Bowles: "The world has gotten smarter ... and we have got to get smarter with it."
Excerpts from Address by UNC President Erskine Bowles
University Day Convocation
October 12, 2006
I love what this University stands for and, particularly, what this campus stands for. It is proudly a public university and it is – this campus is – a university of the people. Carolina stands for access. We believe to our very soul in affordability. It’s what we are.
I spent much of 2005 working for the United Nations coordinating the global response to the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia. … Traveling throughout Asia showed me that … if we don’t wake up and get more of our own people better educated, we are going to be a second-rate power in America and here in North Carolina before we know it. I’m not talking about in 50 years. I’m talking about in my lifetime. I’m talking about in your lifetime.
I have to work as hard as I possibly can to hold down the cost of a college education and to do all I can to make sure that everyone that we accept into any of our universities graduates with a diploma that means something. … Carolina defines quality, and nobody can give you that kind of reputation. You have to earn it. I love the fact that on every national ranking of educational value, Chapel Hill ranks right up there at or near the top.
We have a real responsibility, not just to maintain our well-deserved, well-earned reputation for quality and value – but to improve upon it, and to improve upon it so that we are unquestionably again the best public university in America…. What does Carolina have to do to turn that aspiration into reality? I’m going to give you six action items.
First, we must remain accessible. We must keep tuition as low as practicable so that low-and moderate-income families don’t get priced out of the market. For its part, the UNC Board of Governors is going to seek additional state funds for need-based financial aid. … In addition, a proposal now (approved by) the Board of Governors … would limit the scope of campus-initiated tuition and fee increases over the next four years – and this proposal also requires that every UNC campus set aside at least 25 percent of new tuition revenues for need-based aid. Carolina has already gone far, far beyond that requirement…. The Carolina Covenant not only sets a high bar for other institutions within the UNC system, but it has set the national benchmark for what it truly means to be a great and accessible public university.
Second, we’ve got to invest in our faculty. … There is nothing else I believe more strongly than this. Our faculty are our greatest asset. … You hold the key to our future in your minds. We have to be able to attract and keep great faculty. And to do that we must pay them and we must provide them with the facilities, the equipment and the freedom of inquiry that they need…. As long as I am president of this university, that will be my top priority.
Your chancellor, the Board of Trustees, the Board of Governors and I, we are all going to work hand in glove with the Legislature to begin this year – not in 50 years, not in 10 years, not in five years, not in two years, but this year – to increase the faculty salaries so that we can get all of our faculty to the 80th percentile of their peer institutions. … Under the four-year tuition plan being considered by the Board of Governors, at least 25 percent of any campus-initiated tuition revenues must go to faculty salaries until a campus reaches the 80th percentile.
The endowed professorships that are being made possible by the Carolina First Campaign, they are so important to this…. Endowed chairs allow us to attract and retain the kind of talent … that we just can't afford with state funding alone. The Kenan Professorships literally put Carolina on the national map. But it will take a lot more … private investment on this scale to take Carolina to number one and to keep it there. And Paul Fulton, Mike Overlock and Charlie Shaffer … are leading the effort in the Carolina First Campaign to raise the funds to do just that – and to do it now. I thank them from the bottom of my heart and you should, too.
Third, to be number one, we must also provide far more graduate scholarships and other financial support so that we can recruit the very best graduate students…. It's no different than trying to recruit the very best basketball players in the world to North Carolina.
We have to convince the Legislature of the importance of graduate students to our teaching, scholarship and research. … I know full well that the recruitment packages that we are able to offer today with state funds to these smart graduate students, they just aren't competitive with other top universities. … Our state leaders, they have got to understand that providing adequate support for the best and brightest is an investment … that will pay huge economic dividends for our state in the years ahead.
Fourth, to be number one we must invest in research. … Carolina contributes enormously to the economic development of North Carolina, to technology transfer and to the expansion of industry throughout our state. Chapel Hill accounts for more than $600 million of our University system’s total sponsored research awards, and that is largely due to our well-deserved and well-earned reputation in the health sciences fields. … Development of Carolina North will certainly play a critical role in that effort and, I promise you, you will have my total support, my total commitment, to that undertaking.
Fifth, I also believe that we must not lose our focus on the liberal arts. … We must make absolutely sure that our students and graduates have the problem-solving skills, the creative-thinking skills and the communication skills that every employer and every community needs … to compete and win in this knowledge-based global economy.
Finally, to be number one we have to hold ourselves accountable. We have to set our standards higher. … That's why James (Moeser) has set new, higher and more difficult retention and graduation goals for Carolina. He is serious, as am I, about having the best retention and graduation rates in America.
The first North Carolina State Constitution declared that one of the principal roles of our state university was to deliver “all useful learning.” What is useful today is clearly different from what was useful for past generations. The world has gotten smarter – a lot smarter – and we have got to get smarter with it.
