The Chancellor’s Dilemma: Finding Silent Sam a Home
There’s a monumental decision coming soon. Not one to decide the future of the nation, such as the midterm elections, but about an actual monument. The monument is Silent Sam,…
Articles by Jay Schalin
Departure of Spellings from UNC Creates Opportunity for Governance Reform
The surprise resignation of Margaret Spellings from the presidency of the University of North Carolina system presents an opportunity to improve the system’s insufficient governance policies. The key to this…
Silent Sam’s Last Stand?
Silent Sam, the statue of a weary, stoic Confederate Army foot soldier, came crashing down Monday night, pulled down from his post at the edge of the UNC-Chapel Hill campus…
UNC Faculty Teaching Loads Report Is Insufficient for Making Policy
Reliable information is a prerequisite for good management. How can you make intelligent decisions if you are basing them on shaky information? This has been an ongoing problem for the…
No Harm, No Foul in UNC Sports Scandal Course Dispute
The Raleigh News & Observer recently published a contentious exchange between the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s history professor Jay Smith and vice chancellor of communications Joel Curran…
Defining Faculty Roles: Scholarship Only, Activism on Your Own Time
Editor’s note: This is the second of a three-part series on faculty roles in higher education. Part I by Fabio Rojas is here and Part III by John Wilson is…
We’re One People, Not ‘Two North Carolinas’
University of North Carolina system president Margaret Spellings recently outlined her plans for higher education to drive economic prosperity in the News & Observer. Her “Two North Carolinas” class rhetoric…
Easing the Transition from Soldier to Scholar
The college diploma has long been regarded as the ticket to the good life. And most well-paid jobs require some kind of academic credential. But academia is not the only…
Standing Athwart Social Justice Protests
Today’s protest-ridden climate on college campuses might lead one to suspect that they are hotbeds of political disruption controlled by social justice warriors. All over the country, speakers are shouted…
Opportunity Lost: UNC’s Board of Governors Rejects a Helpful Innovation
Wise decision making depends on knowledge of the full range of options and information, not with rhetoric designed to push a specific agenda. And leadership that seeks out only one…