The Dairy Tar Heel
U Q
new
Friday. November 12. 1971,
Sfirflfl
11 in nt.y. uu.. ,uljj uu i
The new Consolidated University administration building
may house the offices of the new University of North Carolina
Centra
Ihe new system of higher-education in
North Carolina embodies a radical change
in power distribution.
l or the first time, a central hoard lias
extensive budget and program powers to
set anil carry out education priorities lor
t he st lie.
I lie so-called "line-item" budget
practice had generated hitler competition
for funds between the Consolidated
University and the other state-supported
universities. The legislature had to make
signit icant decisions on complicated
questions of educational priorities every
two years.
As a result, appropriations, especially
these for new programs and new
buildings, were the object of political
deals haveing nothing to do with the
ecuational values, needs and resources of
the universities and the state.
1 he new hoard's budget powers lie to
Students and faculty members at
Chapel Hill are accustomed to confusing
the Consolidated University
administration and its big, 100-member
trustee hoard with the UNC-CH
administration. That will not be the case
under the new higher education system.
Although the ultimate make-up of the
powerful board of governors will include
32 members, in the crucial planning and
initiation stages its composition will be
different .
The initial board of governors,
beginning Jan. 1 as a planning committee,
will consist of lb persons chosen by and
from the Consolidated University Board
of Trustees, U persons chosen by and
from the regional universities' trustees,
two non-voting members from the N.C.
Board of Higher Fducation and Gov. Boh
Scott as chairman.
The Consolidated Universitv
The
OW Wl
Probably not
What docs all the talk about power,
structure and budget of the educational
svstem mean to the students at Chapel
liill today ?
Probably not much at least for a
number of months.
In fact, the new structure could make
very little difference in the educational
opportunities offered at the University
for the next several years.
Interviews with members of the
Consolidated University administration
and the staff of the N.C. Board of Higher
Education indicate the major thrust of
the first six months and most likely the
first year of the new system will simply
be developing the procedures and limits
of the system.
In the interim, procedures and policies
will continue without much change.
Until the governing board or the new
system. The 1 .4
b
oar
a great extent in its duty to prepare, after
consultation with the individual
institutions, a single, unified budget for
all state-supported universities, and to
present that budget to the Advisory
Budget Commission and the Genral
Assembly.
The Advisory Budget Commission will
review all requests and the legislature, in
turn, will appropriate the money, but
under a new scheme.
The monies for continuing current
programs ?t each school will still he
appropriated to that school directly by
the legislature on a line-item basis.
But the all-important funds for new
programs and capital improvements will
be appropriated to the board in lump sum
by the General Assembly. The governors
will have provided the legislators with a
priority list of new programs and
rea
representatives to the board will be
selected in a special meeting of trustees
Monday, Nov. 22, in Chapel Hill. .
On July I, 1973, the terms of eight
governors, chosen by lot, will expire. The
terms of the two members chosen from
the state higher education board and all
governors who are state officials,
legislators or their spouses will expire.
The Cieneral Assembly will then elect
successors to bring the board to the
32-man level.
After that date, no state official,
legislator or their spouses may serve or.
the governing board.
Among the original eight the
legislature will elect will be at least one
woman, one member of a minority race
and one member of the minority party.
Gov. Scott will leave the board when
his term expires Dec. 1973, following
It
local boards of trustees make changes in
policy, all rules, regulations and
procedures will remain in effect,
according to the new law.
All appointments of personnel, except
those of the Consolidated University staff
and higher education board staff, will be
unaffected by the changeover.
The Consolidated University Board of
Trustees will continue normal operations
until July 1. including preparations for
the U'73-75 budget, according to Friday.
The Consolidated University trustees
will most likely appoint a new chancellor
for the Chapel Hill campus sometime in
the next two months, since J. Carlyle
Sitterson's retirement will be come
effective Jan. 1 5.
Friday emphasized in a recent
interview the continuing work ot the
trustees .md the Consolidated Universitv
king
million dollar structure opened last spring.
has
buildings, but without institutional
identification.
For example, the priority list might
include as its eighth item ''three academic
classroom buildings: S3 million each for a
total of S9 million." The legislature might
give the board enough money to
completely fund the first seven items, hut
it might allot only $6 million for the
eighth, allowing only two classrooms to
he built.
The governing board would decide
where to build the two classroom
buildings; the legislature could not decide
to allot money for one classroom building
at Appalachia, one at UNC-W but none to
East Carolina.
Thus the new board would make
judgements based on educational values
and the politics which darkened previous
legislative sessions would be eliminated.
The new system aiso allows the board.
down
which the board will elect its own
chairman. From that point on, no
governor will serve on the governing
board.
In each succeeding session of the
General Assembly, the legislature will elect
eight members to the board for eight-year
terms. Every two years these will include
the specified minority representatives. By
1979, therefore, the board will have four
women members, four minority race
members and four minority party
members.
By July 1, 1972, the governing board
will have selected a president for the new
system. He will be the chief
administrative officer, with the power to
appoint the necessary staff, subject to the
approval of the central board.
The president under the new system
will have new responsibilities and dutio-,,
rJtect
miiiclk
staff and the lack of any immediate
drastic changes.
"I shouldn't think the restructuring
will have a sharp impact on campus," he
said. "I think the first interval will most
probably bring adminstrative and
procedural changes."
J. P. Kennedy, assistant director of the
state higher education board, said he felt
no severe changes would be immediately
forth coming, but innovations could be
expected in the future.
Dr. Cameron West. Sr.. director of the
higher education board, also mentioned
the possibilities for academic innovations
under the new system. He pointed out
the new system would allow for review
and reform of academics on a statewide
perspective, not simply in the
requirements for one campus.
Kennedy sees the new governing
board's statf as a maior source of new
d
All 1 b state-supported sen. r
institutions of learning w .;'; s.-.-n re
merged into the new "UNC."
East Carolina University . Appalachian
State University. Elizabeth C;: Si-te
University, Fayetteville State Un;veriy.
North Carolina Agricultural a' J
Technical University . Pembroke State
University, Western Carolina U.nversm .
Wir.ston-Salem State University . North
Carolina Central University ar.d the N C.
School of the Arts will join the preent
members of the Consolidated Ur.ivenitv
- UNC at Chapel Hill. Ra'.eigh. Charlotte.
Greensboro. Asheviile and Wilmington
in the new pant system.
Each campus under the r.ew plan will
have a chancellor as chief executive
officer. The chancellor will be responsible
to the president of the new system and to
the campus" local board ot trustees. This
local board, consisting of 12 members
and the student body president e
officio, will exercise delegated power
granted by the central board.
Between Jan. 1 and Ju! 1. 1972. the
governing board will elect a president to
head the new system. Consolidated
University President William C. Friday i
considered the most likely person to get
the job.
The new board must also select a
headquarters for the system. This
headquarters will most likely be in Chapel
Hill, which has a new SI. 4 million
extensive Bowers
with the approval of the Advisory Budget
Commission, to change priorities and to
switch funds from school to school or
category to category to meet pressing
needs.
The second most important power the
new board will have is program authority.
The new board has exclusive authority
to approve new programs and to
withdraw such approval from existing
programs if they are "unproductive,
excessively costly or unnecessarily
duplicative."
The East Carolina Medical School,
approved by the 1971 General Assembly,
could provide the first test of this section
of the board's powers.
If, as some observers predict, the
board cancels the ECU med school
program, ECU supporters, led by ECU
President Leo Jenkins, might go to the
1973 legislature to attempt to rescue the
different from any present president's,
according to Consolidated University
President William C. Friday, considered
to be the leading contender for the post.
Friday said in a recent interview no
one has yet given any description of the
duties for the new president and none
will exist until the governing board
decides the duties of the new officer.
"It will certainly be different from
what has been expected of this office in
the Consolidated University for the past
40 years." he said.
Friday declined comment on the
possibility he may be offered the top
spot, saying the board must be given a
free hand to choose the top executive.
The post of senior vice president was
written into the statute at the insistence
of Gov. Scott. The position is designed
for Dr. Cameron West, director of the
of
he
voui?
. ye
ideas, diversity and innovation for N.C.
higher education.
But when the 1974 General Assembly
meets, the first test of the new system's
power and effectiveness will be made.
If the legislature chooses not to abide
by the letter and the spirit of "An Act to
Consolidate the Institutions of Higher
Learning in North Carolina." the new
board and all 16 institutions might find
themselves back where they started - or
worse.
If. on the other hand, the legislature
continues to see the widom ot staying
out of educational decisions, the 32 men
and women of the board of governors w ill
hold the key to excellence or mediocrity
in state higher education for years to
come, both on the Chapel Hill campus
and at the other 15 institutions - the
r.ew "University of North Carolina.""
r-..c;.-g -r.:r. present!)
Consolidated Ur.Aersitv
R-le:;. which
; -."J ;i'e
TV.e r.verr..:
the start's of the Consolidated Universitv
and the C Board of H gher Education
The higher education bo:d. now located
in R.le-gh. gx o-t of existence on Julv
1.
Stories by
Evans Witt
So there i mudi to be done before the
govern ir.c b-.urd been official operation
on Ju! I. H2. and tliere ate many
questunN to be flowered.
Tlie General Assembly Ita expressed
its wishes tlirough the new law. but
exact!' how those wishes will be
transposed into a realistic, working
system is et to be seen.
What powers will the centra! board
O
ML
new program. This would provide an
indication of to what degree the
legislators will meddle in the new system.
The new hoard will also be charged
with developing and updating a
comprehensive long-range plan for state
higher education, including both private
and public institutions.
This task has been handled in the past
by the N.C. Board of Higher Education,
hut the new board will have the power to
implement any new plans, not just
recommend them to the legislature.
The central board will also give the
local .boards whatever . powers are
necessary to the operation of the
individual school. Consolidated
University President William C. Friday
recently mentioned some areas in which
he feels the local boards should have
control.
"Ihe delegation should pretty much
state higher educaiton board, who
supported Scott's proposals throughout
the restructuring fight.
West refused to comment in an
interview on his prospects for the senior
vice president post by saying the law gives
the president of the system the authority
to appoint the staff.
The Consolidated University and the
state higher education board must be
merged to form the new UNC staff under
the terms of the statute. Exactly how this
is to be accomplished and who will fill
what posts will be decided in the coming
months.
The local boards of trustees, which
will concentrate on individual campus
problems and policies, will also go
through initial and final stages of
composition.
The ten recional universities will retain
1
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Consolidated University President William C. Friday is the leading contender to
head the new University of North Carolina system. The new president of the
16-cumpus system will be chosen next ear.
ielegate to the Lval boards of trustees'1
W ill the cr.etral board have the courace
to divontm
rrocrams. eve1
COStiV
ur. productive
,icir. have
stro'
pohuc iiitcx the hoad tunct:
decision
What effect w.ll the re system have
on the University at (hapet Hill. ;
students and fuculty '
These and other quest ion will he
answered a the pla" nc for the r.ew
system he en :n earnest Jan I and during
the first years of the new. enlarged
I'nivers.fy of North Carolina "
The year long battle over retructurs:-g
higher education m North Carolina is
fin; sited.
"The University of North Carolina'"
will soon take on a broader meaning than
it has ever had before.
What is now known, as the
Consolidated University of North
Carolina will soon cease to exist, as uill
the so-called '"regional universities. ""
The S C. Genera! Assembly . meeting
m special session late in October, enacted
a law dramatically diancmc the svstem of
administration for all state public higher
education.
A 3 2 -man board of governor will soon
have a depth, breadth and flexibility of
control over state higher education
unprecedented in North Carolina.
be in line with what we have now
student lite, appointment .! vertain
personnel and intercollegiate athletics."
he said. "Institutions vary and the
delegations of power will vary ,"
The one power the local boards have
by law is to provide the president with a
slate of nominees from which he i to
recommend to the central board a new
chancellor for the institution.
But the central board will have the
power to appoint all major administrative
personnel and tenured faculty. It wdl also
have the power to set tuition and fees and
enrollment levels at each institution.
The local hoards powers, while
limited, will still be flexible enough as to
be practical. But it will be the central
board which will determine the nature
and quality of the new educational
sy stem.
board
their present boards until June 3rd, 1 973.
The Consolidated University campuses
will have local boards appointed by and
from the Consolidated University Board
of Trustees beginning July 1, 1972. on
which date the main board will cease to
exist. Ea.h local Consolidated University
campus board will have 12 members plus
the student body president of that
campus.
On July 1, 1973, new local boards will
take over at all 16 schools. light
members of eah board will be appointed
by the central board, four will be
appointed by the governor, all for
four-year, overlapping terms. Ihe student
body president of each campus will serve
ex officio on his campus board.
No state official. legislator, member f
the centra! board or their spouses may
serve on the local boards.
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