The search for the next permanent UNC chancellor appears to be coming to a close.
The UNC Board of Governors is set to hold a specially called meeting on Friday to “discuss and elect a chancellor for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,” according to an alert shared by the UNC System on Wednesday. System President Peter Hans, who will have reviewed three top options chosen by the UNC Board of Trustees, is expected to select one candidate and nominate them to the governors for a vote of approval.
The Board of Governors meeting will bookend a week where the chancellor search rapidly advanced. On Monday, the chair of the Chancellor Search Advisory Committee presented top candidates identified in recent months to the Chapel Hill university’s trustees during a specially called meeting. With the trustees informed on the preferred options vetted by the group of UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC System and North Carolina leaders, the board passed on three candidates — unranked — to Hans.
The presentation and discussion of top options to lead UNC took place in closed session, which means the candidates were not discussed in a public forum. But during a brief open session, Search Committee Chair Dr. Cristy Page said the narrowed-down field represents the “best of the best” from a “very strong” pool of candidates.
“Each candidate shares the high aspirations for what our university is and what it can become,” Page said. “Each has thoughtful ideas for how to continue and expand on Carolina’s unparalleled legacy. We are confident that our next chancellor is in this group of candidates, and I look forward to discussing them with you.”
The search advisory committee was named in February to seek a replacement for Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz, who departed UNC for Michigan State’s presidency in January after five years at the helm of Carolina. Lee Roberts has been leading the university in the interim — and while he has not publicly said whether he entered his name as a permanent candidate, he is widely expected to be in contention for the long-term role.
Page, who is the executive dean for the UNC School of Medicine and chief academic officer of UNC Health, said the group spent two days conducting interviews with prospective chancellors and had robust discussion to create the recommendations. She described how the 13-member group — which includes the trustees’ chair and vice chair John Preyer and Malcolm Turner — had “healthy” deliberations about the candidates, even when disagreeing on certain perspectives or qualities for the role. Page added the committee feels strongly about all such discussions around the Carolina community being this way.
“Truly,” she concluded, “this was a model for how we should work together with mutual respect and openness in our dialogue.”
Page said the perspectives shared by the broader Carolina community helped shape her committee’s approach to vetting and considering candidates. The university held listening sessions for select campus community members during the spring and also issued an online survey to garner feedback on what people would like to see from a chancellor at UNC. According to the committee chair, the online survey saw more than 2,700 responses. Reporting from the News & Observer shared in July the group is no longer set to hold listening sessions in the fall based on the breadth of existing participation of students, faculty, staff, alumni, Chapel Hill residents, donors, and others.
“We heard a wide range of topics and interests,” Page told the Board of Trustees, “but there was one prevailing theme: the passion and love for this great public university, and the drive that everyone has for it to continue to excel in everything we do. What we heard time and again is the impact Carolina has on its state and its people.”
To watch the open session of the specially called UNC Board of Trustees meeting on Monday, click here. A livestream of Friday’s UNC Board of Governors meeting, which will begin at 10 a.m., will be available here.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect the UNC Board of Governors scheduling a meeting to elect UNC’s next chancellor. The previous version, published on August 6, focused solely on the latest Board of Trustees meeting on Monday.
Featured photo via Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill.
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