The UNC system will pay a Dallas-based consultant $100,000 to assist in the search for the next university president.

The system has hired R. William Funk & Associates, a firm whose name may ring a bell. Funk ran the search at UNC-Chapel Hill that resulted in the hiring of current Chancellor Holden Thorp, and he was involved in a recent provost search there as well.

Funk has led searches for leaders at dozens of large universities and university systems, including a recent search at Virginia.

Funk's flat fee contract runs from April 23 to Dec. 31 or until the next leader is chosen. The $100,000 fee was the most the UNC system was willing to spend, said Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the UNC system's Board of Governors.

State funds will not be used.

Gage said Funk was a good candidate in part due to his prior work in North Carolina.

"He understands North Carolina and has worked closely on searches for our system," Gage said. "He has a sense of the governance structure and how we work with the legislature."

A UNC system committee interviewed five firms before settling on Funk, who pledged not to work for any other university system while he was under UNC's employ, Gage said.

UNC system officials want the power this year to institute furloughs across the public university system.

UNC system President Erskine Bowles and others say the measure would be preferable to the more than 1,000 layoffs that would be necessary if the spending plan Perdue proposed last week was adopted.

Perdue called for a 4 percent cut to the UNC system's budget, which would be added to a 2 percent cut included in the 2-year budget approved last year.

Taken together, those cuts would force the elimination of about 1,200 jobs across the system, half of which would be faculty, Bowles has said.

Instituting furloughs would spread the pain but might save jobs, officials argue.

"The thought of the damage 1,200 fewer faculty and staff will permanently do to our university and the quality of education we offer our students makes me sick," Bowles wrote in a recent e-mail to Andy Willis, Perdue's senior advisor for governmental affairs. "I know it does our governor too."

University officials have said for weeks already that the loss of the more than 900 jobs eliminated during last year's budget-cut process was nearly crippling, and campuses can't do much more. 

The university system must be formally granted the authority to institute furloughs.

"Furloughing would be the absolute last option and only if we felt the cuts would be so big its the only alternative to laying people off," said Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the UNC system's Board of Governors. 

Last year, North Carolina imposed a 10-hour furlough on all state workers.

Faculty and staff leaders within the university system have already signed off on the furloughs as an acceptable alternative, officials say.

"There's nothing worse than losing a colleague," said McKay Coble, chair of the faculty council at UNC-Chapel Hill. "If furlough is the way to go, I'd much rather do that."

State Sen. Richard Stevens, R-Wake, co-chairman of the appropriations committee on education, said the university should have the authority in case it needs to use it.

"I hope it doesn't come to that," Stevens said. "But I think it's good for the university system to have all the tools it needs. 

The folks looking for a replacement for UNC system President Erskine Bowles need some help.

Got a potential candidate? Like maybe one of these guys?

Thanks to tight budgets, university officials won't travel the state this year soliciting input from the citizenry - as they've done in the past.

But Hannah Gage, in an open letter, asks for your help anyhow. 

She writes:

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CITIZENS OF NORTH CAROLINA:

University of North Carolina system President Erskine Bowles is stepping down at the end of 2010 after five years of dedicated and innovative leadership, and the UNC Board of Governors is deeply grateful for his service to the University and to the citizens of North Carolina.  Our task now is to identify the next leader of our 17-campus system. 

As we go about this critically important work, we need and want your input.  Feedback from citizens across the state will be invaluable as we search for the right leader for our public university system, which today enrolls more than 220,000 students.

In 1795, the University of North Carolina became the first public university in America to open its doors to students.  For more than two centuries, through good times and bad, the people of this state have built and sustained the University and made our system one of the very best in the country.  

More than ever before, North Carolina’s economic future will depend on the teaching, research, and public service our UNC campuses provide, so the importance of this search cannot be overstated.

 All of us involved in the search process share a deep love of the University and a strong commitment to finding a dynamic leader with the proven capacity and vision to further the mission of UNC and its service to the state.  Please let us know what you think.  I encourage you to offer feedback via a simple form found on the search website at www.northcarolina.edu/2010presidentialsearch. You may also respond by email to unc-presidential-search@northcarolina.edu.  We welcome and need your input.

Hannah Gage
Chair, UNC Board of Governors
 

UNC President Erskine Bowles is doing his other job today, up in Washington D.C.

As our Under the Dome blog reports, Bowles took part in a Rose Garden press conference at the White House and is working on the federal budget deficit issue President Obama enlisted him to help with.

On Sunday we reported about the lack of transparency regarding the 2007 hire of Brock Winslow as the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics' vice chancellor for development. Search committee notes and a comparison of resumes have raised questions whether Winslow won the job over someone with more experience because of his insider status.

Click below to read what a search committee noted after interviewing Winslow and the other finalist, Perna Carter, a Voorhees College vice president.

Gov. Beverly Perdue's proposed budget would mandate cuts far larger than what UNC system officials say they can handle.

Perdue calls for a 4 percent budget cut on top of the 2 percent reduction already mandated by the General Assembly in its 2010-11 budget already approved.

That could result in the elimination of 1,200 positions across the UNC system, half of which will be from the faculty ranks, UNC President Erskine Bowles said Tuesday in a written statement.

"The inevitable result would be further increases in class size and fewer course offerings, the elimination and reduction of student support programs, and the elimination of critical administrative positions tied to academic and financial integrity," Bowles said.

Last year, 935 positions were eliminated as the university cut $162.5 million in spending for the current year.

"We were hoping for a smaller cut because we feel we've given more than our share in the previous [year's] budget," said Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the UNC system's Board of Governors. "But this is just the start of the process. We'll be over there working hard to convince the legislature our needs are legitimate and there is no excess."

When eliminating faculty positions, campuses will have to weigh the value of non-tenure track professors and instructors, many of whom teach the introductory courses that serve large numbers of students, said Judith Wegner, chairwoman of the UNC system's faculty assembly.

"If the campuses end up reducing those positions, the students will really be feeling it," said Wegner, a law professor at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Perdue's budget does include funding for enrollment growth and need-based financial aid, two of the UNC system's other top priorities.

And Perdue also wants to scrap a law crafted a year ago directing tuition revenues to the state's general fund.

The UNC system and its campuses protested the move a year ago, saying it crippled campuses to whom the revenue traditionally has gone. The system has lobbied hard for the change, and Perdue apparently has been swayed.

Under Perdue's recommendation, tuition revenues would return to the campuses.

Here's Bowles' entire statement, released today.

As our state struggles to work its way out of this deep economic recession, affordable access to higher education has never been more important to North Carolina’s economic future. We are therefore grateful that Governor Perdue has recommended full funding for our projected University enrollment growth and need-based financial aid for next year. We are also pleased that the Governor has supported the Board of Governors’ alternative to legislatively mandated tuition increases for 2010-11.

The alternative plan places less of a burden on in-state students, and the funds generated by the tuition increases would stay on the campuses to provide more need-based financial aid, help improve retention and graduation rates, and meet other critical campus needs.

On the other hand, we are deeply disappointed in the magnitude of budget cuts that the Governor was forced by economic circumstances to recommend for the University, particularly since we have cut more than our fair share throughout this budget crisis. Over the past four years, we’ve made difficult changes to make sure that we are using every State dollar as efficiently as possible.

In the current fiscal year, the University took permanent budget cuts totaling $162.5 million, including the elimination of 935 positions. In order to protect our Academic Core, nine out of every ten positions we eliminated were administrative jobs. In fact, we permanently reduced our administrative budgets by 18% in a single year. In addition to those cuts made by the General Assembly, the holdbacks imposed on the University by the Governor in the current year have been substantial.

Even though we account for only 13% of the State’s appropriations, the University has absorbed 29% of the budget reversions imposed across all of state government, bringing the total cuts to our budgets this year to almost $300 million.

The General Assembly’s budget for 2010-11 already reduces University budgets by another 2%, and our campuses have been working to identify additional operational efficiencies. But let me be clear: the University cannot continue to bear such a disproportionate share of the budget shortfalls and maintain its academic quality.

The additional budget cuts that the Governor is reluctantly recommending due to economic conditions—new reductions in excess of $100 million—will erode the Academic Core of the University. Seven of every ten dollars appropriated to the University goes straight to the Academic Core, and it is simply impossible to absorb further budget cuts without dramatically affecting the quality of the academic experience for our students. Nearly 1,200 additional positions would have to be eliminated, and nearly half of them would be faculty positions.

The inevitable result would be further increases in class size and fewer course offerings, the elimination and reduction of student support programs, and the elimination of critical administrative positions tied to academic and financial integrity.

While it takes generations to build a great university, it can erode dramatically and quickly if not properly sustained. The budget reductions reluctantly recommended by the Governor will do permanent and substantial damage to the university’s Academic Core and will start us on a path to mediocrity, something North Carolinians have never been willing to settle for in their institutions of higher learning.

A year after the UNC system eliminated about 900 positions across the state, President Erskine Bowles is warning of an even more severe series of cuts this year.

If the UNC system is asked to cut another 5 percent from its budget this year, about 1,000 jobs will be lost, and half of them will be faculty members, Bowles told members of the UNC system's Board of Governors Friday.

But the UNC system isn't being asked to make that cut. The current expectation is a 2 percent cut, which would amount to $52 million across the system. 

The larger number comes from the  Office of State Budget and Management, which weeks ago asked state agencies to prepare 5 percent cut scenarios - a common exercise in tight economic times. The eventual number could be higher, or lower.

But after eliminating 935 positions last year, most of which were administrative, on orders to reduce $294 million in spending, Bowles said Friday he believes the UNC system has done its part.

The UNC system could handle another 2 percent cut, as is expected. Any more, Bowles said, would be disastrous.

"It will do substantial and sustainable damage to the quality of education we can offer," he said. "There's a lot for us to be concerned about."

Bowles and other UNC system leaders protected the academic side in large part last year by focusing almost exclusively on administrative positions, gutting middle management and reducing or eliminating more than 100 centers and institutes. 

Cutting faculty is another matter. 

At N.C. State, officials have tried to grow the faculty in response to a continuing surge in enrollement, said Randy Woodson, who is in his first week as NCSU's new chancellor. 

"It's the wrong direction," he said of faculty cuts. "You make career investments in faculty, so decreasing the size is a very difficult thing."

UNC system President Erskine Bowles has decided not to recommend a new pharmacy school at UNC-Greensboro.

The news shocked the folks at UNCG, which has put on a big push for the school, saying it would provide a big spark to the local economy.

The Greensboro News & Record reports.

It would have been the second public university pharmacy school in the state, joining the one at UNC-Chapel Hill. Officials there had worried that a new pharmacy school would have made it too difficult to find training sites for a larger number of students.

Bowles is recommending that UNC-CH go forward with a distance education satellite pharmacy expansion linking with UNC-Asheville.

That plan has a far lower cost associated with it and will be patterned after an existing satellite program UNC-CH runs with Elizabeth City State University.

Wondering why Erskine Bowles signed on as co-chair of a new federal panel tasked with making sense of the federal budget deficit?

To simplify things a bit it has something to do with the fact that when the president calls, you answer.

At least, that was one of the reasons Bowles gave when he wrote to members of the UNC system's Board of Governors last week to tell them the news. I've posted his letter here so you can read it yourself.

Also - I asked Bowles last week about the time he'll spend on this task in this, his final year as the president of the UNC system.

He told me, in part : "I'm going to get my job done here. That's my commitment 100 percent. I'm not going to allow this to infringe on it. But at the same time - there's good argument this is part of my job. Public service is part of our three-part mission, to do things for the state and nation. President Friday certainly did. President Frank Porter Graham certainly did. I'm going to make sure I do a good job on both of these. I'm going to finish strong. I have a significant capacity to work and I believe I can do it. Do I think I'll have a lot of free time? No. "

 And on a side note: Jay Schalin with the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy - a conservative thinktank in Raleigh, has penned a long appreciation of Bowles, a Democrat. Gasp!

Here's Bowles' letter to the Board of Governors.

Erskine Bowles loves working. Good thing, too. He's got more on his plate now.

Bowles was officially introduced this morning as one of two co-chairs, with former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson, of a commission formed to try to balance the federal budget.

Bowles spoke briefly with the N&O today and said he could handle the new gig even while running the university system.

For more, check out our Under the Dome blog.