Who’s who

Below is a list of the other committee members. Where campaign contributions are noted, the source is www.opensecrets.org; the time frame is 2007–2012.

  • Tom Ross, UNC system president

  • Steve Ballard, East Carolina University chancellor

  • Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, Guilford, Senate President Pro Tem

  • Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, Speaker of the House

  • Mahdu Beriwal, president and CEO of IEM, a company specializing in disaster and emergency management, homeland security, national defense and “the use of information technology to resolve complex protection issues,” according to IEM’s website. The company contracts with the military, government and private sector.

  • Peaches Blank, member of the UNC Board of Governors

  • Linda Brady, UNC-Greensboro chancellor

  • Charles Brink, chairman of the UNC Staff Assembly

  • Janet Cowell, state treasurer

  • Keith Crisco, secretary of the N.C. Department of Commerce

  • Bill Friday, UNC president emeritus

  • Paul Fulton, member of the UNC Board of Governors

  • Hannah Gage, immediate past chairwoman of the UNC Board of Governors ($4,000 to Democratic candidates and the N.C. Democratic Party)

  • Frank Grainger, vice chairman of the UNC Board of Governors ($2,000 to Republicans, including Mitt Romney)

  • Jack Cecil, president of Biltmore Farms ($1,400 to Richard Burr, $2,000 to other GOP candidates)

  • Leroy Lail, member of the UNC Board of Governors ($1,400 to Sen. Richard Burr)

  • Cynthia Marshall, president of AT&T North Carolina ($11,000 to Democratic candidates, including Barack Obama; $4,300 to Republicans, including John McCain)

  • Harold Martin, N.C. A&T State University chancellor

  • Ken Peacock, Appalachian State University chancellor

  • Scott Ralls, president of the N.C. community college system

  • Catherine Rigsby, chairwoman of UNC Faculty Assembly, faculty member at East Carolina University

  • Jeff Tarte, health care consultant and GOP candidate for N.C. Senate District 41

  • Holden Thorp, UNC Chancellor

What does it take to be named to the 27-member UNC Advisory Committee on Strategic Directions?

Political clout: That explains Republicans Phil Berger and Thom Tillis, among the most powerful people in the Legislature. Business and financial connections: That explains Lew Ebert, president of the N.C. Chamber of Commerce and Robert Ingram, retired executive at GlaxoSmithKline. Big donors: That explains Fred Eshelman, who gave $35 million to the UNC pharmacy school that bears his name.

But there are reasons to be worried about the composition of the committee, whose membership UNC President Tom Ross announced last week. The committee charged with recommending the course for the 17-campus system through 2018its academic standards, financial planning and overarching missionincludes some of the most powerful Republican operatives in North Carolina politics.

We should be concerned about the committee’s direction not because of its members’ party affiliationDemocrats fill out the panel’s ranks, toobut because of the extent of some of the conservative members’ activism.

Committee members and millionaires Art Pope and Eshelman are not just businessmen, but also political activists who have contributed to arch-conservative groups with an aggressive agenda. By contrast, there is arguably not a Democratic equivalent, in terms of political power or pocketbook, on the committee.

Exhibit A is Pope, the CEO of Variety Wholesalers, a chain of discount stores. As the Indy and the Institute for Southern Studies reported last year, the Pope empire spans across ultra-conservative foundations, think tanks, institutes, media outlets and political campaigns. You can credit, in part, Pope and his significant largesse for ushering in the Republican-majority General Assembly, and for the placement of former staffers of Pope-backed groups in key legislative advisory positions.

Ironically, Pope supports charter schoolsraising the cap on them is among his favorite causes. His think tanks have called for deep budget cuts to the UNC system. And yet he sits now on a committee that is setting the moral and fiscal compass of the UNC system.

The Pope Foundation has donated to UNC, giving $3 million to expand its Academic Center for Student Athletes (how’s that working out?). To UNC’s credit, it did rebuff Pope’s offer of a multimillion-dollar grant from the family foundation to expand the university’s offerings in Western studies.

The N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law, funded by the Pope Foundation, offered $600,000 to another UNC system institution, N.C. Central University, startup money for a constitutional law institute. When NCCU didn’t immediately acceptthere was consternation among the law faculty about the possible strings attached to such a proposalthe NCICL withdrew the offer.

Exhibit B is Eshelman, a member of the UNC Board of Governors. In 2010, the pharmaceutical mogul contributed $3 million to Rightchange.com, a conservative group whose goals is to “counter the internet dominance by liberal and progressive groups.”

The group ran a last-minute ad in the 2008 election using images of the burning World Trade Center to assail Barack Obama as a candidate that would “undermine the terror strategy that protects us,” according to The Wall Street Journal. Rightchange spent upward of $1.5 million to broadcast six TV ads during the 2008 elections, according to The New York Times, and is continuing its factually loose attacks on Obama and other Democrats.

In addition to his $3 million to Rightchange.com, since 2007, Eshelman has contributed more than $30,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee; $20,500 to N.C. Republican Executive Committee, $7,700 to the Republican National Committee, $2,500 to Mitt Romney, $2,000 to conservative Democrat Mike McIntyre and $2,700 to Richard Burr, among others.

And as CEO of PPD (Pharmaceutical Product Development), Eshelman testified before a House Energy & Commerce oversight committee about his firm’s relationship with a doctor who worked on the clinical trial of an antibiotic called Ketek. Eshelman testified that although PPD knew the doctor was faking the data, it didn’t tell the FDA because of confidentiality clauses with the drug maker, Sanofi-Aventis. Ketek has been linked to reports of liver failure. PPD was paid $20 million to run the trial.

Other notable conservatives on the committee:

  • Peter Hans, chairman of the UNC Board of Governors, served as policy advisor to Lauch Faircloth and Richard Burr, both conservative U.S. Senators. In Raleigh, he also worked as a health-care lobbyist, especially on Medicaid issues.

  • Lew Ebert is president of the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce, ostensibly a nonpartisan group. However, the chamber’s political action committee is supporting conservative justice Paul Newby for state supreme court. In a press release, Ebert, who also is a PAC director, endorsed its choice for judge: “While North Carolina Chamber PAC has not endorsed candidates for statewide office historically, in this nonpartisan race it is backing Justice Paul Newby because of his reputation for listening impartially to all sides before making a decision. Paul Newby understands the economic impact of cases involving North Carolina’s job creators.”

Newby’s record, as reported by The News & Observer, includes ruling against same-sex couple adoption and dismissing a lawsuit about predatory lending. And this weekend, Newby has been invited to speak, along with GOP operatives, anti-immigrant representatives, “second amendment practitioners” and a FOX News contributor, at the Great Gathering of the Tea Party Constitution Day event in Pinnacle, N.C.

  • Robert Ingram is former president and chief operating officer of pharmaceutical operations, GlaxoSmithKline. Since 2007, he has contributed $96,000 to Republican causes, including Romney and the N.C. Republican Executive Committee and $3,300 to Democrats, including Barack Obama.

Joni Worthington, UNC vice president for communications, said president Tom Ross appointed members to the committee with input from Board of Governors Chairman Peter Hans.

Worthington emphasized that “this is an advisory committee” composed of a “relatively large and diverse group.” She added that the committee won’t be the same group that will ultimately adopt the five-year strategic plan.

According to UNC, committee meetings will be open to the public. The first meeting is scheduled for late September. Keep an eye on the committee via the UNC System website, www.northcarolina.edu.

This article appeared in print with the headline “Destination on right.”