Art Pope's back door into the UNC School of Government

News of the Great Law School Giveaway has been trickling out for more than a month now, with word today that the NCCU Law faculty will be considering Art Pope's low-ball offer sometime soon.

A faculty committee at the North Carolina Central University School of Law is expected to recommend within the next few weeks whether the school should establish a constitutional law center partially funded by a Republican activist ...

The offer to create a center of the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law at NCCU was brought to the school last month by former N.C. Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr, an alumnus. The proposal says that the center would collaborate with the UNC School of Government to develop scholarly study of the Constitution and that Orr, the head of the institute, would serve as the center's first director.

A new twist in the story is the clear connection to the UNC School of Government. With Pope having been rebuffed in his overtures to Chapel Hill, this is looking more and more like a back door move into a relationship with UNC - for pennies on the dollar.

The faculty at the UNC School of Government have no interest in any kind of relationship with the Show. To put it bluntly, they hate much of what Art Pope stands for. If the School of Government has a say on this (and it should), the odds of the proposed collaboration actually happening should be approximately zero.

The Puppymaster has NCCU Law right where he wants them: up against the wall. Instead of the $10 million he'd contribute to UNC or Duke, he's offering a mere $200,000 annually for only three years, most of which would go to pay Bob's salary.

Art Pope has more money than god and will spend it to buy whatever he can. He has long been a critic of higher education in North Carolina, and is now using his influence to control seats on the UNC Board of Governors, as well as the state's news media - and anywhere else he can gain a foothold.

Money talks, and in North Carolina today, the voice is Art Pope's.

I don't envy the faculty at NCCU Law. They are dealing with enormous budget pressures, driven by Mr. Pope himself, and they could well be seduced by Pope's modest offer. Let's hope not.