The UNC-Chapel Hill chancellor has his sights set on the big picture -- despite federal-level uncertainties and campus clashes over his business-driven vision.
Not many leaders would reflect fondly on being compared to Toto, the dog in The Wizard of Oz.
Lee Roberts does.
Next to his desk in South Building at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the chancellor proudly hangs a News & Observer political cartoon from his days as state budget director under Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.
When the cartoon was published, McCrory had proposed significant tax cuts just as Kansas was making headlines for steep revenue shortfalls due to its own tax reductions. The cartoon depicts North Carolina leaders as Oz characters, including then-House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate leader Phil Berger, with a sign that reads, "Welcome to Kansas' tax cuts" and "follow the red ink road."
Roberts, shown as Toto, has a bubble above his head that says, "No problem."
"This was speculation that North Carolina had embarked on the same road," Roberts said in a recent interview with The Assembly. "But ultimately, we ended up with a $400 million surplus that year. So all of the fears were unfounded, and that's why it's funny."
Roberts' delight in the drawing reflects something core to his attitude in his new job: He has a vision for sweeping change at the state's flagship university, and despite heaps of criticism and skepticism, he's confident he'll be proven right in the end.
"This is not a short-term kind of place," he said. "It's the kind of institution where change happens relatively slowly, and that's OK. But it means you need to have a long-term vision."
Roberts, who served as interim chancellor before being named to the post permanently last August, says he wants to make the country's oldest public university No. 1 in the nation. (Recent U.S. News rankings have it at No. 5 among public institutions.) He wants to take a business executive's approach, expanding the school's real estate footprint, adding more students, and leaning into sports to raise UNC-CH's national profile.
"Chancellor Roberts embraced his leadership role with a steady hand and a determination to do what's best for the long-term interest and growth of Carolina," UNC System President Peter Hans said in a statement. "It's a tough assignment for anyone, but he's led with effective resolve and a calm faith in the university's importance to the future."
But a legacy can be difficult to plan. Since Roberts left the budget office, North Carolina legislators have continued cutting taxes, and nonpartisan analysts now project the state will soon face annual shortfalls, though Republicans say those concerns are overblown. Meanwhile, Roberts' tenure at UNC-CH could be remembered more for President Donald Trump's dramatic cuts to research funding and trustee battles over tenure than for his plans to revamp the university's finances.
Campus stakeholders and outside observers who spoke with The Assembly said their initial impressions of Roberts as a pragmatic leader and attentive listener have largely endured over his first official year in the post. Supporters say his Republican connections and behind-the-scenes work in Washington have put UNC-CH in a strong position to weather the storm swirling around colleges in the Trump administration.
"He's doing about as much as you can do to bridge the gap between the political infrastructure in North Carolina, and in the U.S., and the campus," said Holden Thorp, UNC-CH's chancellor from 2008 to 2013. "It's an impossible task, and I think he's certainly doing a lot better than I could, and he's doing it better than a lot of his peers around the country."
However, some others find Roberts' quiet approach to what they view as existential threats disconcerting. Certain flashpoints, including his role in the Board of Trustees' decision this spring to delay votes to approve tenure for 33 faculty and clashes over the controversial School of Civic Life and Leadership, point to the potential blindspots of a leader who comes from outside of academia.
Beth Moracco, the chair of UNC-CH's faculty council, said that many faculty members have questioned: "Being someone who doesn't have an academic background, can [he] be an effective leader in this role?"
Roberts has maintained ties to his previous job running SharpVue Capital, a Raleigh-based investment company. But he says he's focused on UNC-CH, and he is pushing for big changes there. Just weeks after he announced plans to tighten the school's beltand eliminate administrative positions, he also welcomed UNC-CH's biggest freshman class in history.
"There is significant disruption. There is significant dislocation," he told The Assembly. "I think it represents an opportunity for Carolina."
He pointed to typical higher education metrics to show where the university is thriving, such as an increase in applications and stable tuition rate. In the same breath, he also nodded to the university's AAA credit ratings. "I wouldn't trade our strategic position from that of any other university that I know anything about."
About two months after Roberts became interim chancellor in January 2024, he announced what he viewed as the four most important issues facing the university: enrollment, the physical master plan, applied science programs, and artificial intelligence.
Roberts made moves on several of those fronts in his first six months with the permanent title, especially on real estate development. At a January Board of Trustees meeting, he announced that the university would admit 500 more students this fall than it did last year. To accommodate that growth, Roberts hinted at big plans for Carolina North, a 250-acre tract of land the university owns two miles from the main campus that has been slated for development for nearly two decades.
In the months since, Roberts floated relocating the Dean E. Smith Center basketball arena to Carolina North, and the trustees reviewed a proposal to build a multiuse cricket stadium there, promoting some skepticism. The athletics-focused developments are just a piece of larger plans Roberts has set in motion to help generate needed revenue for college sports. The university also put out a request for proposals for new student housing at Carolina North this spring but then retracted it in July to expand the scope of the project.
Roberts told The Assembly he envisions a "true live, work, study, research, play environment" at the expansion space. "I don't know of another location like Carolina North -- certainly within North Carolina, probably across the Southeast -- with that much developable land, with that much infrastructure in place," he said. "We have a responsibility to use our assets to serve the people of North Carolina. And this is a tremendous asset."
It's a big change of pace in Chapel Hill, where questions about enrollment and development have long confronted campus leaders. The university, which predated the town itself, has been a crucial partner in tackling some of the municipality's biggest challenges, such as housing affordability, Chapel Hill Mayor Jess Anderson said. "I do really, really, really appreciate the intention that Chancellor Roberts brings to try to get things done," she said.
The perennial issues surrounding development fit squarely in Roberts' wheelhouse. After 17 years at banks and private equity firms and his 18-month stint in the state budget office, Roberts' main domain at SharpVue was real estate. His previous experience in higher education came from his service on the UNC System Board of Governors and four years as an adjunct professor at his alma mater, Duke University, where he taught a public budgeting class.
It's not the resume of a typical chancellor. Only 9 percent of college leaders had an immediate past position outside of higher education, and just 4 percent had business executive careers, according to the American Council on Education's most recent survey.
But Roberts' private sector experience is why the people who hired him wanted him there. "UNC in particular is such a large enterprise compared to the rest of our system," said Kirk Bradley, a Board of Governors member who served alongside Roberts and later approved his hire. "While he's considered, in the academic term, nontraditional, when you look at what's going on and what's facing UNC in particular, in the 21st century, he was uniquely qualified."
The uncommonly steep learning curve Roberts faced in the complicated culture of academia is something he acknowledges. "I probably feel more comfortable than maybe the average president or chancellor when it comes to budgeting and finance and our real estate operation," Roberts told The Assembly. "But at the same time, I have an enormous amount to learn."
UNC-CH already has millions of frozen grant dollars, and it stands to lose millions more in research funding under Trump's proposals, many of which are tied up in court. While six UNC-CH students and many others nationwide had their visa statuses eventually restored, thousands more across the country remain in limbo. Taken together, Trump's immigration changes could cause an anticipated 30 to 40 percent decline in international student enrollment nationwide this fall.
The broad attacks on higher ed have shaken UNC-CH's faculty. Some on campus say they've wanted to hear more from their chancellor on how the school will navigate the whirlwind of changes -- or how Roberts feels, personally, about the onslaught from Washington.
"He's trying to handle a lot of these issues ... in a kind of private back room," said Erik Gellman, a professor of history and the vice president of UNC-CH's American Association of University Professors chapter. "But from my perspective, as a professor who's not privy to any of these conversations, it's really hard to know who's doing what and how this is being managed."
Moracco, the faculty senate chair, said some professors want Roberts to publicly defend higher education's core values. "You don't necessarily have to say, 'Well, here's the answer,'" she said. "But just some empathy and compassion, I think, goes a long way."
Multiple sources behind the scenes said Roberts bent the ear of both state and federal legislators. They couldn't point to any particular threat that Roberts staved off, but they generally felt that things could have been worse for UNC-CH without him.
Shortly after Trump's second term began, Roberts traveled to the U.S. Capitol with leaders from Duke University, NC State University, and Wake Forest University to greet North Carolina's congressional delegation. Kelly Dockham, UNC-CH's director of federal affairs, said Roberts arranged meetings with lawmakers inside and outside of the delegation. Roberts talked about the impact and role of research in those conversations, highlighting "the return on investment that we benefit from," Dockham said. UNC media relations said Roberts has visited D.C. three more times this year.
Roberts told The Assembly he doesn't need to convince North Carolina's delegation of the university's importance. "Everyone's on the same page in that regard," he said. Roberts was less effusive about conversations with officials in the Trump administration. He said he engages in "regular dialogue" that focuses on communicating the value of universities and their research mission for the country's future.
Thorp, who now lives in D.C. and is editor-in-chief of the research journal Science, has met with Roberts several times during his visits. Roberts has gotten "better outcomes" at the federal level than he could have, Thorp said, pointing to the university's participation in crafting a proposal to help preserve research-related reimbursements. He also noted that early drafts of Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act made more drastic changes to student loans and other higher ed programs than the version Congress enacted.
"I think if there weren't leaders that could talk to Republican legislators like Lee, then that wouldn't happen," Thorp said.
Roberts has political capital and connections closer to home, too. "He certainly can pick up the phone and, I think, call the governor, the speaker, or the president pro tem," said Bradley, the Board of Governors member. "If you can't have a conversation, which we've had previous chancellors that probably were in that position, then you're going to take what you get and nothing more."
Republican Senate leader Berger in a statement called Roberts a "transformative leader." "He's provided steady guidance during a time of increasing uncertainty," Berger said. "He hasn't been afraid to make tough decisions in order to get the best results for the university and its students."
Part of the reason for Roberts' quieter approach may be his personality. Most people who spoke with The Assembly agreed he naturally gravitates toward technical details and internal deliberations rather than public debates and sweeping statements.
"He's measured and reserved," said Roger Perry, a former UNC-CH trustee. "But I think that when he does speak, he speaks extremely well, articulately with knowledge, and I just think that he needs to do more of that publicly."
While Roberts said he understands the desire for university leaders to take a more "confrontational approach," he doesn't believe that would help. "As I look out across the higher education landscape, it appears to me that most presidents and chancellors have reached the same conclusion."
As far as the Trump administration's critique of higher ed, Roberts said "most rational observers would say that it's OK to update federal funding priorities from time to time, that the grants process has been unnecessarily cumbersome, and that there are areas where there can be broad consensus around change and around reform."
While the federal changes are disruptive, Roberts said he believes the university is resilient and must adapt.
"There may be some institutions of higher education whose posture has been, 'Please, just put everything back the way it was before,'" he said. "That's not realistic. That's not going to happen. And I think what is more constructive is to try to say, 'Here is the role that we believe we can play.'"
The federal pressure on colleges will likely only build. While Ivy League schools were the initial focus of the Trump administration's ire, large public institutions like the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Virginia, UNC-CH's peers, have recently come under the microscope.
"As the amount of political interference increases ... will Roberts draw a line somewhere in the sand and say, 'This is unethical. At this point, I have to stand up for academic freedom'?" Gellman asked. "That is something that I don't think has happened yet."
While Trump's attacks were Roberts' first big pressure test, the most contentious one of the spring semester came closer to home.
In March, the university's Board of Trustees delayed voting on all cases of faculty awaiting tenure, a step that normally occurs without controversy. At its May meeting, the board pushed back most of the votes again, with no public explanation from the trustees or university officials. Panic quickly ensued across campus. Tenure is considered a key tenet of academic freedom that prevents experienced professors from being fired because of their views or research.
One new hire awaiting tenure, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they began talking to other universities after the delayed vote. "What do you do when you sign a contract and start moving your family and life over, then you learn your employer is willing to play games and dangle the prospect of joblessness in your face while giving no reason?" they said. "You quickly understand there is a basic competence and trust issue."
A week after delaying the votes in May, the board reversed course and approved the cases -- though several trustees publicly expressed skepticism about tenure. The Assembly obtained an email in which then-Provost Chris Clemens claimed Roberts had agreed to the tenure delays to save money. Clemens, who has since stepped downfrom the role, declined to comment.
The new hire who had started looking elsewhere decided to stay at UNC-CH after the tenure cases were approved.
Roberts told The Assembly that the board's concern about the long-term financial commitment involved with granting tenure was "entirely legitimate." At the same time, he said the university must also consider the "value created" for the cost. "That's what that discussion is all about," Roberts said. "I'll add that if the value created was not greater than the cost incurred, Carolina wouldn't be in business for very long."
Asked about the implications of the delay on academic freedom and the university's reputation, Roberts curtly responded: "Tenure is not going anywhere at Chapel Hill."
Moracco, who sent the chancellor an open letter after the May meeting, said Roberts pushed trustees to vote quickly instead of waiting until their scheduled July meeting. While she is "cautiously optimistic" that the chancellor understands the importance of tenure now, the email exchange between Roberts and Clemens that The Assembly detailed last monthworried her.
"Given some of these revelations in the article, but also the tenor of the discussion at the Board of Trustees meeting, faculty are concerned that this issue is not resolved," she said. "This seems like it's not going away."
Other incidents have hinted at an underlying tension between Roberts' approach and the norms of academia. The controversial School of Civic Life and Leadership, which many faculty have criticized for its roots as a conservative-backed center, madeheadlines all year for clashes between Dean Jed Atkins and some of its inaugural faculty, who have since departed.
One exchange has particularly troubled faculty. In March, Inside Higher Ed reported that Clemens canceled a faculty search committee after he said Atkins skirted standard hiring processes and requirements. A few days later, Clemens said in an email the searches would continue after Roberts "committed sufficient funds." (Clemens declined to comment.)
It's unclear exactly what happened behind the scenes, though the impression that Roberts overruled the provost on an academic issue was disconcerting to some. "If there's a story to understand about Roberts' leadership, I think that has to be part of it," said Gellman, the AAUP chapter vice president. He said that was "one moment in this past year that really concerned me."
The university said in a statement that SCiLL received a one-time appropriation to cover initial hires. But that was "not sufficient to cover the full startup cost of the school," leading Roberts to designate additional funds, UNC-CH said.
Pieces of Roberts' growth-and-development focused agenda have also sparked concern. That includes Roberts' initiation of a restructuring plan called ServiceFirst, which aims to centralize administrative operations rather than housing specialized staff within departments or schools.
In July, Roberts announced that the first phase of the plan will produce $8.5 million in savings, which the university said it aims to achieve "primarily through attrition." The move was included in $70 million in cuts Roberts approved to stave off expected federal and state funding reductions.
The implementation of ServiceFirst as the school expands enrollment worries Rebecca Howell, the chair of the UNC-CH employee forum. "I don't know that it comes from a space of truly understanding the nuance of higher ed and the support required for faculty and students," Howell said.
Roberts said that increasing enrollment requires more staff in student-focused areas like advising but not HR, IT, or finance, which he said are the near-term focus of ServiceFirst. "These are generally not student-facing or faculty-facing roles," he said. "We believe we can both reduce costs and improve operational effectiveness, given how much redundancy is built into our system."
In addition to the ServiceFirst cuts, Roberts' plan to trim 2 percent of UNC-CH's operating budget also included $17.2 million in cuts to nonresident financial aid, prompting concerns from some out-of-state students. Roberts said he would host a forum series this fall to keep the community updated on the belt-tightening process.
"Name the topic, and we have a wide range of views about it on this campus," Roberts told reporters at a board of trustees meeting the day after the cuts were announced. "And that's by design. That's healthy. That's what the university is supposed to be all about." No details about the forum series have been released yet.
While Roberts, 56, says he is at UNC-CH for the long haul, some on campus still wonder whether he has his eye on returning to the private sector. When Roberts was named interim chancellor, Doug Vaughn, SharpVue's co-founder, told media outlets that both of them planned to retire with the company.
But once Roberts got the permanent post at UNC-CH, he told The Assembly that he would step down from the firm, even though the UNC System office said nothing barred him from continuing outside work as long as he followed system policies. While federal- and state-required filings show that Roberts has removed himself from some work with SharpVue, he and Vaughn are listed as the two principal owners of SharpVue, which reported managing $354 million in assets as of the end of 2024.
Roberts remains involved with the firm. In 2024, the company's annual filings with the North Carolina Secretary of State listed him as a registered agent or company official on more than 20 entities and subsidiaries. In SharpVue's 2025 filings, Roberts was removed from the paperwork and management roles for at least eight entities, with other SharpVue partners replacing him. He is still listed in state filings as the manager or managing director of several SharpVue entities. Multiple experts told The Assemblythose titles usually imply direct oversight.
In a statement, university media relations said while Roberts is "no longer involved in the daily operations of SharpVue," he remains listed on SharpVue's filings out of "an abundance of caution, given his passive ownership interest."
"In fact, he and SharpVue often go above and beyond when reporting his involvement, which is why they continue to include him on the SEC filings," the university said.
John Pelissero, the director emeritus of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, questioned why Roberts had not taken more steps to separate himself from SharpVue. "When you turn to somebody who's been a corporate executive or, in this case, with private equity, they're going to have a number of potential financial conflicts of interest because of what they've been doing," he said.
His private sector business has intersected with the public sector before: Roberts' first real estate deal in Raleigh at SharpVue after leaving the budget office involved a state agency. In 2018, the company bought the building that housed the NC Education Lottery and multiple other non-state-government tenants. SharpVue sold the building for $41.7 million in 2021.
James Finkelstein and Judith Wilde, who have researched college president searches and contracts as professors in the George Mason University School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs, told The Assembly that Roberts' past in private equity and his present work with real estate at UNC-Chapel Hill should be watched closely for potential conflicts. "They see this as a source of revenue for the institution going forward," Finkelstein said. "I'm not certain that the best choice for [chancellor] is to be the chief real estate developer for the institution."
"If nothing else," Wilde added, "it's ripe for that perception of a problem."
The university said SharpVue does not and has never had any investments in any UNC System assets, its affiliates, or any entity of the state of North Carolina. Roberts told The Assembly that while he understood questions about conflicts of interest, he is "confident" that he has none. He also said he has no plans to return to the private sector "anytime soon."
"If folks think I'm doing a good job at serving the university," he said, "I want to be here for as long as people think that I'm doing a good job."
Across the country, the tenure of college presidents keeps getting shorter. Roberts, who has now served 18 months between the interim and full-time appointments, told The Assembly he is already an outlier.
"The six schools that we tend to benchmark ourselves against most consistently are the following: Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, Virginia, Texas, and Florida-I'm the longest serving chancellor among those schools," he said.
Among those leaders, one retired and another left for a new job. The other four stories are less rosy. Three left under pressure from their campus communities or the Trump administration, while former University of Michigan President Santa Ono left for the University of Florida, only to be blocked from assuming the job because of his past support for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Despite that challenging environment for college leaders, Roberts doesn't seem fazed.
"To be effective in these roles, given the nature of these institutions, you have to take a long-term perspective," he said. "If you try to effect overnight change, you'll end up getting pretty frustrated. I think significant change is achievable over time."
Erin Gretzinger is a higher education reporter at The Assembly. Comment on this story at [email protected].