Jesse L. White Jr.: Track record

I write in praise of your May 24 editorial “Change agent” on the search for a new UNC president. Your best two words: “good grief.”

The May 21 news article “UNC search panel debates how to identify next leader,” upon which the editorial was based, revealed an appalling ignorance of UNC’s great history on the part of the current board. An adviser comes in and calls on the board to think outside the box, to go for someone nontraditional and to find someone of excellence, as though we had not done that in the past.

The truth is that UNC flowered into one of the greatest public university systems under nontraditional academic leaders who were superb. Bill Friday was a lawyer. C.D. Spangler is a businessman. Erskine Bowles is a businessman and statesman. Tom Ross is a lawyer and former judge. Only Molly Broad had had actual university bona fides.

My conclusion: Keep on doing what we have the past.

This story was originally published June 1, 2015 at 5:27 PM with the headline "Jesse L. White Jr.: Track record."