Board games.

• Author: Mildenberg, David

While North Carolina's constitution gives State lawmakers clear authority over the UNO System, its governing board has historically rejected rank partisanship. Are those days over?

After taking the job to run the UNC System amid much controversy, Margaret Spellings has shown a masterful ability to impress her overseers. Honeymoons don't last forever, of course, and recent North Carolina politics suggest that she hasn't seen anything yet given tighter ties between state lawmakers and the Board of Governors.

Consider the scrap over UNC Chapel Hill's Center for Civil Rights. The center's aim is to research social-justice issues and help law-school students learn how to represent underprivileged people. Its privately funded, five-person staff is part of the law school, led by a dean who reports to UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt. She, in turn, works with a 13-member board of trustees.

But some members of the UNC Board of Governors, which oversees all 17 campuses, want to block the center from filing new lawsuits. Operating a public-interest law firm is outside the school's mission, says board member Steven Long, a Raleigh lawyer. North Carolina counties have wasted lots of money defending themselves from lawsuits filed by center representatives, he says. "It's outrageous that the university hasn't dealt with the issue. I've met with the chancellor, the provost and the dean, and nobody will do anything."

Indeed, UNC Chapel Hill officials "have never given us any grief," Director Ted Shaw says. "UNC has a wonderful, complex history with respect to race, and this center recognizes there is a place for the betterment of the African-American community that is poor and faces discrimination."

While a micro issue for the $9 billion system, the civil-rights center debate is a signal of increased partisanship as state lawmakers assert more control at the BOG. Much bigger issues are at stake, with some members of the 28-member board calling for major changes. "I want to look at what we can do to get the cost structure fixed, because the system is unsustainable. I don't see how a family on a $40,000-a-year income can afford it," says Harry Smith, a former filter-company CEO from Greenville who was re-elected in April to a second four-year term. "No one today would build the model we have with 17 campuses and a corporate office in Chapel Hill."

That tone is jarring to Paul Fulton and other North Carolinians who take great pride in the system. "We've got one of the best systems in the country, and there is no more important driver of our economy than UNC," says Fulton, a former board member who heads Higher Education Works, a Raleigh-based nonprofit that seeks public support for the system. "I do worry that the board is becoming too politicized."

UNC Chapel Hill ranks among the nation's 30 top national universities, according to U.S. News and World Report; the only higher-ranked public university in the South is Virginia, which charges nearly double the tuition for in-state students. No other state operates as many historically black universities and colleges, while few have as many geographically dispersed campuses. Few offer tuition as low as UNC or provide as much financial support per student.

Unfortunately, too many students still leave before graduating, incur extensive debt or can't find jobs after earning degrees. Smith says. He and other board members want Spellings to move promptly to cut personnel costs, limit tuition hikes, collaborate more with community colleges --and improve graduation...