Letter to the editor: The legacy of Kevin Guskiewicz

Of all the traditions and normalities to fall by the wayside at UNC in recent months, the Tar Heel Bus Tour reincarnation is perhaps one of the least-cared about that the administration has nixed from the calendar. 

There probably won’t be nostalgic outcry at the fact that, due to the ongoing public health crisis, UNC won’t be sending a cadre of professors on a public relations mission across the state this autumn. When a collection of 90 Tar Heels, a mix of faculty and administrators, spent last fall break touring North Carolina in a trip that cost UNC around $200,000, it’s doubtful that anyone paid much attention even then — except, that is, for Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz. 

Last year, Guskiewicz — then still the interim chancellor — made the decision to bring back the Tar Heel Bus Tour from obscure memory. The previous iteration of this motorized crusade was the brainchild of former Chancellor Michael Hooker, who in 1997 decided that in order to strengthen ties between UNC and the state that funds it, he would send his professors out into the wild to experience the coast, mountains, plains and cities, all in a few days' work. Hooker died in 1999. The bus tour died in 2008.

But for some reason, Kevin Guskiewicz did what former chancellors Holden Thorp and Carol Folt never did: he brought it back. In his eyes, he maybe saw an opportunity to prove to everyone — from those manning underserved schools in Rocky Mount to the suits in Charlotte’s Bank of America Financial Center — that UNC was not an out-of-touch haven for statue-topplers, but that it was, in fact, “for all kind,” as they like to say. 

“$520 million of our annual base funding comes from the state of North Carolina,” Guskiewicz told The Daily Tar Heel last year. “I want them to know they’re getting a good return on that investment.”

So he did it. They loaded up the buses, dispatched them in three different directions, and tasked a South Building staffer with crisscrossing Guskiewicz to stops along all three routes. By UNC’s metrics, it was a success. 

And keep in mind, amid the academic-athletic scandal, UNC hired a communications chief who was previously a “director of synergy” at the Walt Disney Company — which, like UNC, thrives on maintaining a veil of mysticism and holiness. Perhaps the reason that Folt never sought to bring back Hooker’s bus tour was because UNC’s communications strategy has become more insular and withholding (which certainly hasn’t done the University many favors in recent months). 

All this is to say that, although the 2019 Tar Heel Bus Tour might have been overlooked in the moment, the fact that it happened at all is a testament to Guskiewicz’s desire to do something different — to shake up the status quo in even the smallest of ways. 

So now, with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic precluding UNC from engaging in any sort of public-facing PR stunts, what will Guskiewicz do? 

How will the chancellor, who resurrected UNC’s arguably most raw outreach initiative, adjust to a world in which he is forced to mold his brand via press releases and Zoom meetings? 

The bus tour might have bolstered then-interim Chancellor Guskiewicz’s stock when he was auditioning for the permanent gig, but the job is now his. Still in the first year of his tenure, Chancellor Guskiewicz will have to figure out a way to define his legacy and style of governing in a post-bus tour world — a world of “roadmaps,” “off ramps,” “dashboards” and “clusters.” 

When UNC System leaders announced on a rainy December morning that Guskiewicz, the famed concussion researcher and former Pittsburgh Steelers athletic trainer, would be the 12th chancellor of UNC Chapel Hill, the hot-button issue of the day was the uncertain fate of Silent Sam. Nobody seems to care about what happens to that statue now, or at the very least, the issue has taken a serious backseat to UNC’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic on campus, which rightfully remains at the forefront of everyone’s mind.

Guskiewicz will be judged by how his administration manages, or mismanages, UNC’s operations in the coming months. 

Despite the criticism UNC endured in national and local press for its viral outbreaks in early-to-mid August, the University made a decision to shutter campus before things became too bleak. Many universities across the state and nation that have seen rising case counts and clockwork occurrences of clusters have yet to make that difficult decision, leading one to believe that perhaps UNC deserves an inkling of praise for shutting down before it was the popular thing to do. 

Years from now, UNC lore will be stocked with stories still untold about how Guskiewicz’s leadership defined an era in Chapel Hill. What sort of an era will it be?

Chancellor Guskiewicz, you have been less-than-subtle in evoking Michael Hooker. “I was thinking about Michael Hooker as I was asked to step into this office,” you once said. “Michael Hooker and I started on the same day: July 1, 1995. He was my first chancellor.”

History views Michael Hooker as one of UNC’s most beloved leaders. How will history view you? 

Anonymous

UNC Class of 2020