By Jeff Moore
Chapel Hill, NC – The “interim” qualifier is no longer necessary in addressing the chancellor of the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill.
The UNC Board of Governors voted Friday to elect Lee Roberts, serving as interim chancellor since January, as the fully vested chancellor of North Carolina’s flagship public university.
“When I appointed Lee Roberts as interim chancellor, I said that Carolina would benefit from his calm, steady and focused leadership, and it has,” UNC System President Peter Hans said in a press release Friday. “He has a deep respect for the university’s traditions and excellence, but also a conviction that Carolina has room to grow and improve. He is someone with the right combination of reverence for this university’s history and restless aspirations for its next chapter.”
During widespread campus protests that saw anti-Israel mobs overtake UNC’s campus “quad” and tear down the American flag, Roberts earned national praise for his steady leadership and resolute action in personally restoring the American flag to its rightful place in the center of campus.
Lee Roberts, while interim chancellor of UNC Chapel Hill helped take down the Palestinian flag put up by anti-Israel protesters and put the American flag back up.
Roberts, notably a graduate of UNC’s infamous rival, Duke University, grew up around Washington, D.C., and earned a law degree from Georgetown University. He later co-founded SharpVue Capital, a North Carolina investment firm, and went on to serve on the UNC Board of Governors, the State Board of Community Colleges, the State Banking Commission, the Golden LEAF Foundation Board, and the Board of Visitors at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.
It’s not his first stint in public service for the Tar Heel State; he served as budget director for the state of North Carolina during the administration of Republican Gov. Pat McCrory from 2014 to 2016.
“For 230 years, UNC-Chapel Hill has been the most important pillar on which we build a better future for North Carolina and its people,” Roberts said in a press release. “I’m deeply honored to be asked to play a role in serving this great university. There’s a lot of exciting work ahead.”
UNC-Chapel Hill reports Roberts has already launched working groups to explore future initiatives on enrollment growth, artificial intelligence, applied science and capital planning.
One area where some planning adjustments will occur is in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. The UNC BOG voted this spring to adjust the university system’s policies toward institutional neutrality and defund DEI programs many view as toxic to college campuses.
The vote came amid scrutiny of DEI expenses and policy at taxpayer-funded universities, but also after the recent US Supreme Court decision, Students for Fair Admission v. UNC-Chapel Hill. In that decision the high court found policies denying admission to the university based on race to be unconstitutional. The decision and reaction to it has generated changes, including a UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustee committee voting to allow the chancellor to reallocate $23 million in DEI funding to public safety instead.
Students are currently returning to the Chapel Hill campus for the fall semester. Classes begin Monday, Aug. 19.
Jeff Moore is Carolina Journal’s deputy editor. Moore has worked extensively in conservative politics, policy, and media in North Carolina, including most recently as the North Carolina Republican Party’s communications director.