Curious Commitments

When new Chancellor Holden Thorp officially announces his top priorities for the year on Oct. 12 they'll look pretty different from the priorities the search committee that vetted him for the position named as pivotal to the job.

That doesn't mean the chancellor isn't doing the job he was hired to do but the shift is curious.

His focus is on campus security support for the schools of law and education and recruiting top in-state high school graduates.

None of those appears on the list of eight University priorities the chancellor search committee listed as part of the chancellor position description" except that they all could arguably fall under the umbrella ""Create the richest possible learning environment for undergraduate"" graduate and professional students.""

Most notably absent from Thorp's list is faculty retention and recruitment — No. 2 on the search committee list — which was always a top priority of Chancellor Emeritus James Moeser and is often given as a reason why our tuition dollars have to keep going up.

Thorp has moved quickly to define the chancellorship in his own terms" which certainly isn't bad. After all" the position description also called for an ""inspiring"" innovative leader"" with a ""clear vision for higher education"" teaching and research.""

As the year progresses" we're interested to see how Thorp will balance his priorities with those the search committee cited as the position's key values because how he does so will shape UNC's future.