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UNC Chapel Hill hired Lee Roberts as chancellor Friday following a search critics believe was rushed and influenced by conservative politicians who endorsed him for the job.
Photo illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | Eros Hoagland/Getty Images | University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
After almost eight months on the job in an interim capacity, Lee Roberts was officially named chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill by a unanimous board vote on Friday.
Roberts, who runs a private investment firm, was elevated to the interim position from his seat on the UNC Board of Governors in December, after serving on the board since 2021. A former GOP official who was the state budget director under Republican governor Pat McCrory from 2014 to 2016, Roberts has previously taught classes at his alma mater, Duke University, but had no prior administrative experience in higher education before his appointment.
Now Roberts is officially at the helm of one of the nation’s premier research institutions, officially stepping into the role vacated by Kevin Guskiewicz when he left for Michigan State University.
The Announcement
In a brief Board of Governors meeting held online, UNC system president Peter Hans said the job had attracted a number of “accomplished academicians, prize-winning researchers and national figures” drawn to robust state support and UNC’s strong reputation.
The search “attracted nearly 60 qualified candidates” and yielded four finalists, according to a system news release, though Roberts was the only candidate for the job named publicly.
“Every chancellor search is different. In this one, I believe we have found the right leader for this moment in Carolina’s history, because the questions facing higher education are wide-ranging, enormously complex, and likely to become magnified in the years ahead,” Hans said.
Hans, who joked about the new chancellor’s connections to Duke, a UNC rival, also praised Roberts for his handling of pro-Palestinian campus protests in the spring. Hans credited Roberts for engaging students and for declining invitations to “air his views on cable TV or score points in partisan news outlets” and sitting “for a thoughtful interview” with a local radio station instead.
Hans did not mention Roberts’s role in spring protests in which he marched with police officers as they broke up the demonstrations, winning him favor with state Republicans who applauded the move, albeit uncommon for a university leader, and called for him to be appointed to the permanent position. (Several Republican lawmakers also celebrated the hire when it was announced on Friday.)
In a live-streamed press conference on Friday, Roberts said he wanted “to listen and to learn” from the university community.
“To me, this university stands, above all else, for the ideal of public service, for helping the people of this state and all those who are touched by this place to achieve their greatest potential. As chancellor, I promise to be guided by that principle as we work together to carry North Carolina into the future,” Roberts told the audience.
Acrimony and Optimism
Friday’s announcement brought a mix of reactions from UNC faculty and students.
For some it was frustration that a figure from the political world who inserted himself into campus protests was hired in a search they believe was rushed and lacked adequate community input. Parker Executive Search, the firm that led the recruiting process, has also faced prior scrutiny for its role in elevating leaders with no higher education experience or with troubled backgrounds.
The search had been expected to take about a year, a common timeline when hiring a new university leader, and was supposed to involve more listening sessions than were scheduled. Search committee officials canceled fall forums, announcing they had received enough feedback from listening sessions held in the spring and from an online survey of the university community.
Sue Estroff, a professor of social medicine at UNC, told Inside Higher Ed that the search felt rushed and the outcome predetermined. She said no one was surprised when Roberts was announced as the hire, particularly after Republican state lawmakers endorsed him for the job.
Despite her concerns about the process, Estroff struck a measured tone on Roberts’s appointment.
“I think he listens well, I think he means well,” Estroff said, though she said the hiring process had increased skepticism from students and faculty and decreased trust in leadership. But she believes Roberts is “well aware of these concerns” and expects him to respond to them and begin efforts to “create connections with faculty and students.”
She added that plans to end a longstanding student-run honor court and replace it with a staff conduct board to rule on disciplinary infractions had harmed Roberts’s standing recently.
Beth Moracco, chair of the faculty council at UNC Chapel Hill, said the speed and expected outcome of the process would cause some trust issues for Roberts. She also noted concerns about his lack of administrative experience in higher education.
“For a top five public university, you would expect someone with more experience. Now is that a fatal flaw? I’ve been encouraged with most of the decisions and conversations that we’ve had. And when I or other faculty have disagreed, he’s not defensive, he’s eager and willing to listen,” Moracco said. “That’s reassuring, because I think there’s going to be a lot of work to build trust.”
Some critics had more pointed views of Roberts being tapped as chancellor.
Adams Sibley, a doctoral student at UNC Chapel Hill, accused the university of undermining its credibility by hiring Roberts. In a series of social media posts, Sibley argued that “the selection process was a formality” that was rushed to conclude before the fall semester to avoid student and faculty dissent. Sibley also accused Roberts of being “a shill for the Republican legislature.”
Sibley’s remarks align with broader political concerns affecting UNC Chapel Hill and other public institutions in the state. Recent controversies include political wrangling over the process for appointing board members, a new state law that will force public universities to change accreditors every cycle, and plans to create a new School of Civic Life and Leadership at UNC Chapel Hill with little faculty input.
The UNC Chapel Hill Board of Trustees also sparked controversy in 2021 when it publicly fumbled plans to hire Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of The New York Times Magazine’s “1619 Project,” which reframed U.S. history with an emphasis on the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans. The project has been widely panned by Republicans, including former President Donald Trump who cast it as unpatriotic.
But Friday, as news swirled, other UNC community members praised the hire.
“Congratulations to Lee Roberts on being named UNC’s 13th chancellor. It has been a pleasure to work with him as interim. He is deeply committed to ensuring the excellence of a Carolina education for our students and to serving the great state of North Carolina,” Jim White, dean of UNC Chapel Hill’s College of Arts and Science wrote on social media.
Jon Williams, an economics professor, shared similar sentiments.
“Lee Roberts is [a] fantastic choice. He has UNC refocused on research and teaching, leaving the distracting nonsense and politics behind. Our senior leadership has demonstrated a lot of courage and fortitude this past year, excited to see their next steps,” Williams wrote on X.
