On Friday, Francis DeLuca and I wrote an article about Gene Nichol, the professor at UNC Law School who heads the Center for Poverty, Work and Opportunity. He had just issued a rant against Pat McCrory, comparing him (for no good reason) to three segregationist governors from the 1950s and 1960s. In our article, we pointed out that the professor has had a checkered career. Former dean of the law school, he became president of the College of William & Mary in 2005. He was fired, in 2008, primarily because of two radical acts (the removal of a cross in a college chapel and his acceptance of the lurid Sex Workers’ Art Show as a campus activity.
But UNC welcomed him back. He now earns $205,400 as a professor.
His wife, B. Glenn George, did pretty well, too, also hired by the law school in 2008, for $168,000. I recently learned (and we updated our story) that she now earns $407, 410 as chief of staff to Bill Roper, who heads the UNC Health Care System and the UNC School of Medicine. I’m sure she deserves a good salary, but this news is a reminder that taxpayers of North Carolina are paying handsome salaries, well above some that the Raleigh News & Observer have featured to criticize the McCrory administration, such as a contract that pays “up to” $312,000 a year for the former auditor Les Merritt.
