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UNC can do better

Posted on October 6, 2009October 6, 2009 by Staff

University Day rolls around next week with a big to-do celebrating Lux Libertas and all that. The speeches are usually inspiring – and the various congratulations of the stalwarts and the bright young minds that follow in their footsteps, equally so.

This year, the university could use a good bit of another rhetorical spice, one that doesn’t always make its way into such events: contrition.

Recent reports on the school’s bloated administrative ranks and its mishandling of a new program to help members of the National Guard returning from war call for a heaping helping of acknowledgement that some things need fixing up on the hill.

The administrative study, which details the growth in the ranks of the bureaucracy, drew fire from all corners because it is clear evidence of the extent of mission creep in higher education. With more far-flung enterprises and programs and more reliance on federal and private research dollars, it’s no wonder the administrative ranks had to grow. For years, there were voices warning that the university was becoming too corporate, but they were either laughed off or drowned out by the cascade of ka-chings. Now, as with most management-heavy corporations, ways must be found to peel off a few layers of bureaucracy. For as UNC System President Erskine Bowles and others have underlined, the mission is teaching and research on behalf of the people of North Carolina, and protecting resources for that is above all else.

Somewhat connected, and in the short run a bit more worrisome, is the recent news of a poorly run program to assist returning members of the National Guard. First, it’s troubling because the program spent millions and resulted in little help for the Guard. That is a failure and a shame. We can think of fewer people who have been as hard hit by the war and the recession as the volunteers who serve in our name and their families.

Second, this story is worrisome because Chapel Hill happens to be represented by Congressman David Price, who chairs the U.S. House appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Department of Homeland Security. The money for that program was, for lack of a better word, earmarked for UNC.

It is no secret that the campus has been the beneficiary of the proximity of the chairman and that many UNC programs look forward to assisting the federal government in fulfilling its various duties. UNC has done great work for DHS, particularly its disaster medical assistance teams.

But those worthy programs and future arrangements will now be under greater scrutiny, and rightly so. This is an especially bad time to be seen as anything but good stewards of the people’s money.

We wish Chancellor Holden Thorp good luck in dealing with these challenges. More than many of his recent predecessors, he has first-hand knowledge of what Carolina means to this state, the promise its research holds and what great teaching means to its students.

We trust he understands that the real bottom line ought to read: light and liberty.

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