UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts apologizes to faculty over handling of area study centers
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Chancellor Lee Roberts apologized for messaging and process around area study cuts.
- UNC faculty leaders said closure decisions breached shared governance.
- Federal funding levels should relieve some university researchers.
Hello readers! Jane Winik Sartwell here, coming back at you with another roundup of the Triangle’s higher education news.
I’ve got a lot in store for you today, from updates on UNC’s doomed area study centers to an Amazon reward points fiasco to some Jeffrey Epstein-related drama. But first, let’s see where each campus is landing on winter weather closure decisions.
Winter weather closures on campus
- UNC Chapel Hill: UNC will resume classes and normal operations at noon today.
- Duke: Duke will hold classes as previously scheduled today.
- NC State: NC State will resume classes and normal operations at 10 a.m. today.
- NC Central: NC Central classes will be held virtually today.
Ever wonder why basketball games go on even while campuses are closed? I wrote about why.
UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts apologizes to faculty
Last Friday, I went to Chapel Hill to sit in on the UNC Faculty Council, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary. Chancellor Lee Roberts stopped by to address the group.
When discussing the area study centers, Roberts took a distinctly apologetic tone. Importantly, though, Roberts’ regret was relegated to the messaging and fallout, not the actual cuts themselves.
“About the area study centers in particular, the whole process obviously left a lot to be desired in all kinds of ways,” he said.
Faculty expressed that the unilateral move to cut the centers without faculty input amounted to a breach of the principle of “shared governance,” which ensures faculty a voice in the management of the university.
“There wasn’t only not a serious process of faculty consultation, there was no faculty consultation process,” said Graeme Robertson, director of the Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies, which is one of the centers slated to be cut.
“There wasn’t even a sham process,” Robertson said.
The news of the area study center’s imminent closure leaked before leadership had a chance to get out in front of the messaging, interim provost James Dean explained. Then, last week, leadership ran into another timing snafu. Last Monday, the Faculty Executive Committee announced they’d be presenting a resolution in support of the area study centers. Days later, Chapel Hill leadership sent out a letter confirming the area study centers will close, without acknowledging the resolution. For the Faculty Council, that kind of felt like a slap in the face.
“That memo that came out from Dean [Jim] White, the dean of the college, therefore, could have been seen — and I’m sure by many of you, was seen as — in some sense, thumbing our nose at shared governance, at faculty governance,” Chancellor Roberts said.
“I’m sorry that it played out that way. ... We have not been doing as good a job as we need to be.”
He then left while faculty chair Beth Moracco presented the resolution in support of the centers, so ... the mixed messaging continues.
The chancellor also addressed the question of how it’s possible for the university to be actively committing millions of dollars to projects like Carolina North while simultaneously hunting for millions of dollars in cuts to administrative and academic programs:
“My response to that is two-fold. One is that our funds are not fungible across categories. ... We can’t take money from, say, the football program and allocate it to the study centers, anymore than we could take a federal grant or philanthropic gift for the area study centers and devote it to the football program.
“More importantly, I really just reject the idea that if we’re spending money somewhere, we have to be spending money everywhere. We don’t have a giant switch in the basement of South Building that says: spend more, spend less. We have an enormously complex institution, and as the world changes around us, we are always going to be increasing our spending in some areas and reducing our spending in others.”
Federal research funding update
As I’m writing this on Monday afternoon, the government is partially shut down over Department of Homeland Security funding. But the six spending bills that Congress was able to pass included some slightly-better-than-expected news for university research funding. Here are the key points:
- NIH: Though Trump proposed a 40% cut to the National Institute of Health, legislators actually increased funding for the program by $415 million, or 0.9%. It also rejects the plan to fund grants in one lump sum, preserving the multi-year architecture of most grants.
- NSF: Funding for the National Science Foundation came in at $8.8 billion, which is a decrease from last year’s $9 billion. Still, that’s a win for the program, considering Trump’s proposed budget provided just $3.6 billion.
- ARPA-H: The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health’s funding was held flat at $1.5 billion. Again, though, if legislators had adhered to Trump’s proposals, the program only would’ve received $945 million.
The bills also reject Trump’s plan to reduce Pell Grants and holds the maximum grant at $7,395.
Reward points fraud — a scandal, or no?
A public record I requested from UNC last week posed an interesting little ethics dilemma. It’s an investigative audit into Misuse of Gift Cards in Clinical Research at UNC-Chapel Hill. Here’s what happened:
To reward people for participating in research studies, the university gives out Amazon gift cards to participants, usually valued between $10 and $50. Last year, one staff person took out $104,186 in cash advances to buy these cards for research subjects. As a result, she accrued $1,183.29 in Amazon reward points on her personal account, which she then used to buy things for herself. Does that amount to stealing from the university?
The university has no policy for reward points earned this way, and no substantial evidence of improper activity was found in the audit. After all, it’s not as if she could’ve cashed out on the rewards points and mailed a check to UNC.
But the audit points out that the university does have a policy governing frequent flyer miles, which states that “frequent flyer miles earned by a State Employee while traveling on State business at State expense are the property of the State.” The audit recommends that university leadership evaluate whether a similar policy should apply to reward points.
I’m from Baltimore, where our former mayor was forced to resign as a result of her own gift card fraud, so, as a former Baltimorean, anytime gift card misuse is mentioned, my ears perk up. But what do you think? Is it stealing?
Epstein files hit higher ed
With 3,000 new pages of Epstein files to comb through, the halls of power in higher education aren’t safe.
Duke professor Dan Ariely’s name is all over the newly released Epstein files, N&O reporter Josh Shaffer writes.
I was struck by the irony of this tidbit about Ariely’s research from The Duke Chronicle’s report: “At Duke, Ariely has received criticism since 2010 that his studies lack reliability and reproducibility. Ariely faced allegations for falsifying data in a 2012 paper about methods to discourage dishonesty.”
Plus, the US-Ireland Alliance announced that it is renaming its George L. Mitchell Scholarship after the former Senate majority leader’s name was found in the Epstein files. The international scholarship has sent a number of NC graduate students to Ireland for one year of study.
The president of my alma mater, Bard College, is, to my dismay, also in the files. President Leon Botstein had frequent email correspondence with Epstein. In 2016, Botstein told Epstein that his support “has never made [Botstein] feel awkward,” and that he misses him. That’s eight years after Epstein was first convicted of acquiring a child below the age of 18 for prostitution.
Headlines you don’t want to miss
- Eleven cancer-stricken former Poe Hall occupants sue NC State by me
- They’re loyal ‘Wolfpack Nation’ members. Why they sued NC State over their cancer by Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi
- More lawsuits to be filed against NC State over toxic chemicals, attorneys say by Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi
- 31 former NC State athletes join lawsuit alleging sexual harassment by trainer by Virginia Bridges
- UNC System budget strategy combines hundreds of job cuts with tuition increases by me
- UNC System defining academic freedom. Some faculty see ‘footholds for mischief’ by me
- What we know about UNC’s Carolina North live-work-learn campus, Smith Center by Tammy Grubb and Shelby Swanson
- How Chapel Hill is changing rules to streamline development, build more housing by Tammy Grubb
- UNC’s Caleb Wilson returns to Atlanta bigger and better in record-setting show by Shelby Swanson
- How summer prep, small changes lifted NC State basketball past Wake Forest by Jadyn Watson-Fisher
What I’m reading
- UNC System policy draft would cut free legal aid for students, limit funds for student organizations by Aidan Lockhart at The Daily Tar Heel
- Nayan Bala, Devin Duncan, Khizra Ahmad certified as 2026 Student Body President candidates by Regan Butler at The Daily Tar Heel
- Former professor Stephen Buckley had ‘romantic and/or sexual relationship’ with undergrad, per Duke report by Ana Despa at The Duke Chronicle
Thank you for sticking with me. I’m curious: what Triangle higher ed questions do you have? Let me know if there’s anything that’s been on your mind. My inbox is always open.
– Jane Winik Sartwell
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This story was originally published February 2, 2026 at 6:20 PM.
