Chancellor Holden Thorp said he believes the University is in good shape

Despite the recent scandals UNC has faced, including those that contributed to his decision to resign, Chancellor Holden Thorp believes it’s still in good shape.

Thorp gave a state of the University address at Tuesday’s Student Congress meeting, detailing the factors that shape his positive view of the University, addressing challenges UNC has faced in recent years, and responding to students’ questions.

“Despite the turnover in South Building, the fundamental traits of the University are in great shape,” said Thorp, who will step down in June.

Speaker of Student Congress Paige Comparato said the Student Code states that every year the chancellor should be invited to give an address, though it hasn’t been done in recent years.

Thorp said the number of undergraduate applications — which he expects to be up by five percent this year — and the number of grants and gifts that the University receives are quantitative ways of showing how UNC is doing. He said gifts are holding steady and that in the last five years, UNC has moved up to ninth place in external and federal funds spent on research.

But Thorp also touched on recent troubles, including a complaint — related to the University’s handling of sexual assault — filed against UNC to the U.S. Department of Education on Jan. 16, and the problems found in the Department of African and Afro-American Studies.

Thorp said he believes the University’s sexual assault policy is in compliance with the guidelines set by the Office for Civil Rights. He also said he believes this complaint is a great opportunity to get more people involved in the conversations about sexual assault on college campuses.

Thorp said the most telling finding of the Martin Report, released on Dec. 19, was that no other faculty members were involved in the academic scandal.

“The important thing that happened to me was Gov. Martin giving really a tribute to our generous colleagues in African and Afro-American studies,” he said. “They’ve been through a lot this past year and a half with people equating the situation with the whole department rather than the individuals involved, and that has been something that has been painful to me.”

Thorp concluded his remarks by answering questions from students about his thoughts on raising the out-of-state student cap, the job the University has done in bringing diversity to faculty and offering in-state tuition to undocumented students who have grown up in North Carolina.

Brittany Clark, a member of Student Congress, said she thought Thorp’s address was informative, and she was impressed by how he handled student questions because they covered such a wide range of topics.

“Overall, I thought it was a positive message that he brought to Student Congress,” she said.

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