Here's what you missed at Wednesday's Advisory Committee meeting

Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz met with the Advisory Committee on Wednesday afternoon to discuss two new leadership positions, the University’s strategic plan and reactions to recent events on campus.

Campus Leadership Positions

Guskiewicz announced to the committee that the special adviser for diversity and inclusion has been found and will be officially identified next week. 

The role of the adviser — which will be a temporary position — will be to help the University take the goals and programming that came out of community-building forums back in the fall and put them into action, he said. 

Guskiewicz then said the University hopes to find a vice provost for equity and inclusion by the start of the next academic year. A national search committee has been formed to find an individual to fill the position.

Once hired, this person will also serve as the University’s chief diversity officer. Guskiewicz said the temporary special adviser may continue to work with the vice provost in a different manner. 

Strategic Plan for the University

Advisory committee members continued the meeting discussing Carolina Next: Innovations for Public Good, a group of eight initiatives that represent core focus areas throughout the University. 

Rohit Ramaswamy, a professor in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, suggested that committees for each of the eight initiatives should strive to get feedback from a group of community members in a format referred to as World Café event. 

Ramaswamy noted that these feedback events will provide staff, students and others who are not on the committees with the opportunity to offer input on how best to implement the initiatives. 

“It creates a mechanism for people to hear and listen and learn from each other,” he said. 

Reflections on Monument

Last week, Judge Allen Baddour dismissed the $2.5 million Silent Sam settlement the UNC System Board of Governors made with the North Carolina Division Sons of Confederate Veterans Inc. 

“I wish I had an update for you,” Guskiewicz said. “My position has not changed, and that is that I do not believe the monument belongs on our campus.”

He said he was told that members of the Board of Governors will discuss the status of the monument at their meetings over the next few days. 

Donors are continuing to give money and prospective students are continuing to apply despite recent occurrences on campus, Lloyd Kramer, chairperson of the faculty, said. 

“These conflicts are not as debilitating as we might imagine,” Kramer said. 

Guskiewicz also said applications to UNC School of Law are surging, especially from those who come from underrepresented backgrounds. 

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