Excerpt From: Liberty Headlines. Written By: Paul Chesser.
At least four members of the University of North Carolina System’s Board of Governors are calling upon the chancellors of UNC-Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University to oppose further boycotts of the state by the Atlantic Coast Conference because of House Bill 2 (the “transgender bathroom bill”).
And, they added, if the members of the ACC Council of Presidents do vote to keep athletic championships out of the state again for the upcoming academic year, those governors say UNC-CH’s Carol Folt and NC State’s Randy Woodson should demand that the record of their votes on the matter be public, not hidden in secret as they were during their previous vote in September 2016.
If comments by Commissioner John Swofford in January and the bylaws (page 25) of the Atlantic Coast Conference are in force, then the university member presidents and chancellors of the league could vote again this week on whether or not to hold championships in North Carolina for the 2017-2018 academic year.
“They should first object to any sort of boycott or economic sanctions,” said Marty Kotis, a member of the Board of Governors from Greensboro. “Object to any private or secret closed door vote. And refuse to participate if the vote is going to be private. If the vote is public, they should vote no.”
“This isn’t about HB2 or any other issue,” Kotis continued. “It’s a stance against ‘calling in airstrikes on your own position and people.’ And if votes are taken, they should be public and discussed openly. We either believe in transparency or we don’t.”
Kotis’s comments, which answered an emailed inquiry by Liberty Headlines to the entire Board of Governors, were endorsed by fellow members Thom Goolsby (who is a former state Senator), former Judge William Webb, and C. Philip Byers.
The top officials at each member university in the ACC — including Folt and Woodson – voted in secret last September to move all sports championships that had been scheduled in the Tar Heel State, to other states. They blamed their decision on NC lawmakers’ passage of House Bill 2, which overturned a Charlotte ordinance by requiring that users of public restrooms and dressing facilities do so according to the sex they are identified by on their birth certificates. The move by the ACC presidents was designed to punish North Carolina for its allegedly “discriminatory” law.
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