The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting on Thursday, Dec. 20, at 10 a.m. to receive the report from an independent academic review commissioned by Chancellor Holden Thorp.
Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012
10 a.m., Hill Ballroom Central & North, Carolina Inn (presentation and meeting)
Immediately after meeting, Chancellor’s Ballroom, Carolina Inn (30-minute availability for news media representatives)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting on Thursday, Dec. 20, at 10 a.m. to receive the report from an independent academic review commissioned by Chancellor Holden Thorp. The review was conducted by former N.C. Gov. James Martin with assistance from Baker Tilly, a national management consulting firm with extensive experience in academic operations procedures and controls. Thorp asked Martin and Baker Tilly to explore any and all issues as they saw fit, with no restrictions. The University has cooperated fully. Martin and Raina Rose Tagle, a partner and National Practice Leader in Baker Tilly’s Higher Education Practice, will present the report.
The review is among the University’s extensive efforts to address academic irregularities discovered in 2010 during the joint NCAA and University investigation of the football program. Four internal reports, including an internal review in the African and Afro-American studies department, have produced more than 70 recommendations and the implementation of numerous new policies and procedures to strengthen academics. (Refer to http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/6103/68/)
Rose Tagle also will present the trustees with Baker Tilly’s review of the many new academic performance policies, procedures and controls the University already has put in place in the African and Afro-American studies department, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Summer School to help prevent future irregularities.
Immediately after the Board of Trustees meeting, the University will hold a 30-minute availability for news media representatives with Martin, Rose Tagle and Thorp in the Chancellor’s Ballroom of the Carolina Inn.
That afternoon, Martin and Rose Tagle will meet with the UNC Board of Governors Academic Review Panel, which has been charged with assessing the University’s investigative work and its response to the academic irregularities. That meeting is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Spangler Center.
In August, Thorp announced that Martin would lead the independent review of additional academic irregularities that might have occurred before 2007. The original departmental course review, posted at http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/6103/68/, covered between the summer of 2007 and the summer of 2011. The course irregularities that first came to the University’s attention occurred during the summers of 2007 and 2009.
Thorp and the Board of Trustees also retained Baker Tilly to review the campus’ new academic performance policies, procedures and controls in relation to best practices criteria. Thorp said in August that the University was determined to make sure the current internal controls would prevent any recurrence of the irregularities.
Martin, who holds a Ph.D. in chemistry, is a former Davidson College professor who served on its faculty athletics and admissions committees. The former member of Congress serves on the Board of Directors of the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. Rose Tagle leads Baker Tilly’s risk advisory and internal audit services, as well as the firm’s Higher Education Practice.
The Board of Trustees typically meets bimonthly for regular meetings and it holds dates in the alternate months well in advance for possible additional meetings. (See http://www.unc.edu/depts/trustees/sched.html.)
Broadcasters: News Services will provide multbox audio feeds during the trustee meeting and media availability.
Parking: The Carolina Inn will provide access to its gated lots for news media representatives covering the meeting.
News Services Contact: Karen Moon, News Services, 962-8595, karen_moon@unc.edu