BOG Update

The UNC Board of Governors met Thursday and today. Here are some highlights.

1. UNC Online. The board saw the proctoring system being run at ECU on a start-up basis. It prompted a discussion about online education and where we need to be going in the near future. The next UNC Online Project Task Force meeting in two weeks will include Hannah Gage and our meeting on online issues is in March. There are a number of issues we want to get out in front on. More to come.

2. Budget. Setting budget priorities is the big topic on the table now. How to handle tuition is also something that will be determined. The latter is a scheduled review. Deferred maintenance (see the recent N&O article) will likely get emphasis. Capital projects will be scaled back (as with the decision not to build the UNC Law School). We will have to follow all of these discussions carefully. We also should note that enrollment funding is likely to have some significant change (we will be looking at a new model later this month for connecting enrollment to retention and graduation) and we also need to follow the discussions on where tuition dollars will go (to campuses or to the general fund; we, of course, prefer the former).

3. Executive Compensation will be an on-going issue in P&T. A study done last year reveals that we are significantly behind most of our peers for Chancellors. But EVERYONE from President Bowles down stressed that NOTHING is to be done now in this climate and NOTHING is to be done until the Faculty and Staff get the raises that they also deserve. The issue here is how to recruit and retain the best....no matter what the category of employment.

4. We have to set new peers for each school. That process will be delayed until Tom Ross comes on board in January.

5. The big news, new VP for Finance Ernie Murphrey is retiring at the end of the year and Jeff Davies will head the search for his replacement ASAP. Ernie has a long career with our system, but needs to step away to deal with some family issues.

These highlights give you an idea of what is happening. UNC Football was on the front pages, so you can read that one on your own.