UNC Chancellor Guskiewicz Promises Collaboration, Consultation at Installation Ceremony

UNC installed Kevin Guskiewicz as its 12th chancellor in the university’s history on Sunday.

A ceremony held on the weekend celebrating UNC’s 227 years of operation officially cemented Guskiewicz into the permanent chancellorship, in which he has served since December 2019. Held in Memorial Hall on the Chapel Hill campus, the ceremony had a limited in-person audience and was livestreamed on the university’s website to viewers.

Following his swearing in on the Durant Bible, the oldest North Carolina family bible in collection, Guskiewicz shared his vision for the Carolina community he has been a part of since joining the faculty in 1995. He acknowledged the challenges facing the current and next generation of Carolina students, which include the coronavirus pandemic, the reckoning of racial injustice and the university’s past ties to white supremacy. He said like how many prior generations have pushed UNC to change and become better, this one is too.

“Today, the rising generation is not happy,” said Guskiewicz on Sunday. “They’re not waiting patiently in the wings, they’re not content with accepting injustice. That’s a good thing. They shouldn’t be happy with how things are, they see an American Dream that’s fading. They see a global pandemic that threatens the very things in life that build happiness. They see racial inequity in our criminal justice system, our schools, our board rooms and our streets.”

The chancellor said he does not want these concerns for UNC students and committed to the university working to find ways to properly address them.

“We have a rising generation restless for change and a storied university committed to solving the grand challenges,” Guskiewicz said. “The question is whether we truly can be student-focused and give them tools, support and knowledge they need to change the status quo. Having been here for 25 years, I know we can.”

According to Guskiewicz, more students in this rising generation will be able to attend UNC than ever before. While the university set an admissions record with the 2024 first-year class, the chancellor said Sunday it will continue that model of growth.

“Each of the next four years, we will increase our first-year class size and build the largest ever Carolina undergraduate community,” he said. “This state is expanding and Carolina must expand as well.”

To help each of those classes and hear their needs, Guskiewicz promised Sunday to regularly consult with the campus community. Acknowledging that listening alone is not enough action needed for change, he said collaboration across all levels of the UNC community is how problems will be resolved and discoveries will be made.

“Universities are partnerships between students and educators, between staff and leadership, between faculty and the institution around them,” Guskiewicz described. “It is absolutely my intention to be a chancellor who consults, who seeks input, who is a servant leader. It is the type of leader I’ve been and I’ll continue to be for Carolina.”

To close his remarks, Guskiewicz said UNC has work to do regarding its ongoing issues among the campus community, and certainly will have some in the future too. Citing the philosophy of Clark Kerr, who led UC Berkley and the University of California system decades ago, the chancellor said he believes it will be critical to see differences as a way to grow instead of a university growing content with constant harmony.

“We’re going to have conflict here at Carolina, but we’re stronger when we approach it by trying to find ways to say yes instead of no,” said Guskiewicz. “We’re stronger when we agree from the start that those saying something new to say likely have something worth saying. We’re stronger when the institution consults that rising generation and works to further their happiness. That is what I’m committed to as your twelfth chancellor and what we’ll do together as one Carolina community.”

A full video of Sunday’s installation ceremony can be found on UNC’s YouTube page.

Featured photo via Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill.

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