Message from Chancellor Folt and Provost Dean on Centers and Institutes

Dear Carolina Community:

Yesterday, a UNC Board of Governors working group voted on recommendations regarding the status of 56 UNC System centers and institutes that had been under further examination. Their recommendations came after a lengthy review of all centers and institutes within the UNC System, 240 total, including 80 at UNC-Chapel Hill. The working group’s review resulted from a legislative mandate directing the Board of Governors to consider finding money for UNC System strategic priorities by reducing state funding for centers and institutes.

The working group’s meeting produced two key outcomes:

1. The one we find most difficult, and certainly drawing the most attention, is the recommendation to close the School of Law’s Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity. We recommended against this action, and are very disappointed with their decision. Since its inception in 2005, the center has focused dialogue, research and public attention on the many dimensions of poverty and economic hardship for people in North Carolina and beyond. It has done important work, which will continue at Carolina. Last year, we decided to complement the activities of the Poverty Center and extend our efforts on this vital issue. We convened a pan-University faculty group whose research and applied programs cover various additional aspects of poverty, including education, health care and economic development.

2. Although it received less attention, we are pleased that the working group’s recommendations affirmed the continuation of seven out of nine UNC-Chapel Hill centers and institutes that had been under review in this final round. The nine included: the Carolina Center for Public Service; Carolina’s Women’s Center; Center for Faculty Excellence; Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity; James G. Hunt, Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy; UNC Center for Civil Rights; University of North Carolina Institute on Aging; and the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History. We had already voluntarily decided to close the Center for Law and Government as part of our own evaluation of Carolina’s centers and institutes because we did not feel the center’s structure was necessary for us to be able to continue this work.

Moving forward, we will continue to actively support and promote the value of our centers and institutes to the Board of Governors, and will continue to gather funds for their work. Our thanks to all of the directors and their staffs at our centers and institutes who truly help make Carolina and our state a better place in which to live.

Best,

Carol L. Folt, Chancellor, and James W. Dean, Jr., Provost