Chancellor meets greets

Students hoping to share ideas complaints or just friendly conversation with Chancellor Holden Thorp had the chance to chat over cookies and cocoa Monday afternoon.

About 100 students dropped by the open house thrown by the student advisory committee to the chancellor in the Alpine Bagel Lounge of the Student Union ­— a departure from the more formal question-answer formats of the two previous open houses.

Student Body Vice President Todd Dalrymple said that with the event's proximity to exams" student government decided to do something a little different for this open house.

""Students might not have the most pressing issues facing our University at the forefront of their minds right now"" he said. We thought we'd try something more low-key.""

Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Peggy Jablonski" Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Melissa Exum" General Alumni Association President Doug Dibbert and several student government officials also attended.

Exum said a meet-and-greet with administrators is a good way for both sides to communicate.

""It provides an opportunity for students to share information that we might not know about"" Exum said. It makes us more accessible.""

But even in the more informal environment" many students still wanted to discuss day-to-day issues.

Ginger Guidry a graduate student in the Gillings School of Global Public Health" said she came to talk to Thorp about increasing bicycle facilities on campus and increasing promotion of bicycling as a transportation option.

""I think we have a great potential as a community to have more people using active transport options"" she said.

Another student asked about recent changes to the senior underload policy, which no longer allow seniors taking fewer than 12 hours to be considered full-time students.

Thorp said that he is in the process of addressing the issue.

When people ask me about something and I only hear one side" I don't respond until I get to the other side" Thorp said.

Thorp also said he was asked some of the usual questions"" at Monday's event. These included queries about the dining plan and career advice.

""The best thing is that some of our senior team is here"" Thorp said. It's good for students to see that I don't do all of this myself.""



Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.