Dozens of protestors swarmed the meeting of the University of North Carolina governing board, protesting the appointment of former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings as president of the UNC system.
“The protesters — students, faculty, staff and others within the UNC community — come from a number of organizations, including the Faculty Forward Network, Scholars for North Carolina’s Future, UnKoch My Campus, the UNC Board of Governors Democracy Coalition, Greenpeace USA, Ignite NC and Progress NC.
“Leaflets passed out by the protesters said they want the Spellings appointment to be rescinded and for the school’s governing body to have a transparent process to find a replacement, a reference to what many said was a secretive process in the selection of Spellings. She was tapped last October to run the system of 16 universities, with 222,000 students, and awarded a $775,000 base salary for each of five years in a contract that also gives her deferred compensation of $77,500 annually and potential performance bonuses, and use of a presidential home.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
More information here: http://www.wral.com/ross-saying-goodbye-to-unc-board-that-pushed-him-out-as-head/15170444/
I was proud to see colleagues who were willing to speak out and use their names and voice their concerns.
How people like Spellings and, coming soon to a cushy job near you, Arne Duncan, continue to ruin children’s lives and then land on their feet never ceases to amaze me. This is the sort of thing that makes cynics of us all. In nearly every aspect of government, the real criminals get away with murder. But the LA papers have loads of column space for the likes of Rafe Esquith because sex scandals sell and those who own the media want fingers pointed at their enemies at the bottom, not themselves.
I’m reminded of Mario Savio. It is time to put our bodies upon the gears and levers and, once again, students are leading the way so that we, the timid, can follow.
Thank you so much, students. You have made my life a joy.
I wish that people would protest about the salary as well. It is outrageous. UNC faculty and staff did not get raises this year, but this salary is a huge increase over what the previous system president was paid. And that salary was also too much. This really isn’t a difficult job. The system could cut the salary in half and still find a better candidate than Margaret Spellings. Her previous job was director of the George W. Bush presidential library. Apparently, nobody else wanted her for anything important.
There is some protest: http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2015/11/04/a-modest-proposal-unc-chancellors-return-those-pay-raises/