A UNC Chapel Hill professor is making the case for Erskine Bowles.

Walter C. Farrell, Jr., a social work professor at UNC-CH, writes in the Fayetteville Observer this  weekend that Bowles, the UNC system president, has deftly handled all manner of challenge during his tenure as the head of the public university system.

Farrell, who is researching higher education leadership, writes that Bowles has dealt well with a long series of challenges during his time in the university's top job. From a series of financial and leadership problems at N.C. A & T University, to the discovery of an unsanctioned campus run by N.C. Central University, to the still-ongoing saga related to N.C. State's former chancellor, James Oblinger, and his role in the hiring of former First Lady Mike Easley - Bowles has had his hands full.

And Farrell says he's done a good job.

He writes in part:

The UNC system has been fortunate to have effective leaders during critical stages of its development: William Friday at its founding, during the volatile phase of campus desegregation, and the merger of historically black public colleges into the UNC structure; and Erskine Bowles in this era of economic uncertainty and management malfunction on UNC campuses. Both were and are the right leaders for their times.

Here's the entire column.

I reported yesterday on a lawsuit filed by T. J. Bryan, the former chancellor at Fayetteville State University suing the UNC system for gender and racial discrimination.

This morning, a Fayetteville Observer columnist contends that, in filing her lawsuit, Bryan has essentially set fire to her professional connections.

Here's how Myron Pitts starts his column:

"Rarely have I seen someone burn bridges as thoroughly as T.J. Bryan, former chancellor of Fayetteville State University.

Usually when people take a torch to their personal or professional connections, they are either totally in the right or completely reckless. Perhaps time will tell.

To read the entire column, click here.

The former chancellor at Fayetteville State University is claiming she was discriminated against by the UNC system on the basis of her race and gender.

T.J. Bryan, FSU's chancellor from 2003 to 2007, alleges in a complaint filed Feb. 5 she was wrongfully terminated; she was the sole female, black chancellor at the time, a distinction she claims helped lead to her termination, according to this Fayetteville Observer report.

Bryan was hired by now-former UNC system President Molly Broad but left the position after current chief Erskine Bowles took over. She claims she was forced out, according to the news report. She gave her resignation as audits revealed widespread financial mismanagement at the university.

Since January, Bryan has been teaching online courses at FSU from her home in Maryland.

Her lawsuit asks for a jury trial and at least $20,000 in damages.