Against the wishes of many students, faculty members, alumni and conservationists, N.C. State has signed a contract agreeing to sell the Hofmann Forest, and it did so deceitfully. 

As the Technician reported on Oct. 30, the College of Natural Resources sold the 79,000-acre Hofmann Forest to the Hofmann Forest LLC for $150 million.

Mary Watzin, Dean of the CNR, said the sale “protects the land going forward,” but also said, “[Hofmann Forest LLC’s] plans for the acreage in the future are not something we’ve gone into detail.” 

The company may sell easements to the Department of Defense or use the land for agricultural purposes, according to Watzin. However, recently leaked documents revealed that Hofmann Forest LLC plans to develop 9,000 acres of the forest for homes and office buildings, which contradicts statements made by Watzin and Chancellor Randy Woodson, who said the land would be preserved. 

On Monday, Brad Bohlander, associate vice chancellor for University Communications and chief communications officer at N.C. State, said this was the first the University had heard about the possibility of developing the land. 

But Tom Percival, spokesman for the Hofmann Forest LLC said otherwise. Percival confirmed that “there are ‘no plans to develop the property into a large commercial and residential community,’” saying the development plans leaked Wednesday were made by N.C. State as part of an “exploratory study” in 2009.

“Apparently NCSU made those drawings [development plan renderings] in 2009, and clearly they gave them to Walker Group/Hofmann LLC,” Ron Sutherland, a conservationist for the Wildlands Network, said in an email. “So they were lying their pants off when they said this was the first they had seen of the prospectus document. They wrote at least part of it and gave it to at least one potential buyer when promoting the sale.” 

The editorial board of the Technician agrees with Sutherland’s sentiment. As most of the reporters who have covered the sale have noticed, there seems to be something fishy about this deal, and we have a hard time believing that the administration could’ve been so deceived by a company it has been doing business with for at least 11 months. Our suspicions have been furthered by the fact that we hand delivered a FOIA request more than two weeks ago to Charles Leffler, vice chancellor for finance and business,  requesting information about all bids and related documents related to the sale. Since then, neither Leffler nor anybody from his office has even acknowledged our request. To us, this doesn’t at all seem like the behavior of an administration that is honest and has nothing to hide.

For these reasons, we were thrilled to hear that some members of Student Government, the organization charged with the task of representing the voice of the students, are drafting legislation to stop the sale. 

“I, personally, as a senator, am not completely opposed outright to the sale of the forest,” said Josh Teder, a student senator. “I’m just unhappy with the handling of the situation.” 

Teder described the University’s handling of the sale as “a disaster.” 

Though we at the Technician oppose the sale both out of principle and desire to protect the land, we too feel as though we have been lied to.

Student Government will vote on a resolution Wednesday, requesting that the University abandon the sale. 

“The University went ahead to sell the forest without asking anyone,” said Alex Grindstaff, a senior in biological sciences who is sponsoring the resolution. “As a public institution, this isn’t how we should conduct business.” 

The University should care that alumni, faculty members and now members of the organization that represents the voice of the enitre student body have spoken out against the sale.

“The state has not been funding the university as it has in the past, and if we want to continue to recruit and retain the best students and faculty, it is our responsibility to work as hard as necessary,” Woodson said. 

But the University is not “[working] as hard as necessary” if it is selling its biggest asset without considering its students, alumni and faculty.

The Technician editorial board joins the members of Student Government who oppose the sale, CNR faculty protestors and conservationists in saying that our University should not sell the Hofmann Forest. You can join us by attending the protest on the Brickyard today at 1:15 p.m.