The Right Changes for UNC
Steven Bachenheimer
and Stephen Leonard
The UNC Strategic Planning process has always been an
occasion to recommit ourselves to the ideals for which public higher education
in North Carolina was established. Today, it appears to have become the
occasion for implementing radical changes favored by a handful of individuals
in the state legislature, on the UNC Board of Governors, and in various
Washington and Raleigh think tanks.
Against all evidence to the contrary, and against the long
and venerable tradition that has made public higher education in North Carolina
a model for the nation and the world, the changes being promoted suggest that
the widely available, broadly accessible, and readily affordable system of higher
education we have is an extravagance North Carolina does not need.
For example, Board of Governors member Fred Eshelman, described
by pundits at the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy as “leading the
charge” for radical change, has been repeatedly quoted saying that only 19% of
North Carolinians holding college degrees need them for their jobs. Perhaps
those who don’t understand the aspirations and lives of regular folks might
conclude that this proves that a college education is a wasteful expense for policemen,
fire fighters, carpenters, mechanics, preschool teachers, receptionists, small
business owners, and many others who don’t ‘need’ a degree for their jobs.
It is doubtful, however, that they would find much agreement
from the fire fighter with the degree in art history -- who also volunteers at
the local senior center to lead visits to museums and galleries. Or the print
shop owner with the degree in anthropology -- who has built a prosperous and
respected business because her customers appreciate her interest in their lives
and their culture and their faith.
It is also doubtful that those whose commitments have built
UNC, and indeed American higher education itself, would agree. The names of some of these people are perhaps
familiar enough: Friday, Chase, Graham, Venable, Battle, and Caldwell, not to
mention Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Adams, and Franklin. Most important,
however, are those many thousands of North Carolinians, rich and poor, educated
and illiterate, native born and immigrant, black, brown, red, yellow and white,
who sacrificed so much of their blood and treasure -- and for many, life itself
-- so that their fellow and sister citizens might develop their unique talents
and abilities, and use them to make their state a better place.
It is just this sort of popular common sense that informed
the commitments of the University’s founders, that has been sustained by many
of its favorite sons, like the late Bill Friday, and that has been supported by
generations of elected officials of every political stripe. They knew that an educated citizenry was the
bulwark of social happiness, economic prosperity, and political liberty. That is why these ideals are enshrined in our
State Constitution.
And our predecessors have been proven right, right down to
the present. North Carolina colleges and universities have been magnets for
entrepreneurial energy and
engines of prosperity that cultivate talent and send it to every corner of
the state. The institutions of UNC are part of the reason that so many North
Carolina cities and towns are listed as among the “best
places to live” in America.
This is because we expect our colleges and universities to
educate citizens who are adept, adaptable, inventive, creative, motivated, and
confident in their ability to make a real difference in their communities. Not
surprisingly, this is also what the most dynamic
job creators today expect from their employees, and from the communities
where they invest.
The University system is a major reason why North Carolina
has been consistently
ranked among the top states for business climate. And our return
to the number 1 spot this year is no doubt due in part to the fact that while
other states have slashed their support for public higher education, North
Carolina citizens have told their elected officials to hold the line.
Despite all of this history and all of this evidence, the proponents
of radical change have somehow failed to grasp what so many thoughtful North
Carolinians value most about their University. Indeed, one self-proclaimed
spokesman for the radicals, Jay Schalin of the Pope Center, recently
asserted that their position expressed “important issues and alternate
opinions that have long been ignored.” But that is just revisionist history. If
the radicals feel left out, perhaps that is because they don’t understand the
debates that the rest of North Carolina has been having since the founding of
the University: that the right changes for UNC have to be those our
Constitution demands, and that is that “knowledge being necessary to good
government and the happiness of mankind, schools, libraries, and the means of
education shall forever be encouraged.”
Steven Bachenheimer
and Stephen Leonard both teach at UNC Chapel Hill. Eight children from their
respective families have been students in North Carolina public colleges and
universities
