Do chancellors have to live on campus? UNC System moves toward changing the rules
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- UNC System committee considers housing stipends in place of official residences.
- Proposed policy lets the president determine stipends after consultation.
- Full Board of Governors will vote on the amended residence policy in May 2026.
The UNC System could soon waive the requirement that each school’s chancellor must live in the official residence provided by their university.
On Wednesday, a Board of Governors committee approved an amendment to system policy that would allow for a housing stipend instead. Any such “alternative arrangement,” however, would need the approval of the board’s Committee on University Personnel.
“There may be circumstances where it is in the University’s best interest to provide a housing stipend in lieu of a residence,” the agenda item reads. “This could occur when doing so is more financially advantageous, when residence facilities face occupancy or end-of-life challenges, or when alternative arrangements better support the hosting, fundraising, and access functions typically associated with a chancellor’s residence.”
For example, UNC-Chapel Hill chancellor Lee Roberts lives in a house in Chapel Hill called Quail Hill. “As you all know, I live in university housing, and so I’ve been here in the thick of it,” Roberts told the university’s Employee Forum about this winter’s snowstorms.
In Raleigh this winter, a homeless woman broke into and took a nap in NC State chancellor Kevin Howell’s $3.5 million Raleigh residence.
System policy currently requires that chancellors live in their official residences, except if doing so would present “a serious hardship” — the seriousness of which would have to be evaluated by the Board of Governors — or if the house is undergoing repairs or renovations. The system’s chief operating officer, Michael Vollmer, described the existing policy as “so prescriptive” that “there’s not really an allowance for meaningful variance” in the case of “maintenance needs, location, [and] family situations of the chancellors.”
“Currently there are no burning platforms requiring us to make this change,” Vollmer told the committee Wednesday. “... I know houses are central and integral to many of our institutions. This is not something that we would expect to be widespread or frequent.”
Vollmer characterized the potential policy change as a “financial decision:” providing a stipend would often be cheaper than procuring a new residence if the official residence was temporarily uninhabitable, Vollmer pointed out.
“We’ve had a number of times over the past 20 years where we’ve had to do substantial renovation to a chancellor’s residence, or take a residence offline for one, two plus years,” Vollmer said. “The current policy essentially only allows the university to go out and find another house for the chancellor to live.”
UNC System President Peter Hans, who was present for the discussion Wednesday and is subject to the housing policy himself, lives in his official residence in Chapel Hill on East Franklin Street, according to system spokesperson Jane Stancill.
In May, the amended policy will go before the full board for a vote, which is expected to take place as part of the board’s consent agenda without a separate discussion.
This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 12:39 PM.
