On University Day, 3 challenges take center stage

On a day meant to celebrate the University’s past while looking toward its future, the latter has managed to grab all of the attention.

Last University Day, Chancellor Holden Thorp was fighting a persistent football scandal and a shrinking budget.

One year later, a focus on past missteps has largely given way to widespread uncertainty about the University’s future.

With Thorp on his way out, and uncertainty growing by the day, UNC is facing a set of challenges, all of which have the potential to determine what happens next.

New chancellor

For Thorp, enough was enough.

After a five-year tenure plagued with stringent budget cuts and a series of administrative scandals, the man who was supposed to be chancellor for 20 years announced Sept. 17 that he plans to resign in June.

And members of the 21-person search committee charged with finding his replacement have said they hope to take this opportunity to move beyond the turmoil.

“Mistakes have been made, lessons have been learned,” said Wade Hargrove, chairman of the Board of Trustees, on Monday.

“And we hope that those mistakes will not be made moving forward.”

The committee is looking across the nation for the best candidate to succeed Thorp, and has hired the consulting firm R. William Funk & Associates to find the best fit.

The goal is to have someone identified and in place by July 1, he said.

“This is a national institution. We think that we attract the best and the brightest, and we hope that it will,” he said.

But he also said the best candidate could be found internally.

“That doesn’t necessarily preclude the fact that the best and brightest might indeed be on campus today,” he said.

Rising tuition

In a decade wracked by economic instability, little has stayed constant in UNC’s budget.

Tuition hikes, however, have become the norm.

After a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in state support, tuition has been increasing steadily throughout the past several years — most recently with a $695 increase for in-state undergraduates this year.

But as tuition drastically rises, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Bruce Carney said the administration has tried to stay true to one thing — protecting students.

“We’ve tried to protect the academic mission of the campus as much as possible throughout these (budget) cuts,” he said.

“The charge we have here, in light of University Day, is to keep in mind how great this University is and how we can keep it great.”

Last year was the first time that students could feel the effects of the cuts, Carney said.

Tuition hikes for graduate students and out-of-state undergraduates are on the table for next year, along with a $600 increase for in-state undergraduates that has been set in stone.

But Carney said he is hopeful that tuition will stop rising soon.

“We will continue to take it a year at a time, but I’m feeling a lot better about the future.”

Student athletes

While the University attempts to root out the origin of one of its worst academic scandals ever, spectators far and wide anxiously await any damaging discovery that could be around the corner.

Former Gov. Jim Martin is in the middle of his cross-departmental academic review, and was scheduled to report the findings of his investigation Thursday to a UNC-system Board of Governors panel.

But with more than a decade of information and data, Martin said it’s taking longer than anticipated.

He said no results will be released until he and the consulting firm finish their work, which he said should be by the end of October.

“By the time we get to our report, there could be some pain, but it’s better to get it out now,” Martin said.

And the University is spending more than $70,000 to get the truth out of this review, which centers around the question of whether privileges exist for student athletes in UNC’s classrooms.

Although it might sting now, Martin said the review — no matter what it reveals — will help the University move on.

“We want you to get back to the pride you’ve always had in your school,” he said.