Seems the GOP intends to dismember UNC

[struggle4progress]

The Board of Governors has chosen Margaret Spellings as President of the UNC system

Her qualifications include a BA in political science, a short stint teaching at a community college, the fact that she ran W's first gubernatorial campaign, and her time directing the Bush Library at SMU

[DURHAM D]

1. I hope you are kidding.

Art make this choice?

[struggle4progress]

2. No joke

[DURHAM D]

4. That is just sad. nt

[hifiguy]

3. Look at what Snotty Scotty did to UW.

The great public universities are next on the reichwing chopping block.

[HereSince1628]

7. Scotty seems to be getting plenty of help from Robin Vos

I haven't figured out what happened to Vos to make him so bitter toward the UW, but he sure is.

[NRaleighLiberal]

5. rather stunning news, that.

[Rex]

6. Education is a dangerous thing, might have a few learn critical thinking skills.

Best just to let the Idiot Box teach people what is important. Or the Internets. Since when does the GOP give a shit about education? This side of never.

[Warpy]

8. I hope you're able to overcome the influence of all those pompadoured preachers next year

and kick all those right wing bastards to the curb and then send her after them.

I fled NC almost 50 years ago but still, seeing it become a right wing laboratory has been disheartening. I still have a few friends there and I'm afraid for them. Brains are a libility in Reich Wing Heaven.

[mnhtnbb]

9. Her "qualifications" are worse than only the above

Spellings' ties to Bush and his political strategist, Karl Rove, date back over a quarter-century, when she was a lobbyist for the Texas school boards association and Bush was considering a run for governor.

Spellings followed Bush to the White House, where she worked as domestic policy adviser before becoming education secretary in the president's second term.

But the REALLY sleazy qualifications?

Since leaving Washington, Spellings has served on corporate boards for Apollo Education Group, the parent company of the for-profit University of Phoenix; ClubCorp, which owns and manages golf and sports clubs; and student-loan collector Ceannate Corp.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/margaret-spellings-unc-president_562a622fe4b0ec0a38944016

[struggle4progress]

11. If I understand rightly, she's already out yammering about the role "for profit" higher-ed can play

[mnhtnbb]

12. I live in Chapel Hill and have friends/neighbors who are closely connected to UNC.

I happen to be at the beach now--until next weekend--so I haven't been in touch with
too many people. I can just imagine that most of the faculty and staff on campus are
apoplectic over this appointment. Chapel Hill is among the bluest of the few blue
areas in NC, and the University itself always ranks very highly as among the best public
universities in the country. There is no way in hell the faculty will sit back and accept
this Bush/Rovian mediocrity as President of the University. And the only way to stop
her from destroying the University--since the Board of Governors gave her a five year contract--is going to
require throwing out the Republicans in the NC Legislature and changing the political composition of
the Board of Governors for the University. That will take time--IF the outcome
of the election in 2016 is favorable.

What a disaster. Just an unmitigated disaster. I'm furious.

[struggle4progress]

13. We're both furious, friend

Voting is very important, but the gerrymandering after 2010 means we need overwhelming majorities before we win by ballot: a slim majority in NC already actually vote D, but due to the gerrymandering a slim D majority produces overwhelming R dominance of the General Assembly

Voting is critical but much more than that is needed

[mnhtnbb]

14. You are right.

The gerrymandering is being fought in the courts--but I doubt that districts will be redrawn
before Nov 2016. And of course the NC voter ID law goes into effect with the 2016 election,
too.

[n2doc]

16. the grift

Ross was scheduled to step down in January. Spellings' contact starts in March. Her five-year contract will pay her a base salary of $775,000 a year, a nearly 30 percent increase over Ross.


Gotta feed at that sweet sweet taxpayer money trough…..

[mountain grammy]

10. Republicans elected to office, appoint political hacks to the

boards of public universities who, in turn, hire political hacks to run the system into the ground, after enriching the private corporations with public money.

Solution: don't elect republicans.

[moondust]

15. Sounds very familiar.

Protesters call for regents to resign over handling of University of Iowa presidential search

Hundreds of professors, students and other protesters packed into a ballroom in the University of Iowa student union during a regular meeting of the Board of Regents. They called for the resignation of board President Bruce Rastetter and the eight other regents, all appointees of Republican Gov. Terry Branstad. They also delivered a petition calling for incoming school President Bruce Harreld to step aside, and for a new search to be conducted.

Coincidentally, my *guess* was that this corporatist was hired by Republican appointees to do the dirty work of dismemberment, downsizing, privatization, etc.