N.C. Central University Chancellor Karrie Dixon (L), N.C. State University Chancellor Kevin Howell, and UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee Roberts de-emphasized the political headwinds facing higher education at a forum sponsored by The Atlantic in Durham, N.C., on April 8, 2026. (Photo: Lynn Bonner/NC Newsline)
The audience laughed and three UNC system chancellors smiled when they heard the pointed question about how they could do their jobs without a state budget.
State universities are under financial pressure partly because the state legislature has not approved a budget and the schools are operating without enrollment funding. North Carolina is the only state that did not pass a budget last year.
UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee Roberts and N.C. Central University Chancellor Karrie Dixon, seated on opposite sides of N.C. State University Chancellor Kevin Howell at a forum Wednesday on higher education, smiled and patted Howell on the back.
Howell answered by touting N.C. State’s return on investment, a measure of the value of a university degree.
He then vouched for legislators, who he said have shown a longtime commitment to the UNC system.
“I will tell you that the members of the General Assembly are working hard now to make sure we do have a budget,” he said. Howell talked about the importance of university-sponsored research in response to a follow-up budget question.
The art of the pivot was on full display Wednesday at a forum sponsored by The Atlantic in partnership with The Assembly. The Atlantic has begun a nationwide tour where it will visit all 50 states over three years to host events on issues the magazine covers. The North Carolina event was the magazine’s sixth stop.
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The high-profile government employees running the three UNC system schools located in the Triangle avoided politics and emphasized the good, or the least worrisome, when asked about challenges facing higher education. Each chancellor used some of their time on stage to promote their schools.
UNC systems schools are cutting budgets and increasing tuition for incoming students. Cuts to federal research grants to universities add to budget pressures. And the Trump administration is pressuring universities to change their policies and has threatened their funding.
The Trump administration is suing Harvard University and UCLA, and has pushed other universities, including Brown, Columbia and Cornell into settlements over its allegations of racial discrimination, anti-Semitism and DEI policies.
Forum moderator Evan Smith, managing director for events at The Atlantic, asked Dixon if institutions of higher education should be “bowing and scraping before the President’s administration.”
Dixon didn’t answer directly, replying instead that it is important to let members of Congress know how funding helps students. Universities are finding ways to continue to serve students despite federal cuts, she said.
“At the end of the day, there’s a perception that the federal government is attempting to tell you your business, to tell you how you can and can’t operate your institution,” Smith followed.
Roberts responded by talking about broad support for federal research funding.
UNC-Chapel Hill receives about $1 billion a year in federal research funds, which Roberts said ranks 10th in the nation.
“The compact between the federal government and America’s great research universities, for the last 70 years, has been crucial to economic and more general advancement, whether it’s healthcare or national defense – you name it. The advancements that you were seeing have come from America’s great research universities,” Roberts said.
Last year, the Trump administration froze or ended thousands of research grants. But so far, Congress has rejected the administration’s budget requests for deep cuts in research funding.
Research funding in the last federal budget remained relatively flat, which Roberts said is “reflective of the significant consensus of the importance of federal support for science.”
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