CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - Faculty leaders at North Carolina formally have opposed the proposed expansion of the Atlantic Coast Conference.<br>
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Ten members of the Faculty Council's executive committee on Friday unanimously voted against ACC expansion. The resolution will be sent to Chancellor James Moeser and faculty groups at other ACC schools.<br>
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School presidents in the conference voted earlier this month to begin discussions with Big East members Miami, Boston College and Syracuse about joining their nine-team league.<br>
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Sue Estroff, the council's chairwoman, said the university presidents and faculty athletic representatives from the nine ACC campuses shouldn't have kept the expansion plan quiet for months.<br>
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"This bothers me," Estroff said. "For our sports enterprise to take us into territory where meaningful conversation cannot happen is problematic."<br>
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Estroff cited an e-mail she received this past week from an ACC faculty representative at Duke. The message said conference expansion began to be discussed in detail by the league last fall.<br>
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The council called on university presidents to halt negotiations until faculty are more involved in the process.<br>
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Adding the more distant Big East schools to the conference will mean extra travel time and more missed classes for athletes, according to the panel's resolution.<br>
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"I don't care if they're playing Washington State," said Bobbi Owen, a professor of dramatic art. "It doesn't seem to me that we should allow any more free days for students to miss class."<br>
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Duke and North Carolina were the only two ACC schools to vote against expansion at the league's meetings in Florida earlier this month. But Moeser and Duke president Nan Keohane agreed a few days later to work to include the three Big East schools in the league.
