(Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)
The UNC System’s Board of Governors will meet this Friday morning to ratify the selection of a new chancellor for the system’s flagship university in Chapel Hill.
Formally, a board committee will first review the selection and advise on the terms of an employment contract. The full board will then make the final decision.
In reality, System President Peter Hans is making the selection, with the board acting as a check and balance. System policy says the BOG will vote on the president’s nominee.
The new hire will replace former Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz, who left to become president of Michigan State University.
Former State Budget Director Lee Roberts has been serving as interim chancellor since Jan. 12. He is the odds-on favorite to receive the job on a permanent basis, given that N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger have both offered him public endorsements.
Those came accompanied by praise for the way Roberts handled pro-Palestinian protests on campus late in the spring semester.
Authorities shut down an encampment on the main quad, and Roberts personally led the group that put the U.S. flag back on the quad’s flagpole after it protestors had replaced with a Palestinian flag.
