don’t need a magazine to devise a formula to
tell us how to do that. We don’t need a blue-ribbon panel of academics to write a lengthy
report. And we don’t need a snazzy tag line.
“We just need to take care of our people.
If we do that, then the students’ successes,
the big ideas, the recognition, the grant dollars, and the solutions to society’s greatest
problems will take care of themselves.”
He teased the audience of some 2,700
with the dry humor they’ve come to
expect, sharing congratulations from his
fourth-grade teacher who wrote that she
was “happy and not surprised that you have
become the chancellor. However, I haven’t
changed my mind about the fact that your
handwriting could hold you back one day.”
He thanked predecessor James Moeser for
“this wonderful football team,” which had
beaten Notre Dame the day before.
Thorp said Carolina’s service starts “in
our own backyard,” in a town that’s grown
to look at the University’s growth with a
more critical eye.
“We have much to work on with our
colleagues in local governments. Our
employees struggle to get to campus and
DAN SEARS ’ 74
With South Building dressed in blue and white, about 2,700 people sat under a splendid autumn
blue sky in Polk Place at the installation of the 10th chancellor.
find places to live nearby; fewer than half of
them live in Chapel Hill and Carrboro.
Empty storefronts sit too long on Franklin
Street. Our neighbors worry about the
growth of our campus.” He cited as positives UNC’s partnership with Chapel Hill
Transit, the UNC at Chapel Hill Foundation’s pending purchase of the University
Square property on Franklin Street, and
progress in town-gown negotiations on
development of Carolina North.
He talked at length about the kinds of
students and faculty Carolina needs to attract
and about the challenge of selling them.
“We want students who demonstrate a
high level of academic work and commitment to original thought. We want students
who embrace risk and meet challenges.
“For more than two centuries, we have
had the luxury of assuming that the best
University Day continued on page 12
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