Linda Carlisle Steps Away from the Board

Carlisle, who had two years left on her term with the Board of Trustees, announced this week that she is leaving the board effective June 30. She has not revealed her reasons for leaving, but I am willing to speculate.

Carlisle has a conscience.

There, I’ve said it.

She has watched UNCG administration become increasingly dysfunctional and crooked over the last six years.  The Board has been complicit in each act of tyranny and deception. However, the Board of Trustees is made up of individuals and doesn’t always act with complete unity and accord. Carlisle has had the difficult job of trying to support the university while remaining true to her conscience.

People have many ideas about how change should be brought about and here we have a strong aversion to airing our ‘dirty laundry’ [the primary criticism levied against what I do]. Carlisle did not get to be on the Board of Trustees because she is a hot headed revolutionary, so her tight lipped response to questions about her reasons for leaving is not surprising.

Would I prefer that she spoke out about why she is leaving? Sure. However, we have learned to read between the lines. When a higher up makes a decision and specifically declines to give reason for that decision…it means exactly what we suspect is exactly the case.

Carlisle sent as loud a message as she could.

This board is toxic. The executive structure at UNCG is falling apart. From staff to board, good people are getting out and sending a strong statement: we won’t be part of the assault on the heart and soul of UNCG.

We’re losing the robber barons and the Robin hoods. There are still plenty of us here working on the inside in whatever ways we can; and there are still plenty of us here working now from the outside in whatever ways we can.

The winds of change are blowing.