CHAPEL HILL (May 6, 2026) – There have been questions in recent years about how much University of North Carolina governing boards and administrators respect the role of the faculty in supporting the university’s reputation.
But UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee Roberts leaves no doubt in the accompanying video.
“Faculty are at the core of everything we do,” Roberts says. “… We need to do a better job telling the story of our extraordinary faculty here. And everywhere you look, there are exceptional things happening.”
Roberts highlights some star faculty:
•Kathleen Duval, who won a Pulitzer Prize last year for her book Native Nations;
•Nabarun Dasgupta won a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” for his work on addiction; and
•Astrophysicist Nick Law received a grant to build the Argus Array, a network of more than 800 telescopes in the Texas desert.1
“This telescope is going to generate more data in the first two weeks of operation than all of the telescopes in the world in the history of humankind,” Roberts says. “Two weeks.
“Every night it will generate more data than is in the Library of Congress.”
Roberts doesn’t stop there.
“Extraordinary accomplishments by our faculty everywhere you look,” he says.
“We have just exceptional scholars and researchers doing groundbreaking work that is going to change the future of humanity for the better. It sounds grandiose to put it that way, but it’s absolutely true.”
ARE THOSE faculty paid well enough?
Once upon a time, UNC-Chapel Hill aimed to have its average faculty compensation rank in the top quartile compared to its peer institutions.
The UNC System’s Board of Governors has asked state legislators to give university employees a raise commensurate with that of other state employees.
“We’d love to see a legislative salary increase in the (General Assembly’s) short session budget for the coming fiscal year. That would obviously make a huge difference to our faculty and staff across the board here at Carolina and across the UNC System,” Roberts says.
“And we’re trying to put more money into faculty recruitment and retention.”
The campus Board of Trustees has set a target of $86 million in budget savings – the university has already achieved $45 million of that, largely through attrition, Roberts says.
The goal is to redirect those savings into faculty recruitment and retention in “particular high-demand areas,” he says.
Ken says
The legislature doesn’t care. They have no respect for anyone in the public sector. As far as they are concerned we are of no direct benefit. We are only sucking at the government teat.
Roberts is right. The benefits generated by the knowledge gained must be highlighted.
Unfortunately, Republicans don’t see any role for government. They can’t see the forest for the trees. The knowledge coming out of University’s seeds the state economy. But they’d rather these developments be made by the private sector. It’s not a zero sum situation. The gains made by the universities eventually makes it’s way into the private sector where it is developed into the good of the state and the nation. I ask short sighted legislators to think on this. Is it not a good value and worth investing in?