Dear Senator McInnis,
I recently read with some concern, first in The Daily Tarheel and then on Slate, about your proposed Senate bill 593, ironically titled “An act to improve the quality of instruction at the constituent 3 institutions of the University of North Carolina.” This “improvement” would come by forcing all university faculty, whether at an undergraduate or graduate institution, to teach a full 4/4 load of courses during the academic year, 4 courses in the Fall, 4 in the Spring.
Let me get right to the point: this bill would do exact the opposite of what it claims, and would quite rapidly end quality education in the UNC system. In fact, it is quite accurate to say that there really won’t be a university system at all in North Carolina if this bill were passed and its plan implemented.
It is hard not to see this as a direct and punitive attack on the university system and the faculty and staff who work hard to run it. The recent removal of Tom Ross as President of the UNC system was widely seen by most faculty as the beginning of an attempt to weaken and dilute higher education in our state. Even our Governor has made no secret of his disdain for higher education, and once stated his view that universities should be no more than vocational schools. More recently, Chapel Hill’s Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity has been targeted for closure, along with several other centers. This last action is clearly a direct attack, as the center does not even receive direct state funding, operates on a minimal budget, and directly serves the needs of North Carolina.
However, let me be charitable* and assume that your bill was not sponsored out of partisan ideology, but out of genuine ignorance concerning the amount of work, and the type of work, that university professors actually do. I would like there to be no misunderstanding, so that your motives in the end, if this bill passes, will be clear to everyone.
Skulls in the Stars 
