End in Sight for UNC Diversity Provost Search

With the selection of four candidates for the position of vice provost for diversity and multicultural affairs, the University has moved one step closer to addressing its diversity woes.

Of the 54 heads of departments and centers in the College and Arts and Sciences, only five are minorities, an issue interim Associate Provost for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs Terri Houston said requires action.

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Whoever is chosen will become a member of the provost’s cabinet, meeting weekly with Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Bruce Carney.

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The finalists all come from similar professional backgrounds, each having been head of a diversity program at a major university.

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Paul Godley, chairman of the search committee, encouraged the community to discuss diversity with the finalists in October.

“I think we have outstanding candidates,” Godley said. “People need to come and see for themselves what they are about.”

Daniel Wiser, Daily Tar Heel, September 29, 2011

Plans to offer buyout packages to tenured faculty have been discussed as a viable option to cut costs and find savings at universities in the state.

But UNC-system administrators say there’s no money–even for a program to save money.

In preparation for state funding cuts earlier this year, administrators considered using the buyout option to lure tenured faculty into retiring early.

Universities ended up absorbing a cut of 15.6 percent, or $414 million, in funding from the state. {snip}

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Michael Green, faculty president at UNC-Charlotte, said faculty members approached the school’s chancellor at the start of the fall semester about potential buyout plans. But the school’s budget would not sustain the buyouts, he said.

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Universities in the state have also struggled to keep the faculty they currently have in place.

The UNC system retained only 37 percent of faculty who received job offers from other universities last year, a concern for the academic quality of institutions, said Phil Dixon, chairman of the Board of Governors’ personnel and tenure committee.

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