UNC trustees’ oversight of athletics issues limited for concerns of overreach

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — The president of North Carolina’s public university system has temporarily suspended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill trustees’ authority over athletics for acting beyond their designated duties.

In a Jan. 16 memo, system president Peter Hans wrote to UNC trustees chairman John Preyer citing concerns where board members “appear to act independently of their campus’s administration in matters squarely within the responsibility of the chancellor.”

Hans’ memo, first reported Friday by The Assembly and obtained by WRAL TV in Raleigh, also stated unilateral action by trustee members risk “blurring the lines of actual and apparent authority when these athletic departments negotiate business transactions with third parties” that could include past, current and future employees.

That letter came after trustees had criticized the firing of football coach Mack Brown followed by involvement in the hiring of six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach Bill Belichick as Brown’s successor. There has also been the trustees’ push last spring to audit the athletics department while questioning data provided by athletic director Bubba Cunningham, though chancellor Lee Roberts publicly backed Cunningham’s leadership.

Additionally, trustees had been vocal in issues of conference affiliation, including coming out publicly against the Atlantic Coast Conference’s eventual 2023 vote in favor of expansion.

Typically, trustees approve contracts for coaches and other athletics officials. But Hans’ letter says trustees will not play any role in negotiating, reviewing or approving such actions, with approvals now going to Hans’ office. Hans also “encouraged” the board to “focus its continued efforts on the important substantive topics well within its responsibility for oversight and providing advice” to Roberts.

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