Spellings Discusses Challenges, Opportunities After First Year at UNC | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: The author of this post is Kari Travis, who is an associate editor for the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

System president tells CJ she plans to develop each UNC campus based on its strengths and demands improvements in online programs


    In an exclusive interview with Carolina Journal, UNC system President Margaret Spellings discussed her leadership priorities, the future of UNC's Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and the impacts of technology on the future of higher education.

    CHAPEL HILL     UNC President Margaret Spellings, who was elected to her seat just over a year ago by the university's Board of Governors, said in an exclusive interview with Carolina Journal that her inaugural year largely has involved crisis management - a skill she learned during her time as secretary of education in the George W. Bush administration.

    But crisis hasn't prevented Spellings from devising a plan to make a UNC education more accessible, affordable, and accountable for students, she said.

    Those goals are a reflection of her time at the U.S. Department of Education, when in 2005 she organized the Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education, an effort to "elevate the issues in higher education - where we were doing well, and where we were falling back," Spellings told CJ.

    "I see some analogies between using that platform to talk about those things, and using this platform," she continued. "And frankly, there's a hell of a lot of similarity between that work 10 years ago and now. Those same things are still resonant."

    Though there are many parallels between her time at Education and her experience at UNC thus far, Spellings said there are days when it feels like her job is solely focused on putting out fires across the system.

    "This job is a lot more like being at the White House [than the Department of Education] in some ways," Spellings said. "Trying to stay focused on what you're trying to do, your own agenda, your own priorities, while also dealing with the NCAA, and murders, and students, and hurricanes ... sometimes it feels like you hardly have time to think about education because we're dealing with just about everything else."

    Spellings' start at UNC began amid controversy on Oct. 23, 2015, when she accepted the university's job offer and faculty and student bodies from several UNC campuses reacted by staging a series of protests against her election, which they said lacked transparency and inclusion.

    Such outcries have subsided, but other events have continued to demand tenacious leadership, Spellings said.

    Among the toughest obstacles Spellings must tackle is the university's ongoing defense in a federal lawsuit over House Bill 2, the state legislature's so-called "bathroom bill," which states that individuals in public buildings must use the restroom that matches the gender on their birth certificate.


Margaret Spellings, president of the University of North Carolina system, sat down with Carolina Journal Oct. 31 for an exclusive interview. (CJ photo by Kari Travis)


    The U.S. Department of Justice brought its lawsuit against the UNC system in May 2016, two months after Spellings had taken up official residence in her Spangler Center office in Chapel Hill.

    The university, which is not actively enforcing the law, is locked in an expensive battle with DOJ, and is set to go to trial in May, Spellings' said.

    [Editor's note: CJ interviewed Spellings before the Nov. 8 election of Donald Trump. Trump's running mate, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, has suggested that the new administration may withdraw a letter from the Obama Department of Education saying LBGT protections apply at campuses that receive federal funding; this letter was used by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to force a Virginia public school to "treat transgender students consistent with their gender identity," also placing enforcement of H.B. 2 in limbo while the lawsuits continue. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to the 4th Circuit decision in its current term, but if the Trump administration withdraws the letter, then transgendered students may not have a legal justification to demand access to public accommodations based on gender identity, and the litigation between UNC and USDOJ could end, undermining other legal challenges to H.B. 2.]

    Despite of all the complications, Spellings has her sights set firmly on moving UNC forward and allowing all 16 schools to play to their strengths.

    The system's Historically Black Colleges and Universities will continue to be important for North Carolina, Spellings said, stating firmly that she believes those institutions are critical to UNC's mission, and that she will not be consolidating any campuses.

    "If we're trying to find places where first generation students can feel comfortable, feel supported, be successful, see themselves fit in, find opportunity, and find people that look like them, then those are the exact places they're going to find that," she said.

    Tuition cuts enacted by the state legislature for three campuses, including the currently low-performing Elizabeth City State University, are a first step toward improving student achievement, but much more must be done, Spellings said.

    Optimizing strengths of each university will be key to success, especially for ECSU, she added.

    "What is our niche? What is our place of strength in those institutions? ECSU has an amazing aviation program. They're sitting there on top of the Coast Guard. They're [at] one of the most valued estuaries in the nation. They've got a lot of assets."

    "I think that we need to get off this HBCU, 'yes or no' question," she said. "We're asking the wrong question. We need to ask, 'What do we need, where do we need it, at what price, for whom, and who's doing it?'"

    Development of online learning will also play a key role in UNC's growth, Spellings said, noting that her technology task force will bring forward an assessment by the end of this year.

    "Right now we have kind of 'a thousand flowers blooming' approach to technology. If I'm a faculty member and I decide I want to develop something that's an online product, [I can], and there's a lot of ... proliferation of online courses."

    Spellings also noted that UNC online is currently an unorganized smorgasbord of classes, with no system for tracking student activity or outcomes.

    Even for students who are familiar with online learning platforms, UNC's is confusing and must be fixed, she said.

    "Get on the damn thing, see if you can figure it out. I certainly can't," she joked. "So we've got to be a lot more deliberate about what we're putting out there, and for whom, and that's why I've developed this task force, because there are a whole lot of unanswered questions."
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