Magical Thinking

The high-level duo of Tom Ross and Margaret Spellings, co-chairs last year of the Governor’s Commission on the Governance of Public Universities in North Carolina, issued some eight months ago a 153-page set of recommendations for reforming the way the university system is governed. Both Tom Ross and Margaret Spellings are past presidents of the UNC system, hounded out of office, incidentally, by increasingly conservative boards of governors put in place by the Republican bosses in the General Assembly. Turns out, of course, that their recommendations for reform to remove partisanship and increase diversity were akin to pissing into the wind. To suggest that the politicians should stay the hell away from boards of trustees and governors, when they had only just recently won enough control to punish the liberals in the classrooms -- that idea was dead abirthing. Increase diversity? Ross and Spellings actually used that word, which to Christian conservatives is evidence of a plot to turn every kid gay. So the Commission report disappeared from off the earth.

So it's nice to hear that Ross and Spellings brought the whole topic up again. They talked about the dangers of vindictive partisanship in our colleges and universities during an online discussion organized by the nonprofit Coalition for Carolina. Then Joe Killian, writing about the on-line conversation for the NC Newsline, brought it to my attention.

Killian republished the Ross/Spellings report’s top-line recommendations (which get better toward the bottom):

Expand the UNC Board of Governors from 24 to 36 members – with 32 of them appointed and four standing members

Expand each campus board of trustees to 15 members

Allow the minority party of the General Assembly to appoint eight seats on the UNC Board of Governors

Reserve four seats on the board of governors and campus boards of trustees for the chairs of the faculty and staff assemblies

Mandate 16 of the board of governors’ members be appointed from eight designated parts of the state to promote geographic diversity on the board; the other 16 would be appointed at-large

Institute a one year “cooling off” period between serving in the General Assembly or being an active lobbyist and serving on the board of governors or a board of trustees

Create a new “Center for Higher Education” which would monitor the UNC Board of Governors and maintain a database of well-qualified candidates for appointment to the boards

The ruthlessness of the conservatives toward higher education -- when it's coupled in any way with progressive advocacy -- came to full flower in 2015 with the punishment of Gene Nichol, a distinguished faculty member in the Chapel Hill School of Law and past President of William and Mary College and a consistent critic of the Republican super-majority in the General Assembly. It's almost Putinesque how they targeted Nichol with specific poison pain, took away his Center for Poverty, Work, and Opportunity -- just shut it down because some politicos complained that Nichol was actively helping the poor with some kind of legal aide.

The conservatives are on a jihad to stamp out liberalism in higher education. They don't need no recommendations from over-educated bureaucrats.

Gov. Cooper Trolls Berger/Moore

Cooper with Ross and Spellings.
Yes, that photo is from today.
Photo Jeff Tiberii

This morning Gov. Cooper announced that he is naming a special "Commission on the Future of Public Universities in North Carolina" to take a close look at how the UNC system is operating, presumably and particularly, the highly partisan Republican regime on the UNC Board of Governors (BOG) and on the boards of trustees of the various constituent colleges -- the partisan regime established by Berger/Moore as a further instrument of their authoritarianism.

Cooper's commission will be purely advisory. It will therefore be (1) attacked and then (2) ignored by Berger/Moore, but perhaps it can help focus more of the public on the degrading of higher education in North Carolina.

"We need serious, diverse leadership," the guv's press release said, which we ain't currently got on the UNC BOG. The BOG is 100% appointed by Berger/Moore and is 80% Republican (often from the volcanically partisan branch of the party), with only four unaffiliated voters, and one measly Democrat. As soon as Roy Cooper won the 2016 election, Berger/Moore quickly wrote legislation to extend their rule, assigning the appointment of all constituent university trustees to their own heavily partisan BOG. Currently, the governor can appoint precisely no one to any university governing board.

Diversity? You've got to be kidding!

As close as the guv's press release gets to naming the stunts that have destroyed the BOG's reputation is this paragraph, wherein he alludes to the scandals and collusions that have highlighted the UNC system during the last decade (or since Berger/Moore took over in 2010):

"Unfortunately, a spate of controversies over the last few years has led to concerns that boards plagued by undue political influence and bureaucratic meddling hinder effective university governance. Instability and political interference can have significant impacts on campus leadership, turnover and academic experience for students, and can threaten the university’s reputation and the state’s economy and communities."

Just some highlights of that partisanship which Cooper didn't enumerate: the firing of UNC President and humanist Tom Ross in 2015; the forced resignation of replacement President Margaret Spellings in 2018; the all-too-obvious jockeying of House Speaker Tim Moore for various academic appointments; the 2019 sudden resignation of UNC Chancellor Carol Folt, judged soft on the Confederacy after she supported the removal of Silent Sam from campus; the heavy thumb of an Arkansas donor who seems to have single-handedly nixxed the appointment of Hannah-Jones to the School of Journalism; the refusal to reappoint a widely respected UNC Law professor to the University of North Carolina Press Board of Governors after he questioned the legality of the university's giving a Confederate group a bunch of money to take Silent Sam off the campus; the planned relocation of the UNC System offices from Chapel Hill to Raleigh, presumably so everybody can see the Berger/Moore resting bitch faces more clearly, a proposal that led BOG member Leo Daughtry, a former GOP state lawmaker, to abruptly resign his seat, saying publicly that moving the offices was a further indication of the board’s recent failure to provide "a sufficient buffer" between politics and the university system.

How Do We Know the Guv Just Gave Berger/Moore the Finger?

Who did Cooper appoint to co-chair his commission on higher education? Why, Tom Ross and Margaret Spellings. Isn't that pretty much an eff-you? Also a dare, since Ross and Spellings form an impressive bi-partisanship that ought to be above criticism. (Ha!) Ross was president of the UNC System from 2011 to 2016, a former superior court judge, and president of Davidson College. Spellings was president of the UNC System from 2016 to 2019 and served as the U.S. Secretary of Education under President George W. Bush.

Such distinguished educators might give the GOP some pause in attacking their integrity. Naw. They'll find a way.

Thom Goolsby Plays the Hit Man on the UNC Board of Governors

Watch for it: Thom Goolsby will force a bloody awful showdown on the Chapel Hill campus over the Silent Sam Confederate monument. He's already said he intends to force the statue's return to its original location on campus, even if it takes a moat, a few guard towers, and tank traps to keep it unmolested. Goolsby leads the conservative faction on the UNC Board of Governors, which is clearly in the ascendant.

Goolsby has a history of nastiness and bullying. When he was a NC senator from Wilmington, he pushed for "vaginal wanding" of pregnant women before an abortion. He sponsored the bill to repeal the Racial Justice Act, which prohibited the imposition of the death penalty on the basis of race. He called protestors "Monday Morons" who were organized for Rev. William Barber's "Moral Mondays," which had rattled the Republican overlords. He pushed a vote on the UNC BOG to prohibit the UNC School of Law's Center for Civil Rights from pursuing legal remedies for low-income and minority groups.

Notice the good solid strain of racial politics in Goolsby's policy positions?

Goolsby graduated from The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. (venue for a good deal of *pop culture male displays), then went for an MBA at Golden Gate University. He came back to Chapel Hill for his law degree. Goolsby and a partner started Empowered Investor, handling big-buck investments and securities and doing quite well at it, and so he naturally ran for the NC Senate (Dist. 9) in that watershed year, 2010. He was reelected in 2012 and would have been a cinch for reelection in 2014, but a fiduciary scandal interceded. In a consent agreement with the Securities Division of the Secretary of State's office, Goolsby lost his licenses for doing investment and securities deals (because of, yes, fraud), and he won't get those licenses back before 2024. So, understandably, Goolsby decided against running for reelection in 2014. He actually put out a statement that said he wanted to spend more time with his family. No really. (His former seat in the Senate is now -- since November -- held by Democrat Harper Peterson.)

On the UNC Board of Governors, and in keeping with the self-image The Citadel bestowed on him, Goolsby has been a champion prick. Goolsby was appointed to the all-Republican board in August 2015 by the NC Senate (Phil Berger's joint), as a conservative counter-weight to BOG Chair John Fennebresque, a country club Republican who unilaterally fired Democrat Tom Ross from the university presidency and installed his favorite and fellow country club Republican Margaret Spellings in the chair. So Goolsby came onto the board primed for a big fight with Chair Fennebresque. Goolsby quickly demanded Fennebresque's resignation, and eventually got it, but not before Fennebresque got Spellings. (See "A Margaret Spellings Timeline") Of course, ultimately, Thom Goolsby got Spellings too, in a mortal sense.

Soon after Spellings took office -- almost immediately, in fact -- Goolsby was in the vanguard of her conservative harassment. Goolsby and his fellow travelers immediately threatened to move her comfy office out of Chapel Hill to some far-flung precinct where'd she be less comfortable (and comfitted by the Chapel Hill elite). They leaned hard on Spellings to be a no-exceptions enforcer of the notorious bathroom bill against transgender citizens. And when Spellings was caught redhanded talking to Governor Cooper about "the Silent Sam problem," Goolsby signed a letter condemning her and further threatening her future.

Spellings ended her five-year contract three years early, and in July 2018, the moderate BOG chair who had replaced John Fennebresque was himself replaced by one of the conservative hardliners. The conservatives are in full control now, and in full roar, and they're not likely to hold Goolsby back. The Citadel evidently taught dying on the ramparts, even if those barricades were built on Southern racism.

Goolsby clearly intends to force the return of Silent Sam. And because he's nasty by nature, he couldn't refrain from digging a knife into the Democratic rib-cage when he made his public proposal about bringing back Sam: "I'm even willing to add some 'two-sides-to-everything' balancing statues," he said, "the kind that inform students that Democrats are the real racists" (Jeffrey C. Billman). For example, add a statue commemorating the Wilmington insurrection of 1898, Goolsby suggested, when white supremacists, all members of the Democratic Party of that day, burned a black newspaper to the ground and overthrew the town’s newly elected black Republican government. Yes, and put up another statue dedicated to the minority women “forcibly sterilized by the Democrat Party who controlled our state for decades,” wrote Goolsby.

What Goolsby thinks we won't notice is that he would have participated in that 1898 insurrection -- probably with a fixed bayonet -- and would have voted for forced sterilizations of black people. You think he wouldn't?

Only question that's relevant right now: Will Goolsby's aggression be another Pickett's Charge? Will history finally overtake him?


*The Citadel in pop culture: I'm thinking "The Great Santini" and Frank Underwood in "House of Cards." There's more in that vein.

A Bumpy Ride: The Margaret Spellings History

News leaked yesterday and hit the News and Observer this morning that UNC President Margaret Spellings is out, or about to be out, after less than three years into a five-year contract. She's "quietly negotiated her departure" with the all-Republican Board of Governors, a snake pit where she's repeatedly felt the fangs. BOG member Doyle Parrish, yesterday: "I think it's been a very turbulent experience for her to navigate through the state's political system. Though I think she has done a fabulous job, we have a divisive board and accomplishing her goals and agendas has been difficult for her."

She's been well compensated for the pain. Three-quarters of a million dollars every year, with fat bonuses on top of that.

Her hiring in 2015 (she didn't officially enter the job until March 2016) opened to view the clash over the direction of state-funded higher education between ideological conservatives and the less doctrinaire country-club Republicans.

Here's what happened (at least, in part):

A Margaret Spellings Timeline

New Republican majorities in the NC House and Senate effectuate their takeover of the UNC Board of Governors (BOG), giving the appointment power of new BOG members -- all 32 of them -- to themselves.  Their new board hits the ground running...

January 2015 ... John Fennebresque, the Charlotte attorney and country-clubber who becomes Chair of the BOG, on his own and without consulting his fellow Republicans on the board, fires popular UNC President Tom Ross without cause to begin the Republican takeover. Ross will remain a lame-duck in office until early 2016. The conservatives -- although they applaud getting rid of a liberal like Ross -- are upset at Fennebresque's unilateralism. Said fellow BOG member Marty Kotis, “Most board members did not learn of the [firing of Ross] or the separation agreement until almost a week later ... after the deed had been done.”

February 27, 2015 ... Further flexing their muscle and amid strong student protests, the conservatives on the BOG cynically kill three "progressive" centers of study at three different universities.

2015, spring and summer ... With Tom Ross out of the way, Fennebresque appoints himself to the search committee for Ross's replacement, and with two other close BOG allies, Fennebresque claps down a dome of silence on the process, cutting out the conservatives. 'Pears that Fennebresque had fallen in love with the idea of a high-profile national Republican media figure -- and not an ideological warrior -- becoming the new president, someone with great presence and stature, like, say a former Bush cabinet secretary.

Sept. 2015 ... Countering the high-handedness of Fennebresque, the General Assembly rushes into law Senate Bill 670, which intends to force Fennebresque to present three candidates for UNC president and to do it publicly. Fennebresque ally and fellow country-clubber Pat McCrory, who's announced that he opposes the bill and is clearly teamed with Fennebresque, neither signs it nor vetoes it but sits on it. If he does nothing, the bill becomes law automatically on October 30, giving Fennebresque more than a month to get something done. But if he vetoes it, the General Assembly will quickly override. McCrory buys time for Fennebresque, who leaps into action.

October 15, 2015 ... Fennebresque calls an emergency meeting of the board for October 16, the next day, to "interview" the search committee recommendation. News has leaked that there's only one candidate and it's Margaret Spellings, of the chain of pearls and former Bush administration Secretary of Education. Hardliners are not happy. The team of Berger/Moore in the General Assembly immediately erupt with their own statement: “While the bill has not yet been signed by the Governor, calling an emergency meeting to discuss only one candidate could be viewed as the Board’s [Fennebresque's] attempt to circumvent the overwhelming will of the elected people of the State of North Carolina....” BOG members Thom Goolsby and David Powers write letters to Fennebresque demanding he resign. Goolsby: "Among other things, in your short tenure you have blocked board members from accessing university staff for public information about the system, botched President Ross’ termination, hired an incredibly controversial search consultant and barred two-thirds of the board from participating in the hiring process."

Read more here: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article39368007.html#storylink=cpy

October 16, 2015, at the UNC BOG

October 16, 2015 ... Amid chaos -- student and faculty protests and the smoldering glares of BOG conservatives -- Spellings has her coming out at Fennebresque's emergency interview. She speaks. She's good. Fennebresque is ecstatic.

October 23, 2015 ... Fennebresque reaches some accord with the conservatives. At another called meeting today, the full BOG votes unanimously to hire Spellings.

October 26, 2015 ... With the Spellings hire a done deal, John Fennebresque resigns from the BOG. That must have been the "accord": We'll vote for Spellings, but you have to go.

March 2016 ... Spellings takes the office and is faced by strong student and faculty opposition. And she's also constantly stalked by the conservatives and agents of Berger/Moore who want to begin the crack down on the universities. A slim BOG majority begins to infringe on Spellings, and they threaten to move her office completely out of Chapel Hill.

April 2016  ... Under pressure from conservatives who've in the meantime just passed their bathroom law, HB2, and who intend it to be enforced, Spellings sends a memo to all chancellors of the constituent universities, announcing that HB2 is the law and the universities must comply with that law.

May 26, 2016 ... Under new pressure from lawsuits challenging HB2, Spellings makes a stunning about-face: Declares in a court filing that UNC would not be enforcing HB2 after all, in compliance with federal law. Conservatives, not happy.

August 21, 2017 ... Spellings is caught red-handed talking to Governor Roy Cooper about Silent Sam. Protests are beginning to get organized and large. She wants Cooper's help and advice. Republican hardliners go berserk because Cooper wants the statue removed and put into a museum. The conservatives issue a strongly worded letter signed by 15 BOG members demanding that Spellings must never talk to Cooper again without telling them.

July 1, 2018 ... Spellings loses her last strong ally on the BOG -- Chair Lou Bissette (who replaced Fennebresque), who is himself replaced by conservative "hard-liner" Harry Smith. Bissette had been in on the plan to cooperate with Gov. Cooper over the final resting place for Silent Sam, so his days have been numbered for a year.

October 2018 ... Conservatives finally succeed in driving her off.

What Comes Next?
Hardliners are now ascendant on the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina system. The only thing that can change that is a handover of power to the other party, in one or both of the chambers of the General Assembly. That's the only cure.

BOGged Down

How do you destroy a great educational institution?

One 28-member Board of Governors at a time, when it's packed with political hardliners and hacks who care more about ideological posturing than they do about education.

UNC BOG meeting yesterday.
Spellings is 2nd from right.
Photo Julia Wall, News&Observer

The University of North Carolina Board of Governors met yesterday, and a radical majority of right-wing Republican members -- almost all the members are Republican -- pushed through surprise resolutions that had not been shared in advance. The thrust of those resolutions was clearly aimed at undermining the authority of UNC System President Margaret Spellings, who was just appointed in 2015 (amid plenty of controversy).

Jane Stancill captured the action yesterday for the News&Observer.

Among the most destructive decisions was the vote to prohibit the UNC School of Law's Center for Civil Rights from pursuing legal remedies for low-income and minority groups or for individual citizens. As a result, the Center will close and pursue its activities elsewhere. The Center was funded entirely by outside contributions anyway. The BOG isn't saving money by smashing the Civil Rights Center; it's merely signaling its political hostility to equal rights.

It's the old Confederacy reasserting itself, and that plantation mentality appears to be at heart the animus toward President Margaret Spellings. When the statue of Confederate symbol "Silent Sam" was becoming a flashpoint on campus, Spellings reached out to Governor Roy Cooper for advice and help in keeping order. The Republican hardliners, who intend to keep the sacred flame of the slaveholding South burning bright, were deeply offended. These 15 members of the BOG, which includes several hard-right former members of the General Assembly, signed a sharp letter of warning to Spellings:

Harry Smith
Jim Holmes
Marty Kotis
David Powers
Alex Mitchell
Philip Byers
Mike Williford
Thom Goolsby
Pearl Burris-Floyd
Wendy Murphy
Bob Rucho
Randy Ramsey
Kellie Blue
Tom Fetzer
Bill Webb

The cabbage worms are eating the cabbage from the inside out.

Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools Defy HB2 Law

The Charlotte Mecklenburg school system (CMS) has decided to ignore Governor McCrory's HB2 bathroom law and return the school system to reality-based peeing.

And since HB2 specified no penalty for violation of the law, there's not much The Guv or his cohorts in the NC General Assembly can do about it.

Already ahead of the ignore-HB2 movement was political hack and new head of the University of North Carolina system Margaret Spellings, who told a federal court last month that she would not be enforcing HB2 in the UNC system.

McCrory induced his official spokesman to sputter and spit at the press following the CMS announcement. They're purposely breaking state law, said The Guv's spokesman, his voice rising two octaves. He was hoping that he might get any reaction beyond a yawn.

Speculation Swirling Over Firing of High-Level ASU Administrator

Cindy Walace

The sudden firing of long-time Appalachian State University Vice Chancellor Cindy Wallace, an advocate for student voting rights, has gotten the attention of both student government and members of the General Assembly.

The Director of External and Governmental Affairs for the ASU Student Government Association posted this on Facebook last night, calling out Chancellor Sheri Everts:

"At a time of such devastation for Appalachian State University, I was reminded tonight why I want to continue fighting for student voices on this campus. Cindy Wallace was truly a unique individual, one this university will never be able to replace. She was a haven for students who felt under-represented on this campus and simply her presence in a room undeniably gave students the sense of belonging. It was a sad day for the student body when the chancellor's office sent an email regarding the dismissal of such a wonderful asset to this university. This news came as a shock to the entire Appalachian community, but we must not forget what Cindy fought for. ... I am ready to put the full force of the student body behind the fight for our voting rights on campus, something Cindy was adamantly for. And I am ready to give Sheri N. Everts hell this year. Bring it on"

Rumors are actually coming out of Raleigh that the firing was "political," either that (a) members of the right-wing Board of Governors wanted Wallace out or that (b) Republican members of the General Assembly wanted her out, or both (a) and (b). And what was university system President Margaret Spellings' role in all this? More purging of administrators not in synch with Republican dogma?

At any rate, the continuing destruction of higher education in North Carolina seems very much on schedule.

What Is Margaret Spellings Up To?

Thomas Mills connects some first dots in the Margaret Spellings era for the University of North Carolina system. Ain't looking good.

"It seems our university system is about to become yet another experiment for the conservatives who took over the state."

A Match Made in Hades

What could possibly go wrong when this...

meets this...?



The woman in the pearls, who makes $750,000 per annum running a large assembly of institutions of higher education because she's a famous Republican and not because she has any experience, will be at Appalachian State University this week to view her loyal subjects. In advance of that visit, she managed to get the attention of students by issuing a decree that they'd all better follow the HB2 law.

Pat McCrory, Margaret Spellings ... Nosing Out Non-Existent Dangers

Kevin Siers, in the Charlotte Observer.

Meanwhile in South Carolina, conservative Republican Governor Nikki Haley told her state that a similar "bathroom bill" was not needed in the Palmetto State.

Haley was reacting to the introduction of another one of those "save the women and children" fear-mongering bills, introduced in the South Carolina legislature by a Republican running scared for reelection (he has three primary opponents, and the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce is actively campaigning against him).

It's sobering, O my children, when South Carolina looks and acts much saner than the Tar Heel State. (I can't believe the words that are about to come out of my keyboard:) Nikki Haley appears to be the only rational Republican governor left in the nation.

Catching up on some other HB2 news: Newly installed, pearl-wearing president of the University of North Carolina, Margaret Spellings, the hunting dog who follows the whistles from the Republican leadership in the NC General Assembly, has issued a letter to all UNC constituent chancellors that they must follow the letter of the HB2 law.

We can't be surprised that the lackey jumps when the masters crack the whip.

It's all quite ridiculous, as only political grandstanding can be, since no one -- no one -- has suggested exactly how such a pile of HB2 doodoo could ever be enforced.

Secrecy & "Anonymous Donors" Move Into UNC Along With Margaret Spellings

Margaret Spellings hasn't even arrived on the job as the new president of the University of North Carolina system, and already she's making troubling moves that seem designed to further weaken the system. Using money from an "anonymous donor" (Art Pope? Or some other billionaire with an axe to grind?), she's hired a private consulting firm to do an efficiency study of the UNC General Administration.

And not just any private consulting firm. According to Michael Behrent and Altha Cravey, "The subcontracting of education policy to a private, for-profit company is all the more troubling because BCG [Boston Consulting Group] is hardly politically neutral. BCG embraces a highly partisan conception of education, one that is consistent with the views of Spellings .... Specifically, BCG’s [previously commissioned] Philadelphia plan selected as many as 60 schools for possible closure, aggressively promoted charter schools, identified private companies that could replace the district’s unionized labor force and tied school success to inflexible 'achievement goals.' ”

This is where the Republicans in control of our flat earth are taking the state: "North Carolina now pays teachers abysmally, discourages teachers from seeking advanced degrees and diverts significant resources toward charter schools, which, according to a recent report by the Department of Public Instruction, serve a wealthier and whiter student population than public schools."

A commenter on the Behrent & Cravey article offers common sense on what Spellings is really up to with her commissioned, anonymously funded efficiency study:

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article54177810.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article54177810.html#storylink=cpy

Having spent part of my life in Corporate America as a consultant for a national accounting firm, let me tell you that there is no such thing as a “neutral” consultant. The “inside joke” went like this. A CEO interviews three consultants for a job. At the end of each interview she asks, “what is one plus one?” The first two answer: “two.” The third says: “what do you want it to be?” Guess who got the job. This is simply a “plausible deniability” and “accountability insurance” sham on the part of Spellings and her “handlers” to get cover for whatever they were going to do anyway.

"Whatever they were going to do anyway." Remember that line when Spellings actually parks her butt in that big cushy chair in Chapel Hill, come March 1.

ASU Faculty Senate Sees Spellings Error

Jane Stancill in the Raleigh News&Observer today:

Appalachian State University’s Faculty Senate has expressed “serious reservations” about the appointment of Margaret Spellings as president of the UNC system.

A resolution by the ASU Faculty Senate passed this week 27-0 with four abstentions. The lengthy resolution also cited concerns about the secretive nature of the presidential search and a lack of faculty input in the process.

The resolution was blunt in its assessment of Spellings, the former U.S. education secretary under President George W. Bush, saying that Spellings “has a record of pursuing policies that are contrary to the very idea and integrity of public higher education.”

It cited “intolerant remarks and actions against the LGBT community” and Spellings’ federal accountability efforts closely tied to standardized testing – No Child Left Behind and her commission on higher education. The resolution also raised questions about Spellings’ service on the board of the Apollo Group, the parent company of the for-profit University of Phoenix, which has been investigated for its recruiting practices. Spellings has also been head of an advisory board for Ceannate, a private company that services student loans....

Swinging That String of Pearls

Newly appointed president of the University of North Carolina system, Margaret Spellings -- may we call you "Maggie"? -- has already launched her charm offensive with a university system that already resents her for the secretive way she was selected and dreads her for her partisan political marching orders from a 100% Republican Board of Governors, backed up by the most regressive, anti-education General Assembly in the nation.

Gosh. Spellings can quote Bill Friday! And Spellings makes cooing sounds: “People know in their gut, and particularly in this state – irrespective of where you are on the political spectrum – everyone understands the value of this institution to the success of this state,” she told the reporter.

She prides herself on being a snake-charmer. The reporter asked, How do you handle those in the state who already don't like you? “Meet with them. Listen. Get to know them. Understand their frustration and the righteousness of a lot of what they’re saying.”

"Righteousness" here must be the code word for "sincerely held but wrong beliefs." That's the kind of language you use to charm a snake.

At a salary of three-quarters of a million dollars per annum -- not counting other perks, like free lodging -- she'll at least look good. Irrespective of everything else.

The Notorious B.O.G. "Train Wreck": Member Kotis Spills Some Beans

Marty Kotis, a member of the notorious Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina, spoke on the record with the Greensboro News&Record and gave us some slight glimpse inside that politicized body.

Fennebresque

1. BOG Chair John Fennebresque is a diva. According to Kotis, Fennebresque took it on himself to oust UNC President Tom Ross from the job, the event last January that has launched the current meshugaas. “John went in there hard-charging and, bam, it blew up from there. As it should. If I was a sitting president and someone came in there and did that, I think I’d be upset as well. The process was just completely flawed.”

Kotis was the lone "NO" vote on firing Ross last January.

Kotis can't answer why Ross was fired: “The reason we can’t answer is because we don’t know. John [Fennebresque] did this on his own. Only he can answer why."

2. The "search committee" for a new president -- three key Fennebresque allies on the BOG and Fennebresque himself -- took a dictatorial approach to the process and cut out everybody else.

3. Senate Bill 670, which would require the full BOG to review three finalists for the president’s job, was passed by the General Assembly (and still hasn't been signed by Governor Squishy), was introduced because of complaints coming from Kotis and other BOG members: "So when you run into a major roadblock, you’re going to vent to the people who appointed you and tell them that you can’t do your job .... This was not the legislature reaching down and trying to tell us what to do. This was us asking for help.”

4. Last Thursday, when Fennebresque suddenly called an emergency meeting of the BOG for Friday and members of the BOG learned that Margaret Spellings was the lone candidate being anointed by Fennebresque and his allies, Kotis and others on the BOG called for Fennebresque to resign, and Republicans in the General Assembly sent Fennebresque a sternly worded warning about violating S670 (which still hasn't been signed into law).

5. Fennebresque has called another meeting of the BOG for this morning, and everyone expects Spellings to be presented for a vote. Kotis and others are probably not going to be happy with that scenario: “You can’t sit back and just watch this train wreck occur over and over and over,” Kotis said Wednesday. “At some point you have to take action. You have to be willing to break ranks. You have to be willing to be a whistleblower. There are a lot of us feeling that now.”

UPDATE: 12:05 p.m.
Career politico Margaret Spellings elected President of the UNC system without a dissenting vote.

McCrory: All-In For Margaret Spellings?

Last item down-column speculated about just how in the tank The Guv might be for Margaret Spellings to take over the UNC system and manage its further decline.

This morning, the Carolina Journal, an Art Pope publication, offers this additional brick in the wall:

RALEIGH — UNC Board of Governors Chairman John Fennebresque and Margaret Spellings, the top candidate to become UNC system president, left a recent “emergency" meeting of the board to meet with Gov. Pat McCrory, a source at the meeting told Carolina Journal. Fennebresque and Spellings were in a closed session with members of the board’s selection committee when they left to meet with McCrory, several board members confirmed to CJ’s source.

And Now ... Gov. Squishy Wades Into the UNC President Mess

That law that the Republican leaders in the General Assembly passed to force the University of North Carolina Board of Governors to produce publicly the names of three finalists for president of the UNC system ... that law is sitting unsigned on Governor Squishy's nicely polished and dust-free desk.

It almost seems deliberate, then, doesn't it, that Chair of the UNC Board of Governors John Fennebresque tried to sneak in just one candidate for president, Margaret Spellings, this past Friday, though it all exploded in his face. Fennebresque certainly knew that the General Assembly's meddling law wasn't in effect yet. The governor certainly looks like an enabler of Fennebresque's plan, doesn't he? The sly little minx!

Then Friday evening, about the time the BOG was breaking up its closed-door meeting with Margaret Spellings and fleeing for the exits before the press could ask any questions, McCrory had his spokesman announce that he doesn't like that meddling law passed by the General Assembly.

So he'll veto it, right? Not so fast there, Mr. & Mrs. Naive Citizen. Maybe he will. And maybe he won't. McCrory's spokesman said that his boss will wait and decide on October 30, which is the absolute drop dead last day he could possibly veto it. We don't call this man "Governor Squishy" for no reason!

Guess what! October 30th also happens to be the next meeting day for the UNC Board of Governors. Enabler, meet opportunity!

Edith Bunker: "It's amazing how coincidences always seem to happen at the same time!"

Margaret Spellings: In the Student-Loan Collection Business

Student loans maintain the highest default rate (11.8 percent) of all consumer debt, well above the rates for autos (3.4 percent), home mortgages (4.3), and credit cards (9.4).

Collecting on overdue student loans has become a growth industry. It's nasty work, but someone has to do it.

Helping those who do it to do it with gusto: Margaret Spellings, the anointed candidate chosen by John Fennebresque et al. to take over the University of North Carolina system.

CENNATE Corp. specializes in collecting student loans. Growth industry? Why, yes. CENNATE Corp. recently expanded its workplace to 74,000 feet and doubled its workforce in suburban Illinois.

CENNATE Corp. also even more recently named Margaret Spellings as chair of its new Board of Advisors.

So those of you inclined to pooh-pooh her higher education credentials can just cut it out. She signed on in March to help extract blood from those overripe college student tomatoes.

[Hattip to Greg Flynn who alerted us to the CENNATE connection]