General Assembly sends UNC board reduction bill to Cooper

The measure received final approval after an hour of Senate debate floor debate in which several black Democrats expressed concerns that decreasing the board by 25 percent would make it harder to retain minority members on the prestigious panel.

Sen. Gladys Robinson, D-Guilford and a former UNC board member, offered an amendment somewhat similar to one defeated last week that would have required legislative leaders to appoint to the board some who were graduates of an historically black system school, a graduate of other non-research campuses, someone from a rural area and people from a political party not of the appointing leader.

State law that remains in place says selections to the board should be based in part on "their knowledge and understanding of the educational needs and desires of all the state's citizens, and their economic, geographic, political, racial, gender and ethnic diversity."