In 2010, the North Carolina General Assembly gained control of both the House and the Senate for the first time in over a century. Since then we’ve seen the landscape of North Carolinian politics gravitate to a more conservative position.

This massive move of conservative change has had an effect on decisions made by the UNC Board of Governors — decisions that affect our university. All 17 schools under the UNC System, of which NC State is included, report to the UNC Board of Governors; this board of governors then votes on policy that affects the university system.

Each member of the Board is elected by the General Assembly by either the Senate or the House. This year the Board is three-fourths Republican. By itself, that fact isn’t all that surprising or even concerning; the Board is rarely ever non-partisan as a result of their appointments, and usually that has no major effect.

The real problem arises from the way the Board is using their power and who is being elected. The General Assembly has helped secure their position of power by electing lobbyists and past lawmakers on the Board, an uncommon occurrence. In turn, the Board has further tried to solidify its position of power and helped push the extreme conservative agenda that the Assembly has created.

The Board took a massive step to secure that power in 2015 with the blatantly politically motivated removal of Tom Ross, the former UNC president. The Board even stated in a letter that the removal of Ross was not a reflection of his performance — Ross had been quite admired — but rather that it was necessary as part of a new direction for the Board.

Afterwards they replaced Ross with Margaret Spellings, the former Secretary of Education for the Bush administration, who is in part responsible for the “No Child Left Behind” Act. Her appointment was criticized as not being transparent to all members and that no other candidates were seriously considered. To the Board, her appointment was critical to the achievement of uncontested power.

In March, they moved another step closer to that goal with the appointments from the NC Senate. Among several other lobbyists and past lawmakers, one name, Bob Rucho, stands out. Rucho served in the senate for 17 years, and in that time, he earned a reputation. Rucho is a controversial figure from part of the new far-right in the legislature and now Board. He is notorious for attacks on the media, controversial for comparisons of the Affordable Care Act to Nazis and responsible for redistricting plans that were deemed unconstitutional racial gerrymandering.

After these appointments, the Board now had the support of a Republican-dominated General Assembly, a majority Republican body and a Republican president of the UNC system. With little risk of repercussion, the tyrants progressed from power-hungry to policy-hungry.

In February, the Board voted to close three academic centers: the Center on Work, Poverty and Opportunity at UNC-Chapel Hill; East Carolina University’s Center for Biodiversity; and NC Central University’s Institute for Civic Engagement and Social Change. 

Especially controversial was the decision on the privately funded Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity at UNC-Chapel Hill, which was headed by UNC-Chapel Hill law professor Gene Nichol, an active critic of Republican policy. The chairman of the board at the time, John Fennebresque, claimed that politics had nothing to do with the decision. But if you care how much his word means, he lead the ousting of Tom Ross and was later removed due to public outcry.

The Board again took action against UNC-Chapel Hill in early September by ruling that the school’s Center for Civil Rights would be barred from litigation, despite student, faculty and staff protests. In short, this decision ruled that the UNC’s Center for Civil Rights could not pursue legal action from that point forward. 

As the Board continues its relentless crusade against liberal backed ideas in higher education, it’s transforming into an even more conservative organization itself. Those members who voted in Spellings have since left, and in response, the current members, who are becoming more and more extreme, have launched a “task force” to investigate Spellings’s staff.

The Board won’t stop at UNC Chapel Hill either. They’ve already had an effect on multiple other campuses and, more likely than not, will affect NC State if any policy they disagree with gains traction or attention here.

The Board is a group of heartless, power-hungry tyrants set on undoing policies that benefit everyone. They have turned an otherwise docile organization into an oligarchy of lobbyists and Republican lawmakers who violate academic freedom through extensive misuse of power. This group of manipulators and liars have no right to represent and serve the faculty, students and staff of the great state of North Carolina and should be held accountable for their blatantly immoral actions.