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Erskine Bowles to speak at University Day for last time as UNC-system president

UNC-system President Erskine Bowles has been greeting the campus on its birthday every year since he took the job in 2006.

And today’s University Day address will be his last as president.

Many school leaders say Bowles, who is an alumnus of the University, will keep his familiar address short and sweet.

Ron Strauss, executive associate provost for UNC, said this won’t be the last the University hears from Bowles before he steps down at the end of the year.

“I think he’ll have other opportunities to speak to the University,” Strauss said. “To treat this as though it is goodbye in summary is an incorrect saying.”

Thomas Ross, president of Davidson College, was selected in September after a national search to replace Bowles.

Ross will take over on Jan. 1.

Strauss said Bowles will keep his last University Day greeting short because it is Heather Munroe-Blum — an alumna of the Gillings School of Global Public Health — who is the primary speaker of the event.

“Knowing him he will not steal the thunder on the day,” Strauss said. “He’s just too humble to do that.”

At a UNC-system Board of Governors press conference last week, Bowles said he had not yet planned what he was going to say in his address.

“I’m not a great philosopher or a visionary,” he said. “I’m a doer.”

Bill Friday, former UNC-system president, said his last address to the University was a goodbye speech in 1986.

“I tried to stress what I learned as president which was first, last and always it’s the faculty and students who make this place what it is,” Friday said. “And we must never lose sight of that.”

Friday said Bowles will be missed by many faculty and students.

“He has done incredibly successful work as president for which we are all grateful,” Friday said.

Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the board, has worked with Bowles for the last four years. She said the University Day greeting is just another item leading to the finish line.

“He’ll be checking off his to-do list,” Gage said at the press conference.

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.

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