Education

An Army program may move from Duke to UNC. An NC lawmaker is concerned

By Jane Winik Sartwell

March 31, 2026 5:00 AM

AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.

Army is considering reclassifying Bull City Battalion and moving it to UNC.
Duke Health welcomes new CEO David Zaas.
UNC AI vice provost Jeff Bardzell resigns after five months.

Hello Higher Stakes subscribers! I’m Jane Winik Sartwell, back with your higher education newsletter. Let’s get into it.

Foushee concerned over relocation of ROTC program from Duke to UNC

Ever heard of Bull City Battalion? It’s an ROTC program that trains cadets from Duke and NC Central universities. But now, the Army is considering reclassifying the program — and moving it to UNC-Chapel Hill.

Rep. Valerie Foushee, who represents Durham, Chapel Hill and other Triangle communities in Congress, has been outspoken in her opposition to this plan for months. If the change were to happen, Duke would lose its professor of military science position and some civilian staff positions, she said.

“This change will dilute program cohesion, reduce recruiting capacity in the region, and complicate coordination between Duke and North Carolina Central University (NCCU) — two institutions whose success has depended on close collaboration and proximity,” she wrote in a letter to Army Brig. Gen. Maurice Barnett in November.

“For NCCU cadets, the new structure doubles travel time and distance to the host institution, creating clear logistical and financial burdens. Many cadets come from modest backgrounds and rely on accessible instruction and campus-based support. The loss of local administrative and instructional presence risks diminished participation, higher attrition, and a smaller pool of future officers from one of the Army’s most effective and diverse commissioning pipelines.”

She received a response from the Army that illuminated some fiscal and personnel pressures that may have informed the reclassification of the battalion. But she isn’t satisfied.

Foushee recently wrote to demand more answers from the Army. She asked for:

“The cost and funding analysis supporting the reclassification, including alternatives considered.
Any assessment conducted regarding retention, attrition, or training impacts on affected cadets.
The safeguards or mitigation measures that will be implemented to preserve program quality during the transition.”

Duke Health gets a new leader

Duke Health has named David Zaas as its new CEO. Just four months ago, he was promoted to CEO of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist. But he spent nearly 20 years at Duke Health between 2001 and 2020.

“Duke is where I trained, where I spent nearly two decades growing as a physician and leader, and where I experienced academic medicine at its best,” Zaas wrote in a LinkedIn post. “That foundation has shaped how I think about caring for patients, supporting teams, and leading health systems. ... I am excited to be coming home! It’s a privilege to come back to a place that means so much to me.”

Zaas will lead Duke Health in an “accelerated growth phase,” according to the health system’s website. That phase is marked by expansions to Duke Health Cary, the acquisition of Duke Health Lake Norman Hospital, and Duke’s agreement with UNC to build a 500-bed children’s hospital in Apex.

A new and improved Duke Gardens will open to the public soon

On April 8, visitors will be able to see the results of Duke’s $30 million Garden Gateway project. It’s a major redesign of the Sarah P. Duke Gardens, which is famous for its blossoming cherry trees.

The renovations, which have taken more than a year, include a new welcome center and front entrance. The welcome center will have a café, gallery space, classrooms, and expanded indoor and outdoor gathering areas. The school equipped the Doris Duke Center to be able to better handle weddings.

Visitors can park in limited spots in the gardens lot, and additional weekend parking will be available in Duke University’s Campus Drive lot, which is now directly connected to the gardens.

Bye-bye to UNC’s vice provost for AI

It’s a critical time for universities to figure out how and why they want to use artificial intelligence in education. At UNC-Chapel Hill, a key leader in that effort has resigned. The school’s vice provost for AI, Jeff Bardzell, left to take a job as the dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He served as the AI czar for just five months.

“One way or another, this university needs to act coherently on AI in the curriculum,” Bardzell said in a recent presentation to UNC’s faculty executive committee. “This cannot wait five years.”

His departure also comes as UNC merges its School of Data Science and Society and the School of Information and Library Science (of which Bardzell was dean before the AI provost promotion) to form the new School of Data and Information Sciences.

“He had a really compelling offer,” Chancellor Lee Roberts told the Faculty Council on March 27. “We’re trying to fill that position .... [I’m] open to any suggestions or nominations. That’s a role that I know the provost is trying to fill quickly. It’s obviously important for us, and as we’ve discussed before, I think the instructional piece is the most crucial element of that role. So really hoping to get somebody into that role who has experience with and thoughts about that component.”