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JoekillianPW

29 Jul, 18 tweets, 5 min read

Gang, let's talk about the question posed by NC Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) in this piece.

“What’s happening at those other 15 campuses?” Berger said. “We’re not seeing anything like what’s happening at Chapel Hill.” #NCPol #UNC

washingtonpost.com/education/2021…

I'd imagine that most of you who read newspapers, listen to news on the radio or watch TV news in North Carolina could provide the senator at least a half dozen examples of scandals at other UNC system schools. Most directly or indirectly involving the BOG.

If not, read on...

First it should be said that the disastrous COVID response cited in this piece, leading to huge clusters of avoidable infections and students being sent home en masse, wasn't just a Chapel Hill thing. Several large UNC System schools walked into that one, including State and ECU.

Campus leaders cited pressure from the UNC BOG and UNC System in their decision making even as experts at the school and local public health officials said their advice and warnings were ignored.

But let's move on. What *is* happening at schools outside Chapel Hill?

Well, East Carolina University is in still facing a lawsuit over the ouster of former Chancellor Cecil Staton, a scandal that directly involved the BOG and which has never been explained by the board or the system.

This is one of MANY problems at ECU.

pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2020/06/22/for…

Staton's interim replacement (approved by the BOG) left under a cloud when video of him apparently drinking with students and then driving surfaced. BOG members were directly involved in that scandal and refused to cooperate with an investigation.

ncpolicywatch.com/2019/11/14/aft…

Then there was the matter of ECU trustees trying to influence a student election. Trustees are chosen by the NCGA and the BOG.

pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2020/02/07/one…

But I could do ECU all day. Let's move on.

At App State the faculty have been so at odds with Chancellor Cheri Everts that they held a rare no-confidence vote on her leadership. Chancellors are chosen by the trustees and the BOG.

pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2020/08/17/app…

Well, chancellors were once chosen that way. The BOG recently changed the system, allowing one of their own to leave the board and become the new chancellor of Fayetteville State University. Trustees said he was among the least qualified candidates.

ncpolicywatch.com/2021/02/24/pw-…

To this day no one will answer questions on the record about that FSU search and those involved in the process who have tried have been hushed by university staff and have faced legal threats.

Of course, the BOG has had to overhaul the chancellor search process before. Last time, in 2018, it was because a BOG member who had sought to be interim chancellor at Western Carolina leaked personnel information on the finalist, scuttling the search.

ncpolicywatch.com/2018/10/11/aft…

But you don't have to go all over the state looking at individual campuses for dysfunction. As that 2018 episode illustrates, the BOG itself has for years been a rocky and knives out environment in which members publicly snipe, make cross accusations, are ousted and resign.

Don't take my word for it. Here's what former UNC BOG Chair Lou Bissette had to say about the board he led...members of which excoriated him for this genteel criticism.

higheredworks.org/2020/02/bisset…

Bissette's piece also gets at Berger's unexamined but easily disproven assertion in the WaPo piece that the board was just as partisan when Democrats chosen BOG members.

"When I first started serving, Democrats and Republicans were just about equally represented on the [BOG]," Bissette wrote. "It functioned effectively. But today, the Board has no Democrats. That is simply not representative of our state and of the citizens we serve."

Listen...I know most of you who have actually been paying attention know all of this already. It's been all been covered extensively for years by many reporters.
But the next time someone asks what's happening at the other campuses as though they don't know, point them here.

@threadreaderapp

@threadreaderapp unroll, please.

Thanks for reading. As always, typos are my own!

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More from @JoekillianPW

JoekillianPW

@JoekillianPW

29 Jul

Unsolicited e-mail this morning from a group using a Mark Twain quote to argue for an exodus from American public schools, which they believe are not fulfilling God's mandate for Christian education in this country.

This is infuriating on several levels.

First, the quote, which the group flubs a bit:"First God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards."

It's often been said that Twain quotes are so numerous and so witty that they can be used by almost any group to promote almost anything.

And that's true, to a point.

You can use poison oak for toilet paper if you're desperate or determined.

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JoekillianPW

@JoekillianPW

27 Jul

Somehow missed that Tucker Carlson, who has an enormous cable TV audience, has been encouraging his viewers to challenge other people in public as to why they're wearing masks. He suggests saying their masks make you uncomfortable.

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9…

From the Carlson's call to action:
"
The next time you see someone in a mask on the sidewalk or the bike path, don't hesitate. Ask politely but firmly: 'Would you please take off your mask? Science shows there is no reason to wear it. Your mask is making me uncomfortable.'"

He continues:

"We should do that, and we should keep doing it, until wearing a mask outdoors is roughly as socially accepted as lighting a Marlboro in an elevator. It's repulsive. Don't do it around other people. That's the message we should send because it's true."

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JoekillianPW

@JoekillianPW

17 Jul

Saw "Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain" today.

Morgan Neville has made some of my favorite documentaries of the last ten years. So I wasn't surprised it was great. I was surprised at some of the ways in which it was great.

I have an uncomfortably intimate relationship with suicide. Heroes of mine have killed themselves. Good friends, too. My mother's suicide upended my life in ways from which I'm still recovering, years later.

So anything dealing with suicide is a toss of the dice for me.

Is it going to ruin my day? My week?

Am I going to find something in it with which I connect in a way that is strangely comforting?

You never know until you roll those bones.

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JoekillianPW

@JoekillianPW

11 Jul

Had some early Sunday morning thoughts on errors, corrections, conflict, resolution, faith and journalism.

This is applicable to #UNC and the #NikoleHannahJones story, of course. But honestly, these are things I think about as a reporter all the time -- and have for many years.

We all, whatever we do, make errors.

I struggle with them as much as anyone. But I come to them with what I consider two enormous advantages:

1) I was raised by Southern Women, the Catholic Church and the United States Marine Corps.

2) I'm a professional journalist.

Let's take these one at a time.

What my mother, a Southern woman, taught me about making errors: It's inevitable. If you can laugh at it, laugh at it. If it's more serious than that, correct it and make restitution early. If you can do both, you're golden.

Read 19 tweets

JoekillianPW

@JoekillianPW

9 Jul

Some context in tge discussion over #NikoleHannahJones, #UNC and journalism values.

Walter Hussman was so committed to his core values of journalism, centering objectivity and the separation of news and opinion, that he touted them on...Tucker Carlson.

video.foxnews.com/v/609573116300…

Carlson has depended in court on the argument his reputation is such that reasonable people would not consider anything he says on his show to be a statement of fact.

Even when he *literally tells you* he is offering undisputed facts.

npr.org/2020/09/29/917…

Carlson also used to work for Hussman at the Democrat-Gazette, which is not disclosed in this clip.

That disclosure would have been standard for small town newspapers for which I worked as a matter of basic journalistic principle.

Or, if you would prefer, a "core value."

Read 6 tweets

JoekillianPW

@JoekillianPW

6 Jul

Meeting with #NikoleHannahJones for an interview this week made me reflect on my June interview with Walter Hussman, the conservative Arkansas media magnate and #UNC megadonor who lobbied against hiring her.

It's worth talking a bit about these two people and interviews.

When I interviewed Hussman last month, he projected an intense folksiness -- sort of Mr. Rogers meets Bill Clinton.

Given Hussman's history with the Clintons in Arkansas, he might not love that comparison. But it's apt.

ncpolicywatch.com/2021/06/03/unc…

A part of this was Hussman saying to me, repeatedly, "Well, Joe, you and I are both reporters..." or "Well, since we're both journalists I think you understand..."

This is a common rhetorical device. Find an area of common ground, assert affinity, create a bond.

Read 25 tweets

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