The UNC System, the BOG, and the Majority in the NCGA

How about addressing my concern that he has NEVER worked at a university-much less been an Administrator--and that bothers many of us now that he is CEO
Look I probably "know" How Lee roberts works better than 99% of folks on the Board He is nice, smart, calm etc. But he was not qualified to be Chancellor any more than he is qualified to be Head football coach
Sounds a lot like Hubert Davis, hmm? The UNC good ole boys strike again. As someone who has worked very closely with them, the only true qualification that matters is how well you can accept your limits in said position.
 
It does not “sound” like the Roberts situation at all. Coach Davis attended Carolina (not dook), he played basketball at Carolina for the greatest college basketball coach of all time. He played at a high level in college and then had a good NBA career. He then went on to be a really good TV analyst in the college game. Got hired as an assistant coach at Carolina for by another of the greatest college coaches of all time.

How can even try to compare the situations?
I would say Huberts decades in sports organizations make him more qualified to be Head fooball coach that Roberts to be Chancellor
 
ByIMG_5172.jpeg

University Day in Chapel Hill, 1961. #OnThisDay a President spoke in Chapel Hill. His speech was short - 17 minutes - and remarkable in its praise of science specifically and education in general. The History of Progressive thinking and action which North Carolina had become identified with at that time, was an observation that was made in the tacit understanding that such recognition was of the state within its region, the American South, so sadly and so often backward and regressive in those times. Sadly perhaps now even more so.

What is striking about this oratory is both the fine line that JFK walked between pointing to the positives of higher learning and the general cautiousness of his centrist worldview to move too far too fast. Underlying the content is also a sense of the rumbling negativity of conservatism and even, with full 20-20 hindsight, the threat to the nation and Constitutional Democratic Republicanism of what today goes by the label of “modern conservatism” and GOP philosophy.

There are links below for listening. Judge for yourself.

#OTD “in 1961 John F. Kennedy spoke @KenanStadium for #UniversityDay at The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. The yearly celebration marks the 1793 laying of the cornerstone of the school's first building, Old East. 30,000 attended, many of whom were schoolchildren. The President evoked Goethe, asking the audience, overwhelmingly young and students, in the world into which they would soon emerge, one tense with Cold War rivalry and nuclear threat, would they be a hammer or an anvil?” Anvil or Hammer: President John F. Kennedy at Kenan Stadium, 1961

Watch JFK Here:

LISTEN to full speech here (17:02): Address at the University of North Carolina Upon Receiving an Honorary Degree, 12 October 1961

Addendum: Sadly, October 11, 2024 (celebrated as University Day this year) saw the installation of Lee Roberts as the new Chancellor - a representative of the regressive and anti-democracy forces of which President Kennedy warned.
 
ByIMG_5172.jpeg

University Day in Chapel Hill, 1961. #OnThisDay a President spoke in Chapel Hill. His speech was short - 17 minutes - and remarkable in its praise of science specifically and education in general. The History of Progressive thinking and action which North Carolina had become identified with at that time, was an observation that was made in the tacit understanding that such recognition was of the state within its region, the American South, so sadly and so often backward and regressive in those times. Sadly perhaps now even more so.

What is striking about this oratory is both the fine line that JFK walked between pointing to the positives of higher learning and the general cautiousness of his centrist worldview to move too far too fast. Underlying the content is also a sense of the rumbling negativity of conservatism and even, with full 20-20 hindsight, the threat to the nation and Constitutional Democratic Republicanism of what today goes by the label of “modern conservatism” and GOP philosophy.

There are links below for listening. Judge for yourself.

#OTD “in 1961 John F. Kennedy spoke @KenanStadium for #UniversityDay at The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. The yearly celebration marks the 1793 laying of the cornerstone of the school's first building, Old East. 30,000 attended, many of whom were schoolchildren. The President evoked Goethe, asking the audience, overwhelmingly young and students, in the world into which they would soon emerge, one tense with Cold War rivalry and nuclear threat, would they be a hammer or an anvil?” Anvil or Hammer: President John F. Kennedy at Kenan Stadium, 1961

Watch JFK Here:

LISTEN to full speech here (17:02): Address at the University of North Carolina Upon Receiving an Honorary Degree, 12 October 1961

Addendum: Sadly, October 11, 2024 (celebrated as University Day this year) saw the installation of Lee Roberts as the new Chancellor - a representative of the regressive and anti-democracy forces of which President Kennedy warned.

My mother took me to this event-I was 7 What I remember was the fancy limos. I also remember that they closed Highway 54 from the airport to CH
 
I would say Huberts decades in sports organizations make him more qualified to be Head fooball coach that Roberts to be Chancellor
Of course you would. HD had zero major head coaching experience, but he was qualified to run a major blue blood program? Makes perfect sense geez. Whatever floats your narrative. HD was hired by the UNC good ole boy network..... qualifications my azz.
 
Of course you would. HD had zero major head coaching experience, but he was qualified to run a major blue blood program? Makes perfect sense geez. Whatever floats your narrative. HD was hired by the UNC good ole boy network..... qualifications my azz.
Did Dean Smith have major head coaching experience when he was hired by UNC? Did Roy Williams have major head coaching experience when he was hired by Kansas in 1988? Just saying.
 
Roy Williams and Hubert Davis learned at the hand of Dean Smith who himself had superb teachers, in fact he came from a lineage that stretched back to the inventor of the game. Additionally, Williams and Davis are both UNC graduates.

Lee Roberts is not a graduate of Carolina. He worked in banking and learned a good deal at the hand of Art Pope. He went to Duke.
 
Of course you would. HD had zero major head coaching experience, but he was qualified to run a major blue blood program? Makes perfect sense geez. Whatever floats your narrative. HD was hired by the UNC good ole boy network..... qualifications my azz.
Are you going to actually comment as to why you believe Roberts is a suitable choice as Chancellor?
 
Are you going to actually comment as to why you believe Roberts is a suitable choice as Chancellor?
Ive been quite clear. He is a yes man to the ptb plain and simple. If you you havent been able to surmize over the past decades that our Chancellors and ADs are nothing but yes men and women then I dont know what else to say.
 
Ive been quite clear. He is a yes man to the ptb plain and simple. If you you havent been able to surmize over the past decades that our Chancellors and ADs are nothing but yes men and women then I dont know what else to say.
uh, no. this is all brand new territory.

we've never had a chancellor who had zero experience in academia and was nothing but a political shill for the NCGA ptb.

just as the NCGA has never been as involved as they are now with controlling and attempting to reshape higher education in NC.
 
Ive been quite clear. He is a yes man to the ptb plain and simple. If you you havent been able to surmize over the past decades that our Chancellors and ADs are nothing but yes men and women then I dont know what else to say.
Which is precisely why he might not be a suitable choice in this moment as Chancellor of the University. The PTB are not exactly friendly to UNC as an institution or higher education in general. Isn't now precisely the time we need someone not to be a "yes man"? As for AD's, we have had precisely 3. over the last many decades. Baddour was never a Director of anything other than feelgood. That much is for sure. I wouldn't characterize John Swofford as a yes man. Of course, I wouldn't characterize Michael Hooker in that manner either. They worked rather well together.
 
They all have been yes men....for decades. All were presented different situations and times so i understand the perception might have seemed different but i assure you none were different
 
They all have been yes men....for decades. All were presented different situations and times so i understand the perception might have seemed different but i assure you none were different
Well the last few have been fired So not sure they were Yes men????
 
Looking back on a System President who loved UNC.

IMG_5198.jpeg


Thinking about who might be among the Greatest Tar Heels? Here’s one for the list. #OTD (October 14) in 1886 Frank Porter Graham was born in Fayetteville. A graduate of #UNC, Class of ‘09, he earned his law license in 1913, and an M.A. in History at Columbia University in 1916. He also studied at The London School Of Economics, The Brookings Institute, and The University of Chicago. He ‘took a break’ during World War One and served in the US Marine Corps. He returned from “The Great War” to teach history @UNC. In 1930 he was appointed and served until 1949 as the first President of the combined University of North Carolina System. A champion of working people via organized labor as well an active proponent of equal rights, Graham was appointed United States Senator by Governor Kerr Scott in 1949. In 1950, Boll Weevil Conservative Democrat Willis Smith, whose campaign mastermind was a young Jesse Helms, ‘primaried’ the Progressive Liberal Graham and by combining the smear of ‘race traitor,’ and socialist won enough votes in the four person contest to call for a run-off. Graham had earned 49% in the first round to Smith’s 41% but needed at least 50%.

In the second round the Helms-orchestrated lies and dirty politicking worked and Graham lost. That campaign strategy became a model for the ‘modern conservative’ that endures to the present and was the standard program for Helms throughout his own career as a journalist and politician. (Read about those dirty, dishonest days here: https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/1950-senate-campaign ) His faith in humanity shaken but not broken, Graham went on to work for peace, specifically between India and Pakistan, at the United Nations.

A rare thing in his times, a true Southern Liberal, “Dr. Frank” WAS North Carolina at its best and he spent his lifetime battling the state’s worst impulses and those who would work to bring them to fruition. His ethos once embodies that of the University of North Carolina. Of late those outside of the classrooms and libraries have set their minds to diminish Carolina and make of her a second-class institution where bad ideas rank equally with the best. https://www.ncdcr.gov/.../university-president-u-s... .[See link here to a one-hour documentary on Dr. Frank that is well-worth the time: https://vimeo.com/11191367 ]
 
Looking back on a System President who loved UNC.

IMG_5198.jpeg


Thinking about who might be among the Greatest Tar Heels? Here’s one for the list. #OTD (October 14) in 1886 Frank Porter Graham was born in Fayetteville. A graduate of #UNC, Class of ‘09, he earned his law license in 1913, and an M.A. in History at Columbia University in 1916. He also studied at The London School Of Economics, The Brookings Institute, and The University of Chicago. He ‘took a break’ during World War One and served in the US Marine Corps. He returned from “The Great War” to teach history @UNC. In 1930 he was appointed and served until 1949 as the first President of the combined University of North Carolina System. A champion of working people via organized labor as well an active proponent of equal rights, Graham was appointed United States Senator by Governor Kerr Scott in 1949. In 1950, Boll Weevil Conservative Democrat Willis Smith, whose campaign mastermind was a young Jesse Helms, ‘primaried’ the Progressive Liberal Graham and by combining the smear of ‘race traitor,’ and socialist won enough votes in the four person contest to call for a run-off. Graham had earned 49% in the first round to Smith’s 41% but needed at least 50%.

In the second round the Helms-orchestrated lies and dirty politicking worked and Graham lost. That campaign strategy became a model for the ‘modern conservative’ that endures to the present and was the standard program for Helms throughout his own career as a journalist and politician. (Read about those dirty, dishonest days here: https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/1950-senate-campaign ) His faith in humanity shaken but not broken, Graham went on to work for peace, specifically between India and Pakistan, at the United Nations.

A rare thing in his times, a true Southern Liberal, “Dr. Frank” WAS North Carolina at its best and he spent his lifetime battling the state’s worst impulses and those who would work to bring them to fruition. His ethos once embodies that of the University of North Carolina. Of late those outside of the classrooms and libraries have set their minds to diminish Carolina and make of her a second-class institution where bad ideas rank equally with the best. https://www.ncdcr.gov/.../university-president-u-s... .[See link here to a one-hour documentary on Dr. Frank that is well-worth the time: https://vimeo.com/11191367 ]
I suspect many here know this but his older brother was Archibald "Moonlight" Graham portrayed by Burt Lancaster in "Field of Dreams"
 
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