The final UNC Board of Trustees meeting for the academic year mixed celebrations with addressing recent controversies on Thursday, as the board recognized a myriad of topics to close out the spring semester.
The trustees gathered in the Spangler Building for a full board meeting, which also represented the first full meeting for new UNC Student Body President Jaleah Taylor who was sworn into the board as an ex-officio member. She took her oath of office from North Carolina Rep. Diamond Staton-Williams, who represents Taylor’s home district, and shared her excitement to help UNC student population understand that “their voice is powerful and they truly have the opportunity to make Carolina better.”
“In my time as student body president and a trustee,” said Taylor, “I plan to advocate for a meal-swipe donation plan that addresses food insecurity on campus, introduce voter engagement initiatives for the upcoming election cycle in the fall, defend diversity, and — most importantly — make sure that all students feel welcome, supported, and safe here at Carolina.”
Jaleah Taylor hugs North Carolina Rep. Diamond Staton-Williams after taking her oath of office as a UNC trustee on May 16, 2024.
Taylor’s comments came in the wake of the Board of Trustees voting to divert all $2.3 million of top-line funding to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts in its all-funds budget proposal to campus security on Monday, describing the move as a “chancellor management flex.” The UNC System will consider the Chapel Hill flagship campus’ budget at its meetings next week, where it will also consider a change to the language on its diversity and inclusion policy that is expected to scale back DEI initiatives across all schools.
Trustee Ralph Meekins, who arrived late to Monday’s special meeting and withheld from voting on the cut of DEI funding, shared a personal statement at the end of Thursday’s full board meeting denouncing the decision. Meekins said he believed his colleagues’ move to divert the funding ahead of the Board of Governors’ formal policy decision was unnecessary and provided no opportunity for proponents of DEI to be heard on Monday. While the two-term trustee said he agrees more support is needed for public safety, he added that, when implemented effectively, he thinks DEI programs are necessary at UNC.
“While many would agree that some DEI efforts have become problematic and excessive — [and] I’ve seen them myself — the fundamental principles of DEI and the ongoing need for development and support for the core of DEI principles are still key to the success of our campus,” said Meekins. “The Board of Trustees’ directive to do away with DEI entirely goes too far and beyond what the Board of Governors is likely going to require. This recent action coupled with other policy changes and resolutions made by this board, I believe sends the wrong message to our students, prospective students and alumni regarding how UNC values and treats diverse populations on campus.”
Meekins added he hopes Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts approaches the resulting changes in the UNC community “with precision, using a scalpel, not a machete.” The comments came after Roberts spoke on the issue earlier in the meeting and with the media as the board began closed session. The interim chancellor deflected questions about whether he agrees with the Board of Trustees’ recommended diversion of funds from DEI efforts to public safety and said the university’s actions would be determined once the Board of Governors finalizes its policy and provides guidance.
But Roberts did say he believes it is important UNC’s community reflects the state of North Carolina’s shifting and growing population.
“That’s a profound obligation that we have as the nation’s first public university, that’s who we are,” he told media members. “And we can’t just reflect it on paper: it’s crucial that everyone who comes here feels welcome here, as though they belong here.”
Roberts also took time during his comments to the full board to tout the success of Saturday’s commencement ceremony in Kenan Stadium. With it being the first full commencement not on a Sunday morning in decades, the university added in a fireworks display and light show, plus a keynote speech from NASA astronaut Zena Cardman. The interim chancellor said he was grateful to be part of the ceremony, and board chair John Preyer credited the event’s organizers for their achievements amid a period of upheaval in the prior weeks — including a string of high-profile protests on campus.
“Our grounds keeping crews and the facilities team were just absolutely phenomenal,” said Preyer. “I was on campus pretty much every day two weeks prior to graduation, saw what they had to do under difficult circumstances, and watched them planting, watering, cutting, manicuring… the campus really never looked prettier than I can remember in a long, long time.”
Saturday was not without protests, though, as student activists and community members continue to call for action from UNC over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and lack of aid to those in Gaza. Some participating students walked out during Roberts’ comments while holding an Palestinian flag, while other briefly set up tents at the Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower earlier on Saturday before demonstrating at South Building and pouring red paint onto the building’s steps and doors. Demonstrators also interrupted the Board of Trustees committee meetings on Wednesday, which culminated in presiding chair Dave Boliek requesting the university police officers charge the protesters with misdemeanors for their disruption.
Roberts said on Thursday the university must support free speech and he believes “everyone has a right to have their voice heard.” But the interim chancellor also reiterated UNC officials will enforce university policies, which were violated when protesters put up tents on Polk Place and reportedly accessed academic buildings overnight at the end of April. Roberts said the information and footage from last week’s various demonstrations at South Building are under review to check for violations of policies and state laws, including vandalism.
“We had a very troubling incident last week,” Roberts added during his press conference, “in which staffers were followed to their cars, epithets shouted at them, their cars were vandalized, their cars were blocked from driving away, just for working in the administration building. That should be unacceptable to everybody in our community.”
The day prior, UNC trustees Boliek and Marty Kotis also floated the idea of seeing whether student organizations who started or supported the painting of South Building could be billed for the cost of cleaning up the area. UNC Students for Justice in Palestine, which is the main activism group leading the demonstrations including Saturday’s, had its affiliation with the university suspended in the wake of its encampment protest as the university reviews any violations of policies.
One item conspicuously not on Thursday’s agenda was Carolina Athletics. After heavy criticism from trustees during Monday’s special meeting about the athletic department’s budget and a projected spending deficit — which trustee Jennifer Evans claimed was $17 million in the upcoming fiscal year — the group did not discuss the matter in open or closed session. Preyer read a statement at the beginning of the meeting acknowledging that such things can not be discussed in closed session, since that privilege is reserved for litigation, hiring discussions, and other matters laid out in state law.
But athletics spending is not one of those issues, and an attorney filed a lawsuit in Orange County against the Board of Trustees alleging the open meetings and public records laws were broken. On Monday, Evans referenced a November closed session discussion about athletics funding and Preyer also alluded to planning on having trustees “hear how bad [the financial plan] is” during Thursday’s meeting. Instead, the board chair said trustees did not “speak with the precision or clarity that we should have on Monday,” and the board’s closed session agenda included updates from its external affairs and university affairs committees as well as a campus security update and legal update.
While the scathing criticism from trustees led Carolina Athletics Director Bubba Cunningham to depart the ACC spring meetings early to attend Wednesday and Thursday’s meetings, he left once the board moved into closed session. Roberts voiced his own support for Cunningham afterward and said he’d be “very surprised if there was any mismanagement let alone malfeasance in the athletics department.”
“Our athletic director,” the interim chancellor added, “is one of the most senior, well-respected, well-regarded, admired athletic directors in the country. He has broad respect from his peers and we don’t have a more capable, talented, senior administrator here at Carolina.”
Video of Thursday’s UNC Board of Trustees meeting can be watched on the university’s YouTube channel.
Featured photo via Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill.
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