© 2024 WFAE
90.7 Charlotte 93.7 Southern Pines 90.3 Hickory 106.1 Laurinburg
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
An in-depth look at our region's emerging economic, social, political and cultural identity.

UNC System President Spellings Visits UNC Charlotte

Gwendolyn Glenn/WFAE

UNC System President Margaret Spellings took a tour or UNC Charlotte’s campus Monday and talked to students as part of her promise to visit all system campuses when she was hired.

At the tightly controlled meeting at UNC Charlotte, Spellings said she is determined to win over her critics who have attacked her conservative policies as secretary of education under George W. Bush. Many people were also upset at the politics involved in ousting her Democratic predecessor.

"Give me a chance, this is the beginning of my third week on the job and I think once people get to know and understand my commitment and passion for public education in our country and at the state level, they’ll see I’ve put my money where my mouth is and that we have a lot in common,” Spellings said.

Spellings said she will focus on keeping tuition and fees low and boosting science and technology programs. She also said she believes in the UNC Board of Governors giving system chancellors room to make decisions regarding their schools, but said, “We need to find the right balance between oversight and governance.”

Last year, the board was criticized for closing three policy centers at system schools, including most notably UNC Chapel Hill’s Center for Poverty, Work and Opportunity.

Spellings used the UNC Charlotte event to promote Connect NC, a $2 billion bond referendum on Tuesday’s ballot. The money would be used to upgrade college campuses, parks and other state facilities. UNC Charlotte would get $90 million of the bond money to build a new science building if it passes. 

Gwendolyn is an award-winning journalist who has covered a broad range of stories on the local and national levels. Her experience includes producing on-air reports for National Public Radio and she worked full-time as a producer for NPR’s All Things Considered news program for five years. She worked for several years as an on-air contract reporter for CNN in Atlanta and worked in print as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun Media Group, The Washington Post and covered Congress and various federal agencies for the Daily Environment Report and Real Estate Finance Today. Glenn has won awards for her reports from the Maryland-DC-Delaware Press Association, SNA and the first-place radio award from the National Association of Black Journalists.