Candidates for chancellor presented

A group of candidates was privately presented to the chancellor search committee Monday, narrowing the search for UNC’s next leader.

The candidates were presented by Bill Funk, leading consultant of R. William Funk & Associates, the firm chosen to lead the search after Chancellor Holden Thorp announced earlier this semester that he will step down in June.

The search committee meeting operated mainly in closed session due to confidentiality provisions, so the candidates are unknown.

“When you balance the merits of disclosure in this context, and also the interests of protecting the privacy on this consideration, privacy trumps,” Hargrove said.

He said he agrees with confidentiality in the search because the candidates hold prominent positions that they would not want to jeopardize by being named publicly.

“Our responsibility is to identify and attract the most qualified candidates, and we don’t want to jeopardize those,” Hargrove said.

The committee will evaluate the candidates according to desires of the UNC community.

“At the beginning of the new year, we’ll move in on the candidates now that we’ve received public input,” Hargrove said.

About 6,700 people filled out a survey to voice what they want in a chancellor and what they think the chancellor should focus on in UNC’s future, said Erin Schuettpelz, assistant to the Board of Trustees. The survey is available online until Dec. 15, she said.

Alumni are the largest group to fill out the survey so far, making up 60.5 percent of respondents. Students compose 18.2 percent.

According to the survey results, the top priorities of the next chancellor should include preserving academic excellence and retaining the best faculty and staff.

The survey also shows 70.2 percent of respondents said academic excellence is one of the greatest assets of the University, followed by access and affordability with 36.9 percent.

Funk said the survey is a great exercise in presidential searches.

“There has to be one person in the country that has all of these attributes in accordance with these results,” he said.

The committee also discussed the public forums that were held Nov. 7-8.

‘The comments were pretty much in line with what we thought we would hear,” said Don Curtis, a member of the Board of Trustees.

Curtis and Hargrove both expressed disappointment at the low turnout at the forums but thought they still served a purpose.

“The forums were very instructive, very helpful,” Hargrove said.

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