UNC

I was thinking of writing my own column on the question of the UNC system president's pay and the implications thereof. Perry Deane Young has done such a good job in today's News that I may not have to:

the university system's governors have suggested they may raise the university president's salary to $500,000 in order to attract the best candidate for the job. Never mind that the current president's salary of $300,000 carries with it an extraordinary expense account, a free car and one of the grandest historic houses in Chapel Hill.

Well, boy howdy, I hope you'll agree, it doesn't take a doctorate to figure out how wrong-headed this kind of thinking is. If candidates come here for $500,000, they would just as easily keep on going to the next place for even bigger bucks. Furthermore, if they're in it for the money, we shouldn't want them; we don't need them.

Oh well, that was quick. Now that the Chapel Hill development ordinance has been updated to reflect that fact the town has regulatory power over non-building development (eg: parking lots) on UNC property, the legislature may change their mind again.

The N.C. Senate has voted to repeal a 9-month-old law that gave Chapel Hill and other communities more power to control the development of state property.

The repeal measure, which passed the Senate last week on a 44-6 vote, is moving through the General Assembly at the request of the UNC system's Board of Governors, legislators and system officials said.

"All 16 campuses are very supportive of this," system lobbyist Mark Fleming said, adding that the initial request for a repeal drive came from officials at UNC Chapel Hill and N.C. State University.

Chapel Hill Herald, Saturday May 28, 2005

The leaders of the go-go-growth crowd are true believers. Since they hold fast and firm to a common principle, the ethic of "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" holds sway. In truth, it is often the same back.

Thus, when UNC released its Economic Impact Analysis for Carolina North last Wednesday, it was not surprising that the contact provided for "economic impacts on the local community" was Aaron Nelson of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce.

UNC's report was all good news and Nelson's e-mail to chamber members matched it with effusive praise. He characterized Carolina North as "relieving pressure on the housing market." Let's see: 1,400 to 1,800 new homes to accommodate 7,500 new employees. That's about a 6,000 unit deficit, an odd notion of relief.