Did politics keep UNC BOG from reappointing outspoken professor to UNC Press Board?
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The UNC System Board of Governors did not reappoint a distinguished law professor to the University of North Carolina Press Board of Governors last month — a move that some say is politically motivated.
UNC-Chapel Hill law professor Eric Muller said he hasn’t been told why he’s been singled out, but “would hate to think” it’s because he’s been outspoken about matters of law, race and history within the UNC System and at UNC-Chapel Hill. Muller made his comments in a public statement Monday.
Those controversial issues include “the law on removal of Confederate monuments, the abortive $2.5 million legal settlement with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the moratorium on renaming UNC buildings, or the removal of the portrait of slave-trading judge Thomas Ruffin from the courtroom of our state’s highest court,” Muller said.
“I would hate to think it had something to do with my focusing public attention on ways in which the law has ignored and harmed the interests of African Americans — and still does,” Muller said.
Muller said these matters are within his “expertise as a legal scholar and historian, the very stuff of the work I do as a university professor.”
UNC Press is a premier academic publishing organization whose mission is to advance “the research, teaching, and public service missions of a great public university by publishing excellent work from leading scholars, writers, and intellectuals and by presenting that work to both academic audiences and general readers.”
Why Muller hasn’t been reappointed
In May, the UNC Press Board had three vacancies for five-year terms to be filled by the UNC System Board of Governors. UNC Press and UNC-CH Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz recommended three current members for reappointment — Muller, Elizabeth Engelhardt and Linda Hanley-Bowdoin. That recommendation went to UNC System President Peter Hans to be forwarded to the full system board.
But at some point, Muller’s name was dropped. It was unclear whether Hans did not forward Muller’s name, whether the head of the BOG Governance committee, David Powers, took it off or whether the committee itself decided not to act on Muller’s nomination.
UNC System and UNC-Chapel Hill officials would not directly answer questions about that Monday. Officials also would not answer questions about why Muller was not reappointed.
NC Policy Watch reported Monday that sources say the UNC System Board of Governors’ refusal to reappoint Muller is because of his “public statements on the legality of the UNC System’s controversial handling of the Silent Sam Confederate monument” and UNC-CH’s mishandling of issues of race and history. The UNC System’s settlement with the Sons of Confederate Veterans was later overturned in court.
In response to questions about why Muller was not reappointed, UNC System officials sent email correspondence between UNC Press Board of Governors Vice Chair Lisa Levenstein and Andrew Tripp, UNC System senior vice president and general counsel.
The UNC Press Board unanimously voted for Muller to continue in his position as chair, but his name was dropped from the list, according to Levenstein. She wrote to system leaders on June 3 asking why Muller’s name was dropped and asked that he be considered at the next meeting.
Tripp replied to Levenstein on June 10 saying the UNC Board of Governors itself chooses how best to proceed with the nominations forwarded by Hans. In this case, the UNC System BOG “acted on two of the pending nominations at its May meeting but has not yet reached the third,” he said.
The Office of the President is “not able to speculate as to whether or why the UNC Board of Governors chooses to act on a particular group of nominations,” Tripp said.
An ‘ominous sign’
Muller has served on UNC Press’s governing board for more than a decade and served as its chair for the past six years. He said he was surprised and disappointed that the UNC System board would not be acting on his reappointment, while two colleagues were reappointed to the board.
In his statement, Muller noted he’s proud of the improved diversity on the UNC Press Board that was achieved during his time as chair. He said it now has “the greatest racial, ethnic, and gender representation it has ever known” and includes members from previously unrepresented UNC System schools.
In her letter, Levenstein said his chairmanship has been “marked by outstanding leadership and an unprecedented track record of success at the Press.”
Muller said it would be an “ominous sign” if the BOG were to “single out faculty members for punishment for voicing their views on matters within their expertise and research.”
He doesn’t know if they did that, Muller said, but they never asked about his service on the Press Board or leadership as chair.
“So it’s hard to imagine a different reason,” Muller said.
The UNC System Board of Governors has not elected to fill that third open position yet, but its next meetings are July 21-22.
This story was originally published June 21, 2021 at 3:45 PM.
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