Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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16 UCW NOVEMBER 11-17, 2015 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Let's help her all we can. That is what I am telling my friends in the university community when they express displeasure at the selection of Margaret Spellings as their new president, or when they complain about the UNC Board of Governors' presidential selection process and some of its other recent actions. First of all though, you should know that I am a friend and big admirer of the current university president, Tom Ross. By all accounts, he has done, a masterful job. Even though the current board of governors signaled the end of his presidency a year ago, he remained on the job, cooperative, productive, positive and successful. I am sorry he is leaving. The state and the university communities are losing an extraordinary leader. That said, why am I cautioning others in the university to help the new president rather than berating her for her past political connections and public service? My answer is another question: Will our state university system be better if she succeeds or if she fails in her new job? If success includes securing the resources to maintain and enhance the universities' program, in addition to leading and managing its operations, Spellings has a good chance to succeed. Our university president is the connective link between the university and the state legislature and its leaders, the ones who make the decisions each year about the amount of state resources that will be allocated to higher education. Even more important, perhaps, the legislature can make laws that regulate the operation of the university, as it did last month when it amended the law to change the selection procedure for presidents. Another example occurred in 1963, when it passed the Speaker Ban Law that restricted freedom of speech on university campuses. Unlike most state higher education governing boards, UNC's board of governors is selected by the North Carolina legislature. Spellings lacks two qualities that have been important to prior UNC presidents who followed the legendary 30-year tenure of William Friday: 1. Public higher education administration experience, as with Molly Broad, and 2. Significant experience in North Carolina public life, as with Dick Spangler, Erskine Bowles and Tom Ross. Although she lacks both these qualities, Spellings knows the national education establishment perhaps better than all her predecessors, and because of her political experience in the Republican camp, she can expect a warm welcome when she asserts the importance of her education to our state as an advocate to the Republican leadership in our state legislature. The challenge to supporters of the university should not be to destroy Spellings, but rather to use her vast political experience and connections to preserve and enhance the university. If her political connections and experience give her an open door to legislative leaders; if she uses that access to explain how the institution underpins our state's progress and advocate for the resources it needs to continue its leadership role; and if she is willing to stand in the door to prevent unnecessary and detrimental legislative meddling, then she may follow her presidential predecessors into the pantheon of heroic North Carolinians. On the other hand, if her background and connections lead to her being a puppet of some ideologues whose agenda is to hobble the university, she could wind up in the trash bin of North Carolina history. I am hoping for the pantheon, not the trash bin. Pushing Spellings into the Pantheon, not the Trash Bin by D.G. MARTIN Margaret Spellings D.G. MARTIN, Host of UNCs Book Watch, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200 Dear Earthtalk: Where do the leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomi- nation stand on environmental issues? — Susan Wollander, In recent decades, Republicans have certainly been far less sym- pathetic to environmental causes than the Democrats, and this year's batch of candidates for the party's Presidential nomination is no exception. Donald Trump has remained skeptical of environmentalists and the issues they care about. In 2012 he tweeted that the Chinese created climate change to suppress the American econ- omy. More recently, he called climate change "a hoax" on Fox News. He is also notoriously supportive of getting rid of any tax on oil, "the lifeblood of the economy." While Trump may look bad on climate change, at least he has a track record of working well with environmentalists on some of his development projects. Ben Carson rejects the significance of climate change, deeming it distracting and irrelevant. He does support some development of alternative energy sources, but only so much as it reduces dependence on foreign oil. Likewise, he supports drilling both offshore and in Alaska to both create jobs and put economic pressure on Middle Eastern terrorists. Despite his lack of climate concern, Carson does feel strongly about conservation, saying in his 2012 book, America the Beautiful, that "mindless consump- tion" leads to unnecessary pollution and that we should all take care to protect the health of the planet. Marco Rubio is no fan of government intervention, and would prefer to see the free market dictate how we protect the environment. He publically stated in 2014 that human activity is unrelated to the warming climate trend, such that any laws would be ineffective and bad for our economy. His plan to keep energy prices low consists of continued exploration of domestic energy sources. He supports expansion of wind and solar energies, but also favors increasing production and consumption of coal, oil and natural gas. Jeb Bush started out his political career with negative views on environmental regulations, but after re-election as Florida's governor in 1998 he changed his tune to say that conservation is the purview of the states (not the federal government). He's well known for spearheading a $2 billion program to protect and restore the Everglades, and opposes oil drilling in his own state. He favors continued oil con- sumption, but he would also like to see 25 percent of U.S. energy derived from renew- able sources by 2025. Carly Fiorina supports clean alternatives to fossil fuels, but maintains that every potential energy source should be explored (including nuclear and "clean" coal). She believes the best strategy for cutting carbon emissions is global action. Conveniently, this position makes any federal action by the U.S. pointless. In keeping with her antip- athy for big government, Fiorina would like to see the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency downsized and its role in policy making diminished. For the most part, the rest of the still-crowded Republican field shares simi- lar views about climate and environment. If any of these candidates makes it to the White House, Americans should buckle up for a rough ride that could include approval of the Keystone XL pipeline to bring Canadian tar sands oil across U.S. soil, a pull-back from any emissions reduction commitments made by the Obama adminis- tration at the upcoming Paris climate talks, and a weakening of federal powers when it comes to environmental oversight of air and water quality and conservation initia- tives in general. CONTACTS: Donald Trump, www.donaldjtrump.com; Ben Carson, www.ben- carson.com; Marco Rubio, www.marcorubio.com; Jeb Bush, www.jeb2016.com; Carly Fiorina, www.carlyforpresident.com. Where do Republican Candidates Stand on Environmental Issues? From the Editors of E - The Environmental Magazine Republican frontrunner Donald Trump calls climate change a "hoax." Credit: Gage Skidmore, FlickrCC