School Law Bulletin #2001/10

IN A 1971 SPECIAL SESSION called for that purpose, the General Assembly overhauled the structure for operating the state’s four-year institutions of higher education. It merged ten separate degree-granting institutions into the existing six-campus University of North Carolina (UNC) and placed all sixteen under one unified Board of Governors. To that board, the General Assembly gave the complete governing authority for the sixteen-campus university.

Over the years, many have come to see this cen- tralized system of administration as a key element of the university’s strength—one informed body with the authority to respond definitively to regional and insti- tutional pressures for new programs or for redistribution of resources. Other people have come to view the centralized system as an unnecessarily rigid structure insufficiently responsive to the unique needs and opportunities of the individual institutions.

In the 2001 session, a proposal to study the thirty-year-old governing structure aroused strong reaction and controversy. All four living former governors of the state spoke out publicly against it, expressing the conviction that the current structure best served the state and that a proposal for study could become an irresistible first step in a process of devolution. In the end, the General Assembly did establish a commission to conduct the study. It was the year’s biggest story involving higher education litigation.