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On Monday, UNC-Wilmington announced it would “press pause” on the Razor Walker award, which the Watson College of Education has presented annually on behalf of the university since 1993. The award is supposed to go to people who stick their necks out professionally in the name of education–those who “walk the razor’s edge.”
It’s hard not to imagine the scandal that engulfed the most recent award cycle had something to do with the pause.
Related: UNCW’s Fraught Path Through the Culture War
The question is: Can the Razor Walker award be saved?
In the future, will more liberal-leaning candidates for the award feel like they’ve had their politics held against them? And, by the same token, will conservative-leaning candidates feel like they’re being recognized not for their work, but because they’re balancing a scale somewhere in the chancellor’s office?
We put several variations of that question to the university, but a spokesperson largely avoided answering them.
Read more here: Razor’s Edge
Benjamin Schachtman: Alright, Johanna Still, thanks for being here.
Johanna Still: Thank you, Ben.
BS: Okay, so on this week's episode of The Dive, you took another visit to Leland, which has recently purchased a chunk of property. But we don't know why.
JS: We don't know why. And the town has released you know, some statements about why it purchased the riverfront property. It's undeveloped. It's actually a source of a lot of public interest in that area, because it's really fast growing. It was the site of planned apartments on the river in that area, which to a lot of neighbors was sort of sacrilegious, and the developers had pulled plans for that property. And then another developer had planned to do townhomes instead in the fall. So the property was set to be developed – but the town came in last month and purchased it for $5.5 million. What's interesting about the purchase is that it's outside of town limits. And this summer, the town was banned from annexing land any further.
BS: So legally, the town can buy whatever property it wants, but it can't make this actually part of the town of Leland, right,
JS: Unless the state law changes.
BS: Interesting.
JS: And what's also interesting is that, this week, a 20-year settlement agreement with the town's longtime rival, Belville, which has property right in the area, expired. And so that I found very interesting, relevant, it hadn't been, you know, discussed or reported otherwise. The town didn't acknowledge, or really elaborate on what it plans to do with the property. And it did say that they're gonna get public input, though. It's definitely something to watch. And I do know that, you know, neighbors in the area are curious and concerned about why the town did it and, you know, what they're going to do with it.
BS: So, despite the General Assembly's efforts, it looks like Leland's aspirations for growth haven't been completely curtailed.
JS: This week we also had a rundown of why the University decided to pause an Education Award.
BS: Yeah, that's right. This is the Razor Walker award given by the Watson College of Education. As the name sort of alludes to this is for people who quote, walk the razor's edge. These are people who kind of like go above and beyond or even, maybe take some professional risks to help advance the cause of education. And earlier this year, there was some scandal when Republican State Senator Michael Lee received the award, in part for his efforts in securing funding for Isaac Bear. Without going all the way down that rabbit hole, basically, there was some contention. And it ultimately it came out from Van Dempsey, who was the Dean of Watson college, that there was a lot of pressure to make sure that a conservative won this award because the previous year, some high profile, more liberal people won, including Governor Roy Cooper's wife. And so there was a lot of questions after that, after that story broke about, basically, who would want to win this award, because it seems like it had been manipulated internally.
JS: Now, did the university explicitly referenced this controversy, and the reason behind why it was pausing the award for this upcoming spring?
BS: The University was very cautious to not reference what happened. The university has also not admitted that Van Dempsey was pushed out of his position as Dean, they say he chose to leave, Van Dempsey told us that he was basically forced out. The university also didn't really answer the key question, which is how can this award be fair to either liberals or conservatives in the future? Because if you're a left-leaning person, you might worry that that's going to be held against you. And if you're a right-leaning person, how do you know that you're not just winning the award because they needed a token conservative? And we put that question directly to the university and they didn't really answer.
JS: It fits into a larger theme that we're seeing across the state of partisanship sort of seeping into the university system.
BS: That's right. And I think that's going to be a major story we’ll be tracking next year, because we haven't seen any signs of the partisan pressure on the university system flagging. But for now, Johanna, thanks for being here.
JS: Thank you.
