The following editorial was published in the November 2015 print edition of Carolina Journal.
As the University of North Carolina system prepares to welcome Margaret Spellings as its sixth president, the former U.S. education secretary will lead a 17-campus system (including 16 traditional four-year colleges) that, according to UNC’s website, “houses two medical schools and one teaching hospital, 10 nursing programs, two schools of dentistry, and a school of pharmacy, as well as two law schools, 15 schools of education, [and] three schools of engineering.”
Are all these necessary, especially considering the growth of distance learning and the state constitution’s mandate for “the benefits of the University of North Carolina and other public institutions of higher education, as far as practicable, [to] be extended to the people of the state free of expense”?
We think not, and as Spellings begins her tenure, she would do well to consider a concept that could move the UNC system into the 21st century while honoring its historic mission: a realignment commission for UNC’s campuses.
Five rounds of military base consolidations under the Base Realignment and Closure process slimmed down the U.S. military as the Cold War ended. Under BRAC, an independent commission appointed by the president heard testimony from interested parties and visited bases that were considered to be redundant or candidates for consolidation. The commission submitted a list to Congress, which then voted to accept or reject the entire list. More than 350 installations have been closed or consolidated since 1988.
The UNC system — and all North Carolinians — would benefit if the university were subjected to a similar independent review. Ten of the 16 UNC campuses were founded in the 18th or 19th centuries, and many are operating under the same form of governance that was set in place when the system was consolidated in 1971.
Distance learning and other innovations are making those 1970s institutions into white elephants. President-elect Spellings, with the approval of the state’s political and educational leaders, may be the right person to lead a realignment of one of our state’s most important and most popular public institutions.
Much like military bases, independent education schools and nursing departments on university campuses develop powerful local advocates. Once established, these entities become nearly impossible to shrink or eliminate, even if they don’t serve the best interests of the public at large.
Spellings, who led a presidential Commission on the Future of Higher Education which had as a member former Gov. Jim Hunt, has expressed concerns about bloat and redundancy on university campuses.
“We have to get beyond this idea that we’re going to have a veterinary school or an education school or a medical school or a law school or a Spanish program on every street corner in America,” she said during a 2010 debate at the National Press Club. “We can’t do it like that anymore. We’ve got to use technology and be economically sensible about how we offer coursework.”
President-elect Spellings, Gov. Pat McCrory, and legislative leaders should consider UNC consolidation as a responsible approach to bolster the reputation and accountability of this essential $9 billion public institution.