Kunwoo Lee
Benjamin Franklin once said that we could never be certain of anything but death and taxes. I would add North Carolina being a political embarrassment to that list. This time the East Carolina University Board of Trustees was found trying to manipulate the student body presidential elections. ECU and North Carolina can’t seem to stop embarrassing themselves these days.
On Jan. 13, Board of Trustee members Phil Lewis and Robert Moore met with ECU student Shelby Hudson, a student body president candidate in the upcoming election. She would receive a confidential donation from them along with a connection to an experienced NC campaign manager, signage and billboard assistance, support from a former ECU student president, and information from the ECU student affairs office. There was also a guarantee that Lewis and Moore wouldn’t vote to raise tuition. All they wanted in return was for her to help them vote for a leadership change in the Board of Trustees, as the student body president is a voting member. All of this was revealed when Hudson gave a recording of the conversation to ECU general counsel Paul Zigas. Hudson has since withdrawn from ECU for personal reasons and is no longer a student.
While it may seem like a clear-cut case of bribery, some members of the Board of Trustees disagree. Trustee Jim Segrave believes that “you had two members that wanted the best for East Carolina University that they didn’t necessarily go about it in the right way. They were a little overzealous, but they did not have ill intent. They were not trying to hurt the school.” In fact, Segrave believes that the entire thing was an entrapment plot set by the chairman and vice chairman. “I think we need to all start acting like adults,” Segrave said. “As the chairman and vice chairman, if they knew about this in advance they had multiple opportunities to fix this.”
In my humble opinion, Lewis and Moore were not overzealous at all. This was a clear attempt at bribery, which they were evidently fine with pursuing, and would have been totally fine with the entire conversation never coming out. This was not a case of entrapment; Lewis initiated the meeting and set the date for the meeting with Hudson. Hudson was under no obligation to give a recording of their conversation for the public to see, but she did.
In an ideal world, this entire situation would never have happened. In a better place, Hudson should have been rewarded and praised for her courage to reveal this disgusting behavior. Lewis and Moore should have both been sacked from their jobs and disgraced for pulling a stunt such as this. But this isn’t an ideal world.
Instead, Lewis resigned during the UNC Board of Governors meeting this past Friday, while Moore was only censured and reprimanded, losing his voting rights but still keeping his position. Moore is unable to be voted out by the Board, as he was appointed by the North Carolina House and can only be removed by the House.
Politics should never have been involved at all for this entire fiasco, especially politics that stoop to such lows as bribery and quid pro quo. The Board of Trustees should behave like actual adults and work out their issues between themselves, and they should not have been getting innocent 20-year-olds involved in their pissing contest. That being said, if there is one silver lining in this fiasco, it’s the new rules incoming which should prevent any Board of Trustee member from ever meddling in student elections again.
As UNC System Board of Governors Chairman Randy Ramsey put it, “We are all stewards of NC’s crown jewel, one of the best higher education systems in the world.” If only they could actually act their age and actually use the type of critical thinking which the institutions they represent promote.