The Chapel Hill summer is wrapping up this weekend, as UNC students return to campus ahead of the first day of class on Monday.
“It’s going to be a terrific year,” says UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts, who’s gearing up for his third year on the job. “This is one of the best weeks of the entire year: the week before classes start, when all the students are coming back (and) you can feel the momentum starting to build. Convocation will be on Sunday, the first day of classes (is) Monday, (and) move-in for the first-year students is this Friday — and we have over 5,300 students starting their first year at Carolina, which is a record.”
Students, professors, and local residents will also see that growth reflected on the property — with construction beginning soon on two new residence halls, planning still ongoing for the future Carolina North campus, and preparations under way for a $70 million expansion of the Ackland Art Museum, with a new Franklin Street entrance that will anchor a dedicated on-campus arts district.
“With that expansion, we’ll have not only a really powerful reason for people to be on Franklin Street year-round, but a much better entrance into the campus than we have now, and much better programming around all the wonderful things happening in the arts at Carolina,” Roberts says.
The new buildings, the second campus, and that record enrollment are all part of Roberts’ mission to expand UNC’s student body by 5,000 in a ten-year period — something he says is necessary to continue fulfilling the university’s mission of service in a growing state. He says the importance of that mission was reinforced on a recent tour he did of eastern North Carolina.
“I think we need to do a better job, particularly with our graduate schools, of making sure that all the expertise we have is getting out around the state,” he says. “The demand’s not going to go away, it’s only going to increase…and I would argue that we have not only the opportunity, but really the responsibility to create the teachers and the social workers and the nurses and the librarians who are going to go out and help move our state forward.”
And as thousands of those future leaders return to Chapel Hill this weekend, to set up their rooms, buy their books, sip from the Old Well, and head to their first classes, Chancellor Roberts says he wants everyone in town to welcome them in.
“Say hi to a student,” Roberts says. “Ask them where they’re from. Ask them if they’re having a good experience at Carolina. Welcome them to Chapel Hill. I promise you won’t regret it — it’ll be the most energizing thing you do that day.”
Photo by Aaron Keck.
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