Former vice chancellor for student affairs at UNC – Chapel Hill Winston Crisp will deliver the university’s winter commencement address this year.

Crisp retired from his post as vice chancellor abruptly in October after 26 years at the university. He had served in that role since 2010 after he joined student affairs as the assistant vice chancellor in 2005.

“When we think about Carolina, it is because of people like Winston who leave personal and lasting Tar Heel footprints on our campus and in our hearts. He cares so deeply and gives so completely, and no one ever forgets their first Vice Crispy hug,” Chancellor Carol Folt said in a release Tuesday. “Winston always placed students at the center of our discussions as he worked to create student success and belonging in our Carolina Community. I was honored to have him as a most trusted advisor and friend. He is the right speaker to address a new generation of Carolina leaders who are beginning their personal journeys of service that will leave a mark on our state, nation and world.”

Crisp led an effort earlier this year to convene a Mental Health Task Force, according to the university, “to assess the scope of mental health care needs for our students and provide recommendations to the administration and Board of Trustees about policies and programs related to mental health care.”

Crisp had also co-chaired the Chancellor’s Task Force on UNC – Chapel Hill History that was working to contextualize historical importance of pieces of the campus. Public records showed Crisp had been supportive of the university taking a stronger position in working to move the Confederate monument on the campus known as Silent Sam after a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last fall. The statue remained in place until protesters pulled it down from its pedestal on August 20. Additional public records showed texts from Crisp seeming to support the effort to pull down the monument.

“I am humbled by the opportunity to be this year’s winter Commencement speaker and consider it an honor and privilege,” Crisp said in Tuesday’s announcement. “I am looking forward to it tremendously.”

Crisp graduated from Johnson C. Smith University before earning his law degree from UNC.

The winter commencement is scheduled to take place at 2 p.m. Sunday, December 16, in the Dean E. Smith Center.

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