Jim Dedmon/Imagn
University of North Carolina president Peter Hans sent a scathing memo to the members of the school’s board of trustees and limited their power after a controversial hiring process for new football coach Bill Belichick. The board reportedly backed previous coach Mack Brown before he was fired by athletic director Bubba Cunningham and chancellor Lee Roberts. It then circumvented Cunningham and Roberts in order to pursue and eventually hire the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach.
“Instances continue to occur where members of the board appear to act independently of their campus’s administration in matters squarely within the responsibility of the chancellor,” Hans wrote in a memo to UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees Chair John Preyer and Roberts.
Hans also enacted new regulations which give him and any future presidents final say over major athletic matters.
Prior to taking effect, every hiring or salary adjustment action at UNC-Chapel Hill, regardless of size, pertaining to a current or future athletic department employee, other than administrative assistants or equivalent positions and, separately, the athletic director and head coaches subject to UNC Policy 1100.3,
must be approved in writing by the president or his designee. Neither the board of trustees, nor any of its individual members, shall play any role in the negotiation of, review, or approval of such actions. – Memo from UNC President Peter Hans
UNC Board Of Trustees Circumvented AD And Chancellor To Hire Bill Belichick
Prior to hiring Belichick, UNC reportedly offered the job to current Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall. Sumrall eventually turned down the position and remained with the Green Wave. At the time, it seemed like a baffling decision given the college football landscape. But it has become increasingly clear since that UNC athletic department was (is?) in a state of dysfunction.
Roberts and Cunningham have been at odds with the Board of Trustees since long before Brown’s firing and Belichick’s hiring. Brendan Marks and Ralph Russo of The Athletic reported that the board of trustees issued an audit of the Cunningham’s department and BOT chair John Preyer “publicly scolded athletic director Bubba Cunningham over ‘the level of bad data that has been provided’ to the committee regarding UNC athletics’ financials.”
Roberts, who at the time was serving as interim chancellor, backed Cunningham, whom he called “one of the most senior, well-respected, admired athletic directors in the country.”
Matt Hartman of The Assembly reports that “Hans has administrative authority over 17 system schools. Roberts reports to him, as do all of the other chancellors. The Board of Trustees is an advisory body that has authority delegated to it by Hans and the system’s Board of Governors.”