It’s been the summer of stadium development for the UNC System.
During last week’s Board of Governors meetings, UNC Asheville requested permission for a lease to develop a mixed-use stadium complex on its millennial campus. On Wednesday, UNC-Chapel Hill trustees discussed plans to build a cricket arena the school estimates will generate $50 million to $60 million in revenue (which it really needs for athletics).
Early reactions to the proposals were mixed. UNC-CH’s board chair expressed enthusiasm about the cricket idea, while the UNC-Asheville plan prompted skepticism from some BOG members, and local tensions over it appear high.
As we closely follow these developments (pardon the pun), we’d like to know what you think. To put it in cricket terms (that I just googled): Are you bowled over by the proposals, or do you think the stadium developments will put UNC schools on a sticky wicket? Let us know your thoughts (and I hope you have fun googling those phrases, too).
—Erin Gretzinger
📚 Today’s Syllabus
1. How Laurinburg is grappling with St. Andrews University’s sudden closure
2. UNC-Chapel Hill unveils plan to cut $70 million from its operating budget
3. UNC-CH trustees question the value of tenure
4. What the “Big Beautiful Bill” means for NC medical students
5. Duke under fire from the Trump administration
St. Andrews’ Remains
When St. Andrews University suddenly announced its closure in April and ceased operations 10 days later, many questions raced through my mind.
When will faculty and staff get their final paychecks? What will become of the university’s land? And what does St. Andrews’ closure mean for Laurinburg, a rural town of 15,000 residents, given that the college has been the lifeblood of the community for decades?
To answer those questions, my colleague Ben Rappaport of The Border Belt Independent and I dug into St. Andrews’ demise and the extent of the fallout. It became clear that the shock and uncertainty surrounding the school’s quick closure will impact its lasting legacy in Laurinburg.
For higher ed observers, St. Andrews’ story offers a cautionary tale about the challenges other small towns will likely face as more colleges struggle to stay afloat. Closing a college is not just a heartbreaking process—it’s an exhausting, expensive, and gut-wrenching one that can leave vulnerable people and communities in the lurch.
“There’s even just this mental toll of what it means to just drive by an empty college campus every day,” said Andrew Koricich, a higher education professor at Appalachian State University. “It can almost feel like this thing looming over a community once that college is empty.”
—Erin Gretzinger and Ben Rappaport
Thanks for reading The Quad, a higher education newsletter written by Matt Hartman and Erin Gretzinger and edited by Emily Stephenson. Reach us with tips or ideas at highered@theassemblync.com.
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More Belt Tightening
UNC-Chapel Hill leaders revealed a plan on Wednesday to cut $70 million in costs—or 2 percent of their operating budget—over the next two fiscal years ahead of anticipated federal and state funding reductions.
Some of the targeted areas for cuts include:
- $17.2 million in nonresident financial aid
- $8.5 million from administrative staff reductions in the first phase of a restructuring plan called ServiceFirst
- $10.3 million from “unit optimization” of non-academic teams, starting with four units that volunteered to find cuts
- $4.8 million from academic centers and institutes
- $2 million from “low-performing” academic programs
Read more about the discussion and how UNC-CH considered federal and state funding cuts in their calculations.
—Erin Gretzinger and Matt Hartman
Tenure Tussle
Not to let UNC-Chapel Hill’s board meeting drag out this newsletter, but the tenure presentation that interim Provost Jim Dean gave the trustees was too juicy to put off until next week.
As you probably remember, UNC-CH trustees delayed tenure votes in May, then reversed course a week later following faculty uproar. This presentation seemed to be the university’s way of starting a dialogue after the debacle. But the information session quickly devolved into a debate, led by trustees Marty Kotis, Jim Blaine, and Rob Bryan, over whether tenure should exist at all.
Three quotes that sum up the vibes:
“The critique that’s offered to us is, ‘It’s the process, so you should rubber stamp it.’ … and when you question it, I feel like the emperor has no clothes,” said Kotis (who also made multiple thinly veiled references to Nikole Hannah-Jones).
“I would be curious if you’re aware of any other job outside of being a federal judge that once you’ve had that job—barring extreme misconduct—you can’t be relieved of the job?” asked Blaine. (To which Dean responded: “Well, I’m Catholic, so I can think of one.”)
“Some of them retire on the job, just don’t tell anybody. So, what would the policy be for how we determine consistency of when it’s over?” asked board chair John Preyer after calling himself a supporter of tenure. (Dean said he did not have an answer “off the top of my head.”)
While Ritch Allison, a new face on the board, jumped to the defense of the process, it felt clear by the end of the hour-and-a-half long discussion that this is not the last we’ll be hearing about tenure at UNC-CH. (So we’ll probably have more to say on this soon.)
—Erin Gretzinger
‘Significant Barrier’
The health care consequences of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act have gotten a lot of attention in North Carolina in recent weeks. So The Quad was interested in a portion of the law that will limit federal loans for medical and dental students at a time when the country needs more providers.
The legislation caps federal loans for medical, dental, and law schools at $50,000 a year, or $200,000 total. The bill also phases out Grad PLUS, a federal aid program started in 2006 that allows graduate and professional students to borrow up to their total cost of attendance.
The Quad computed the price tag of a four-year program at each of North Carolina’s medical and dental schools using information on their websites. We pulled the average student debt burden for graduates of each program from a report by the Association of American Medical Colleges. We found that students who require financial aid could struggle to pay for medical or dental school in this state.
The loan cap of $200,000 would cover tuition for in-state students at UNC School of Medicine and UNC-CH’s Adams School of Dentistry, as well as at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine and School of Dental Medicine, which only enroll North Carolina residents.
Tuition costs more than $200,000 total for non-residents at UNC-Chapel Hill’s medical and dental schools and for students at Duke University’s and Wake Forest University’s medical schools.
The total cost of attendance, which generally includes university fees, books and supplies, insurance, and housing and dining plans, exceeds $200,000 for all N.C. medical and dental schools, other than ECU’s dental school.
This means that students may need private loans to finance their medical and dental education. Private loans, which can carry fixed or variable interest rates, offer less flexibility than federal loan programs. The federal cap could deter students, especially those of low-income backgrounds, from attending medical and dental school.
Duke School of Medicine officials said the university is pursuing new loan opportunities to support students in need of financial aid. The school will soon launch a resource page to help students navigate the loan landscape.
“This newly imposed loan cap presents a significant barrier for talented applicants from less-resourced backgrounds,” officials from the school said. “We will continue working closely with our financial aid teams to advocate for our students and educate policymakers on the impact of these changes.”
A UNC-CH spokesperson said the UNC School of Medicine does not yet know the impact of the loan cap on students and future applicants. Spokespeople for other programs didn’t respond in time for publication.
—Lucas Lin
Assigned Reading
Settling and Investigating: It’s one of those weeks where Duke is getting lots of news it didn’t want. First The Wall Street Journal reported that Duke was one of several schools in talks with the Trump administration about a deal à la Columbia University. On Tuesday, the Department of Education announced that it was investigating Duke over the factors used to select law journal members and the Department of Health and Human Services announced an investigation into Duke Health for “racial preferences” in admissions, hiring, and other areas. Whew. This is, of course, one we’ll have much more to say about in the coming weeks.
Let us know what’s on your radar at highered@theassemblync.com.