It’s not just me; StateFansNation.com has some choice words on the matter as well:
Jim Hunt as chancellor would be perhaps the worst possible choice for NC State as it cleans house in the wake of a disastrous political patronage hiring scandal.
Jim Hunt as governor ran a political patronage machine that permeated every corner of state government. Key “patronage persons,†with approval or disapproval rights over hiring decisions made by managers and personnel professionals, were sown throughout the state government structure. At Broughton Hospital in Morganton, for example, the “patronage person†during the Hunt years was – a barber. That’s right: if you wanted to hire someone at one of the state’s largest mental health institutions, you cleared it with the barber.
That was state government under Jim Hunt. And it’s exactly what we don’t need at NC State. …
Restoring integrity to university hiring practices is central to repairing NC State’s reputation both internally and with the public it serves. Assigning Jim Hunt to oversee that process is like assigning Otis the town drunk to fix problems at the ABC store. NC State can, and should, do better than Jim Hunt.
