UNC System Interim President Bill Roper will decide Chancellor Carol Folt's replacement

Tuesday, January 22, 2019
UNC BOT to decide Folt's fate
UNC BOT to decide Carol Folt's fate.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) -- The Interim President of the University of North Carolina System will determine the next Chancellor at UNC-Chapel Hill.

After a second closed door meeting in less than a week, Haywood Cochrane, the chairman of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, said Bill Roper will determine who will be the next leader at UNC.

Roper, a former UNC Health Care CEO, was appointed Interim President of the UNC System in November 2018 when Margaret Spellings announced she would resign.

Roper was part of Tuesday's more than two hour closed session meeting. That comes after a 3.5 hour meeting Friday.

Neither meeting has resulted in a public announcement.

However, both meetings have been about the future of UNC-Chapel Hill. They come after Chancellor Carol Folt announced she would retire at the end of the school year--but then the UNC Board of Governor's forced her to leave by Jan. 31.

Last week, Chancellor Carol Folt announced she was leaving and ordered the removal of the pedestal of the controversial Silent Sam statue. Folt planned to retire at the end of the school year, but following the removal of Silent Sam's pedestal, the UNC Board of Governors moved up her last day to Jan. 31.

That decision has caused some division, including pushback from 20 Board of Trustee members.

The UNC Board of Governors is scheduled to meet Friday.