Please don’t dismiss UNC Center on Poverty, Work & Opportunity

Later this week, the UNC Board of Governors could vote to halt the operation of the Center on Poverty, Work & Opportunity on the UNC-CH campus. This is a direct appeal to the BOG (whose members are notified about posts to this website) to reconsider the recommendation to do so. It just wouldn’t be fair to get rid of the comic relief associated with the Center and its director, Gene Nichol, a man of the highest regard. If you don’t believe me on that statement—the one about Gene Nichol being a man of high regard—just ask him. He’ll tell you the same.

Professor, director, former President of William & Mary, and countless more adjectives, Nichol is a man of many words, not speaking or writing for UNC, of course. Hah! Sometimes, in his speaking, which he cannot edit once it’s said, he doesn't use correct grammar, and that’s not okay, but so be it. He’s probably more concerned with his out-of-control hairdo than with the use of lie or lay and I or me. Once, he told a reporter, “No one loves Carolina more than me” when he should have said “no one loves Carolina more than I.” If you don’t understand the difference, return to grammar school.

The bottom line with Gene Nichol is: Do as I say but not as I do. He may talk a big game when it comes to poverty in North Carolina, but he has no solutions other than to increase government spending. In all likelihood, Nichol has never done anything about poverty except talk about it. And, he talks big. As a matter of fact, he enjoys talking down to his superiors, such as Governor McCrory, but then it’s obvious that Nichol believes he has no superiors. He’s a liberal loud-mouth who might have a good cause, but he only talks and writes about it instead of actually doing something about it. Maybe he should take a few classes at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

It will be a shame to halt the Center because when Nichol talks, it’s great fodder for comics. But, the show will probably go on; Nichol will lose an official platform for his cause and a salary of $7,500. But, he’ll retain his position as the Boyd C. Tinsley Distinguished Professor in the UNC School of Law, a nine-month a year position (does he actually teach?) that paid him $205,400 last year. So whenever he speaks, he speaks for UNC, no matter what he says or what the small type at the end of his columns says. Even if the Center loses status, Nichol will continue to hold himself in high regard because, as he said, “No one loves Carolina more than me.” What does that mean? Simply this: No one loves Carolina more than they love Gene Nichol. If you don’t believe me, just ask him.

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Dictionary.com word of the day

demassify (verb) [dee-mas-uh-fahy]: to break into elements that appeal to individual tastes or special interests