is considered one of the most effective ways to contain spread of the virus. Without paid sick leave, the financial hardship for many workers could lead to consequences on children’s safety.

Many states have laws requiring employers to provide paid sick leave. It is time to assure that all N.C. workers have paid sick leave for the health and safety of our children — and all of us.

Sharon Hirsch, Morrisville

CEO of Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina

Decaying decency

The other day my car radio was set to a local station when a song a band with the f-word in its name was played. The name was not edited when it displayed on my car monitor. Now, we have a local candidate admitting he cursed in public using the f-word at a worker at a polling place.

The South’s tradition of public decency, good manners and courtesy is giving way to crude, low behavior. I am hearing four-letter and other crude or obscene expressions as part of everyday language in public. I’m told that such language is tolerated in our schools.

It’s sad to witness the increasing coarsening of our society. This is symptomatic of the increasing disappearance of civil discourse and the eroding of public standards of respectful, courteous conduct and decency, as we descend into sordid ignorance and vile behavior.

M.L. Stephenson, Garner

This story was originally published March 2, 2020 at 3:31 PM with the headline "Former UNC VP: General Assembly leaders are ruining the UNC System’s reputation."