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Kane said there is "a built-in assumption that poverty is worsening in America when the opposite -- a true growth miracle -- is the story of the last half century in the U.S."

George Leef, an executive with a conservative think tank in Raleigh, said the center seemed mostly interested in pursing "union approved policies."

He said the center should cast a wider net for scholarly input.

"It seems to me that the poverty center was exclusively interested in discussing well-known liberal ideas about poverty that have been thoroughly demolished time and time again as unworkable and as counterproductive, such as raising the minimum wage," said Leef, vice president for research at the John Williams Pope Center for Higher Education.

Walker Blakey, who regards himself as the conservative maverick in the law school faculty, gives the center high marks.

"I have heard nothing negative," Blakey said. "We have good people working with the center. I've read the annual reports. It appears to me they are doing a good job. You're talking about a huge problem. No one is going to reverse poverty in a few years."

Money

Edwards' job at the center, which has three employees, was billed as part-time. Edwards has spent much of the past two years traveling as he laid the groundwork for his presidential bid -- stumping in 39 states for local candidates, pushing for a minimum wage increase in six states, editing a book on childhood homes, and meeting with foreign leaders in such counties as Israel, China and India.

Edwards, a multimillionaire, was paid $40,000 per year as director, which UNC officials said came from investment returns on private funds.

The center did not pay Edwards' travel costs.

The center's major donation was $2 million from a Chapel Hill couple, Michael Cucchiara and Marty Hayes, who until recently owned an irrigation equipment company, and who are behind the Greenbridge condominium and office development in downtown Chapel Hill.

Cucchiara and Hayes, who have given $20,000 to Edwards or related political committees since 2004, said they became involved, in part, at Edwards urging. Cucchiara said he and his wife were looking for ways to become engaged in the community. He said he had long been interested in poverty and the lack of affordable housing.

The $2 million endowment will generate $100,000 annually to cover staffing costs, according to the center's annual report.

Overall, the center has received $3.3 million in private contributions or pledges since it was created, including $500,000 for a Boyd Tinsley endowed professorship -- named after a member of the Dave Matthews Band. The center also received contributions of more than $10,000 each from trial attorneys such as Douglas and Margaret Abrams, Wade Byrd and David Kirby, from AIG International, an insurance company, and Chapel Hill real estate executive Timothy Toben.

Boger, the law school dean, said he hoped some of the ideas generated by the center will become government policies and laws, and that leaders will regard UNC-CH as a home for critical thinking about poverty.

"I have heard some people say he [Edwards] is using this," Boger said. "He had people willing to give $2 million. Instead of using it for a campaign, he leaves it on the campus and walks away. That is generous. I think we got a great deal more than we gave."

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