{"id":220107,"date":"2026-05-26T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/26\/uncs-risk-assessment-misses-cybersecurity-roberts-says\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T06:05:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T10:05:15","slug":"uncs-risk-assessment-misses-cybersecurity-roberts-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/26\/uncs-risk-assessment-misses-cybersecurity-roberts-says\/","title":{"rendered":"UNC\u2019s risk assessment misses cybersecurity, Roberts says"},"content":{"rendered":"

UNC\u2019s risk assessment misses cybersecurity, Roberts says<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.newsobserver.com\/news\/local\/education\/article315809493.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-26 05:00:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.newsobserver.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

Higher Stakes is a weekly newsletter about higher education from The News & Observer and reporter Jane Winik Sartwell.<\/p>\n

File images; graphic by Rachel Handley<\/p>\n

Hello reader! Welcome back to Higher Stakes, where we explore what drove the news in higher education this week. I\u2019m your host, Jane Winik Sartwell.Now that Memorial Day weekend has passed, it\u2019s officially summer vacation. It\u2019s still my absolute favorite time of year, even though I no longer have one. Just because classes are out of session, that doesn\u2019t mean the higher ed news stops.What happened at UNC System committee meetings this weekHere\u2019s what I noticed at the UNC System Board of Governors committee meetings Wednesday.The legislature still hasn\u2019t provided enrollment funding. That\u2019s the system\u2019s single biggest legislative priority during this session. When describing the long-awaited budget framework to the board, the system\u2019s chief financial officer, Jennifer Haygood, noted that there is nothing in that framework related to enrollment funding. A bill called \u201cUNC Enrollment\u201d hasn\u2019t had any action since April 21.The board authorized planning for a medical school at UNC Wilmington. Now, the school can begin planning to seek accreditation for a Doctor of Medicine program.The system officially joined the Board of Directors for the Commission for Public Higher Education, an accrediting body formed by six public university systems including those of North Carolina and Florida. \u201cThe [existing] accreditation bodies have become rather rigid in their methods,\u201d system President Peter Hans said at the meeting. \u201cWhich is a big part of the impetus here, to achieve a less expensive, less time-consuming entity for public institutions who are already subject to so many layers of oversight.\u201dThe system is working to improve its emergency management protocol. A council is working on coordinating responses to issues like mental health, public safety, natural disasters and cybersecurity.The board heard a presentation on achievement culture from Shun Robertson, senior vice president for strategy and policy. \u201cOur responsibility as a system is to not lower [our] expectations, our responsibility is to pair those high expectations with access and support,\u201d Robertson. \u201cWe want to build a culture where students can achieve at a high level without sacrificing their health.\u201dHow UNC-Chapel Hill analyzes its risks, and why the chancellor says it\u2019s not good enoughThe way UNC-Chapel Hill analyzes the biggest risks to its mission is not sufficient, according to Chancellor Lee Roberts. As it stands, the university surveys leaders across campus about their biggest concerns.That results in a list like the one the trustees were presented with at their May meeting, one that included stagnant compensation, the ServiceFirst initiative, federal funding pressure, the development of Carolina North, and the pace of AI advancement.The Board of Trustees elected not to hear a planned presentation on these risks or adopt them into their strategic plan because many deemed them irrelevant.\u201cI think it represents more of a gripe list than it does actual risks,\u201d said trustee Marty Kotis.Case in point? Cybersecurity was absent from the risk list. Just one week after the Canvas hack that left UNC\u2019s data in the hands of hackers.Cybersecurity \u201cdoesn\u2019t appear doesn\u2019t appear anywhere on the survey, but it\u2019s obviously an important risk as we saw last Friday,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cThis is an inferior risk management approach \u2014 it\u2019s what we\u2019ve been using for some time.\u201d\u201cYou\u2019re going to expect to see in a process like that the things that that affect the survey response respondents on a day-to-day basis: things like working conditions and salary levels and recruitment and retention, that\u2019s entirely to be expected,\u201d he continued. \u201cThat\u2019s worthwhile feedback. [But] in the example of cybersecurity, that\u2019s less likely to be captured in a survey like that but remains a significant risk, as we saw with the Canvas outage that affected us and thousands of other schools that are clients of Canvas.\u201dRoberts says he\u2019s focused on updating the risk assessment methodology, and that this will be the last time the board sees a list like this.Higher ed headlines from this weekOh, and just for fun, check out my colleagues\u2019 rankings of North Carolina sweet teas. Also, meet our new breaking news reporter, Faith Wardwell.Thank you for reading Higher Stakes. See you back here next week.\u2014 Jane Winik SartwellNot a subscriber? Sign up on our website to receive Higher Stakes in your inbox each week: newsobserver.com\/newsletters.<\/p>\n

Jane Winik Sartwell<\/p>\n

The News & Observer<\/p>\n

Jane Winik Sartwell covers higher education for The News & Observer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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