Thorp outlines vision for University’s future

In an online address released today to the UNC community in celebration of University Day, Chancellor Holden Thorp presents an ambitious vision for the University’s future that hinges on learning from the hurdles of the past year.

Thorp’s vision — one of blending innovation and entrepreneurship to spread the benefits of the University’s discoveries — is one he is pushing despite significant financial obstacles.

Thorp, inaugurated as chancellor a year ago today, began the talk recapping the past year, in particular financial troubles that have cut $67 million from state funding.

He pointed to the recommendations of consulting firm Bain & Company as an important building block for the UNC of the future.

“From that work, we’ll seize the rare opportunity to reinvent the University’s operations,” Thorp said in the address.

Thorp stressed that the lessons from Bain’s report, to be implemented through a program called Carolina Counts, aren’t intended to just fix problems but create a better University in the long run.

“Higher education is due for a qualitative change in the way we operate,” he said. “The changes we’re making are not temporary corrections, but rather a permanent rebasing of our administrative budgets.”

Saying UNC will play to its strengths, Thorp named innovation and entrepreneurship as inextricably linked qualities the community uses to help benefit the state and world.

Innovation devises new solutions, Thorp said. Entrepreneurship finds a way to implement them.

“We are here to help solve the world’s greatest problems,” Thorp said. “The bigger the problem, the more innovation is needed.”

Thorp’s talk follows in the footsteps of former Chancellor James Moeser, who delivered a state of the University talk every fall.

But Thorp’s speech is different in the sense that it is delivered from a YouTube clip instead of a podium.

Thorp wrote on his Web site he didn’t want to interrupt schedules or incur additional costs by delivering the address live during other University Day celebrations.


Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.