Many skeptical as FSU’s new leader starts. But he hopes campus will give him a chance.
About two dozen Fayetteville State University students and alumni holding hand-made signs and carrying megaphones gathered in the parking lot of the NAACP office just off campus Monday.
The subject of their ire? The selection of former UNC System Board of Governors member Darrell Allison as Fayetteville State’s 12th chancellor.
“UNC BOG must change election policy!” they chanted. “What do we want? Honesty! What do we want? Transparency! What do we want? Qualified candidates!”
It was just one of multiple public protests from students, faculty, alumni and community members in the weeks since the Board of Governors picked Allison as FSU chancellor. Critics say he wasn’t the best candidate, he skated through the search process and he was unfairly chosen late in the game by UNC System leaders for political reasons.
“FSU can only be as great as its team, and we don’t have a team that believes in the fact that he was selected by the people who should’ve selected him,” said Janice Smith, an FSU alumna, former adjunct professor and long-time teacher in Fayetteville.
“It’s not a decent way for him to come in.”
As he starts his new role on Monday, Allison says he is focused on proving that he is the right man for the job.
“We all know that the perceptions can be distorted,” Allison said. “The reality is they’ll get a chance to see the real Darrell, not what someone else said or alleged.”
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Allison said being a chancellor wasn’t part of his five or 10-year plan, but he felt called to apply for the position last fall after gaining insights about institutions as a member of the UNC board.
“This is an opportunity of a lifetime,” Allison said about leading the second-oldest university in the UNC System.
As an HBCU graduate from a rural area — he graduated from N.C. Central University and is from Kannapolis — Allison said he sees himself in FSU students and wants to work for them. While he’s still developing his vision, he said he plans to further Fayetteville State’s five-year strategic plan and consult with students and employees campus along the way.
Allison said his actions will help rebuild trust and he will focus on fundraising and advocating for the school financially. He also wants to raise the profile of its academic programs and legacy so that “leaders and powers at be” are more aware of the school.
Immediate blowback in Fayetteville
Even at the news conference announcing his selection on Feb. 18, reporters questioned the integrity and transparency of the search process.
Since then, the FSU National Alumni Association Inc. has sent letters to elected state officials, threatened legal action and publicly stated their dissatisfaction and called for change. The president of the Raleigh-Apex NAACP also joined the opposition.
FSU students protested the chancellor search process, saying their voices were excluded. Members of the FSU Faculty Senate passed a resolution calling it “a failed search” that puts the school’s accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges at risk.
Allison also has been criticized for his support of the secret deal that gave the Silent Sam Confederate statue and $2.5 million to a confederate group. That deal was later overturned.
An online petition to remove Allison from the FSU job has collected more than 2,500 signatures as of Friday.
“I try very hard not to take it personal,” he said. “Many of those that do hurl the criticism ... they don’t know me.”
Allison said there are FSU alumni that have known him for years and strongly support him in this new role. Two prominent FSU alumni — Democratic N.C. Rep. Marvin Lucas and Dr. Algeania Warren Freeman — wrote an Op-Ed in The Fayetteville Observer supporting Allison.
They said Allison is “one of us” as a fellow graduate of an HBCU.
“But most of all, Darrell is a friend-maker who can bring much-needed resources, both human and financial, to our university,” they wrote. “Aside from what is on his resume, Darrell is a family man who is guided by his faith and conviction for education.”
Allison said he will be “a leader who will come in listening, learning and leading.” Between his appointment and his first day on the job, he has met with more than 250 students, faculty, staff and alumni to hear their concerns and expectations for him as a new leader.
“I get the media and the noise, if you will, but my focus has been those individuals,” Allison said. “And we will continue to do that March 15.”
Political, not academic background
Allison has no experience as an educator. After getting his bachelor’s degree at NCCU, he got law degree from UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Law. He is a former lobbyist and vice president of governmental affairs and state teams at the American Federation For Children, where he advocated for K-12 school choice programs. The organization was once led by former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
His experience in higher education comes through his appointment to the UNC System Board of Governors by North Carolina Republican lawmakers. While on the board, Allison served as chair of the historically minority-serving institutions committee and on the budget committee, securing millions of dollars of funding for FSU and other HBCUs.
Allison is not trying to hide his BOG ties or political connections. In fact, he said he plans to use those relationships to FSU’s advantage “pulling on every lever I can.”
With this job, he’ll be earning a $285,000 annual salary, plus a car and residence.
FSU alumni who interviewed finalists for the job say there were more qualified candidates on the list, including university provosts and a president.
“He’s more than not ideal,” FSU alumnus John Caldwell said. “He’s ill-suited because his experience is lacking.”
Caldwell said he interviewed five finalists with other alumni and that he would rank Allison at the bottom of their list.
Some have argued that the chancellor should have a doctorate or a background in teaching or experience as a university provost. But those credentials were not on this job posting and are not on every university leader’s resume.
Less than half of college presidents hold a degree in education or higher education and 25% have previously been a president or chancellor, according to the most recent American Council on Education study. In 2016, 15% of college presidents came from outside higher education. About 80% earned a Ph.D. or Ed.D.
For UNC System President Peter Hans, Allison’s experience in working with policymakers across the political spectrum to benefit students made him qualified for the job.
“No single person possesses every leadership attribute you might seek in a chancellor – communicator, collaborator, fundraiser, strategist, operational manager, among others,” Hans said in a statement. “Often an academician is exactly the right choice. At other times, a successful leader from another field, who appreciates the complexity of higher education, offers a useful set of skills.”
Hans reiterated Allison’s leadership on the UNC System’s racial equity task force and advocacy for historically Black colleges and universities.
“Those who don’t know him yet will soon appreciate what he brings to the table for the Fayetteville State community,” Hans said.
UNC Board of Governors Chair Randy Ramsey said in a statement that board members discussed the finalists forwarded by the campus trustees. They agreed that Allison will help elevate FSU through “strong advocacy and student-centered leadership,” Ramsey said.
Allison acknowledges he doesn’t have a traditional background and said he’s very much aware of his “weaknesses in the world of academia.”
But he said he plans to put a good team around him to oversee and manage the institution with a reasonable shared governance model. One of Allison’s first critical decisions will be hiring a “strong and empowered” provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, he said.
Concerns with search process
Students and alumni who’ve protested Allison’s appointment allege he was not one of the search committee’s top finalists and that he was hand-picked by Hans and the Board of Governors. Allison abruptly resigned from the UNC board in September to pursue this position.
Allison was added to the trustees’ list at the last-minute, according to NC Policy Watch, a media outlet that is part of the liberal advocacy group N.C. Justice Center. Several people close to the process, including FSU trustees, told Policy Watch that Allison’s “close political and personal relationships on the board of governors and in the North Carolina General Assembly ultimately got him the job.”
Allison’s mother-in-law served as an FSU trustee until the day before he was elected, The Fayetteville Observer reported. She said she did not participate in the search.
The university has maintained that the search was conducted properly and followed UNC System policy and state law. It was a confidential process, which is standard, and lasted about eight months.
Stuart Augustine, chair of the FSU Board of Trustees and search committee, said it was his responsibility to ensure that the process was “fair and deliberate.”
“I am confident that occurred,” Augustine said in a statement.
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The UNC System recently changed its chancellor search process, giving the system president more power. The president can add two finalists to be interviewed by the search committee and then select a final candidate from that list to send to the BOG for approval.
Faculty across the system opposed the policy, worrying it will allow the president to choose a chancellor without input from an individual campus. The process did not apply in the FSU search, though, because it had been started before the new policy was enacted.
“This was a thorough process and there was no selecting of Darrell and placing of Darrell in this search from the UNC System or board or whomever,” Allison said at the press conference in February.
Moving forward and rebuilding trust
FSU professor Chet Dilday said most faculty are upset about the process by which Allison was selected, not Allison himself.
As the chair of the Faculty Senate, Dilday said it’s his responsibility to work closely with Allison “through this difficult time” and he has faith they will fulfill the university’s mission together.
“We don’t have any choice,” Dilday said.
Dilday said faculty members are ready to “roll up their sleeves” and partner with Allison for genuine shared governance moving forward, especially considering Allison’s lack of day-to-day experience on a college campus.
“This is not a business,” Dilday said. “This is a university, and things work differently here.”
Dilday suggested that Allison meet with each department to get more in-depth information of the strengths and challenges of each academic discipline. He also would like Allison to add non-voting members to the board of trustees that represent faculty and staff.
Richard Kingsberry, president of the FSU Alumni Association, said Allison needs to convince his constituents that he will move the university forward with their input and address issues like increasing doctorate degree programs and getting equitable funding, Kingsberry said.
“His challenge will be gaining acceptance and gaining approval,” Kingsberry said. “When people don’t buy into things, they don’t provide their full support.”
Tiaquan Pleasant, a sophomore student leader at FSU, said, “I feel like we could’ve had a better chancellor, but we can’t change that right now.” He said faculty, staff and student leaders will support Allison once he’s on campus, but “it’s going to be difficult.”
In his first week, Allison will host a series of town halls with students, faculty, staff and alumni. He also plans to meet with city and county officials and community members to better understand FSU’s role locally.
When asked about how to be an effective leader in this contentious environment, he referenced the school’s official motto, Res Non Verba, which means “Deeds, Not Words.”
“Over time … when they watch my deeds, we’ll see progress,” Allison said.
This story was originally published March 12, 2021 at 3:10 PM with the headline "Many skeptical as FSU’s new leader starts. But he hopes campus will give him a chance.."
