Board of Trustees enters new school year with new chairman, members

The Board of Trustees is going into the coming year with a new chairman, six new members, a new committee structure and a new vision.

The board is chaired by Lowry Caudill, a chemistry professor at UNC who has served on the Board of Trustees since 2011. Caudill said he is looking forward to addressing the challenges that UNC has faced in the past few years. The board has dealt with five straight years of unprecedented budget cuts and tuition hikes, as well as an ongoing State Bureau of Investigation probe into what is now known as the University’s African, African American and Diaspora Studies Department.

Board of Trustees member Sallie Shuping-Russell said the changes on the board are an opportunity for the University to move forward.

“I think (former chairman) Wade (Hargrove) was a great chair in a very difficult time,” she said. “I hope that Wade’s tenure was one of discovery and Lowry’s tenure will be one of solutions.”

Caudill said the Board of Trustees has four central goals for the 2013-14 academic year.

One of the board’s first priorities is to facilitate a smooth transition for Chancellor Carol Folt and her leadership team. Caudill has met with Folt several times to help with her adjustment to leading a new University, he said.

“There has been a lot of conversation,” he said. “We need them to be effective as fast as possible. (Folt) is new to Carolina, so she has to learn about Carolina.”

A second focus of the board is to build effective relationships with key constituencies, Caudill said, because the University depends on support from residents, the legislature, the UNC Board of Governors, companies in the Research Triangle and peer institutions such as Duke University.

One of the biggest changes Caudill made after being elected chairman in July was to restructure the board. He condensed the board into four major committees — focused on finance and infrastructure, university affairs, external affairs and innovation and impact, Shuping-Russell said.

“I think they’re up-to-date,” she said of the new committees. “They’ll be able to address what the needs are of the modern University.”

One such need, Caudill said, is to create a sustainable approach to finances and risk management.

“We’re a $4.5 billion enterprise,” Caudill said. “There’s risk associated with anything you do. Then there’s risk associated with things you don’t do.”

Caudill also created two new task forces, one for enterprise and risk management and one for external affairs. The task forces are made up of board members who will meet outside of the board’s regular meetings this year.

“We’ve got great stories to tell over here,” he said of the board’s increased focus on external affairs. “We’ve got to get better at sharing these stories.”

Board member Steve Lerner said the University is at a turning point for the better.

“I think there’s an opportunity to put the recent past behind us,” he said. “I think it will be a much smoother process because most people are new.”

New members on the 13-person board elected this year are Jefferson Brown, of Charlotte; Haywood Cochrane Jr., of Elon; Charles Duckett, of Winston-Salem; Kelly Matthews Hopkins, of Charlotte; Dwight Stone, of Greensboro; and Student Body President Christy Lambden.

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