Open Letter from the Council for European Studies (CES) Opposing the Proposed Closure of UNC area studies centers
January 7, 2026
Dear Chancellor Roberts,
On behalf of the Council for European Studies (CES), the preeminent US-based organization dedicated to supporting the study of Europe across disciplines, we write to encourage you to reconsider the proposed closure of six Area Studies centers at UNC–Chapel Hill, including the Center for European Studies (CES–UNC) and the Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies (CSEEES). These proposed closures follow the loss of federal Title VI funding and coincide with statewide budget cuts affecting UNC System centers.
We, CES, believe that the proposal to close these Area Studies centers is institutionally short-sighted, and threatens to undermine the academic excellence that makes UNC-Chapel Hill a world-renowned research university. UNC is currently one of the top 5 public institutions in the United States, a truly impressive achievement. But maintaining UNC’s pre-eminent status requires a strong commitment to protecting its core academic assets and programs, not just in STEM but also in the social sciences and humanities. Closing UNC’s Area Studies centers means shutting the door on academic and institutional excellence and risks harming UNC’s hard-won academic reputation.
1. Area Studies Centers as Essential Institutional Infrastructure
Notwithstanding the challenges UNC faces with respect to the loss of Title VI federal funding for universities nationally, the solution cannot be to close specialist centers of excellence. These centers serve as critical coordinating hubs, enabling interdisciplinary coherence, language training, international mobility, public outreach, and global scholarly networks. Their value lies not only in the research they facilitate but in the institutional ecosystems they sustain: research activities, community partnerships, K–12 teacher training, international exchange, and their closure threatens to unravel decades of relationship-building with foreign universities, governments, funding bodies, and partner institutions, including international funders of the Chapel Hill Expert Survey. Such institutions “take years to build and moments to destroy” and are “exceedingly difficult to reconstruct” once dismantled.
2. The National Importance of Area Studies: A Field Essential to U.S. Global Capacity
In addition to undermining UNC’s scholarly pre-eminence as a top R1 university, the closure of these six centers would diminish the United States’ intellectual infrastructure at a moment when deep regional knowledge is urgently needed. Area Studies units provide critical training in languages, cultures, political systems, and institutions across strategically significant global regions – from Europe to Eurasia, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Multiple reports highlight that UNC’s centers have, for decades, provided programs “that offer a deeper understanding of the world’s regions and the importance of international education” and support faculty whose teaching underpins globally oriented degrees, including the bachelor’s degree in Contemporary European Studies (EURO) supported by CES–UNC.
3. UNC’s Center for European Studies: A Pillar of U.S. Knowledge and Transatlantic Engagement
The Center for European Studies at UNC is not merely another academic unit. It is one of the United States’ foremost hubs for scholarship and training on Europe, a region that remains one of America’s most important economic, political, and security partners. As reported by the Raleigh News & Observer, closing CES–UNC would severely limit education and regional expertise in an area directly relevant to North Carolina’s economy–a particularly important consideration given that European companies are among the state’s leading investors and trade partners, and that the European Union remains one of the world’s most significant regulatory actors whose decisions shape science, technology, business, and global governance (including U.S. industries). According to the EU fact sheet, the EU invests $84.3 million in North Carolina and supports more than 200,000 jobs related to goods and services exported to the EU, and EU investment. UNC CES helps support North Carolina’s growing engagement with the EU.
Likewise, the Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies plays an equally important role for U.S. knowledge generation and learning. Its loss would be devastating for the ability of UNC and ultimately the U.S. to ensure a future pipeline of graduates coming through its globally recognized MA Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies (REEES). This degree offers specialized training on a part of the world that is of crucial geopolitical significance, especially
Ensuring that Americans maintain a core of expertise, with deep understanding of this region, is essential for effective U.S. foreign policy. Such nationally significant impact cannot be replaced by dispersing functions into existing departments, which lack the structural capacity and interdisciplinary mandate that Area Studies centers uniquely provide.
For these reasons, we respectfully but urgently call on the UNC leadership and Board of Trustees to:
1. Suspend the planned sunsetting of the six Area Studies centers, including the Center
for European Studies and the Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies.
2. Develop viable alternatives that preserve the core functions of these centers, even
amid fiscal constraints.
3. Reaffirm UNC’s commitment to global education, consistent with its history and
standing among America’s great public universities.
The Council for European Studies stands ready to support UNC in advocating for the essential role of Area Studies within North Carolina, across the United States, and in our shared international academic community. We strongly encourage you to reconsider this course of action, whose long-term academic, economic, and reputational costs will far outweigh any short-term budgetary savings.
Respectfully,
Professor Eamonn Butler McIntosh
Chair, Council for European Studies (CES)
On behalf of the CES Executive Committee