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(12/02/10 3:26am)
The University will hire an external consultant to address a range of complaints raised by housekeepers in recent months, Chancellor Holden Thorp said at the Employee Forum meeting Wednesday.
(11/10/10 3:10am)
It’s not easy being clean.
(09/09/10 2:44am)
About one week after reports of a cracking sound from a portion of the Davis Library roof, a mountain of scaffolding now stretches to the library’s eighth floor.
(09/07/10 3:58am)
In a year of economic uncertainty and a steep state budget cut, the University saw its annual gifts go virtually unscathed.
(04/16/10 3:49am)
On an average weekday morning, the chancellor’s secretary sits in her cluttered office in South Building, fielding phone calls, answering e-mails and directing lost parents.But Brenda Kirby does not fit the standard definition of a secretary.Kirby, who has worked at UNC since 1972 and in her current role since 1980, currently makes $150,000 a year and, according to Chancellor Holden Thorp, knows more about the University than just about everyone.“I’m sort of the right arm to the Chancellor,” said Kirby in a smooth Southern drawl. “My biggest job is sitting right here and making sure that he’s where he’s supposed to be, that he’s well-prepared and on top of everything.”Thorp called Kirby, who has been secretary of the University for 30 years, a person of extraordinary value to UNC.“She tries to help me figure out which things are important to spend my time on and to help me get information about decisions I need to make or people I need to see,” he said.Kirby said Thorp’s experience as the former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and as a chemistry professor has made the chancellor different from his predecessors.“Sometimes I find myself telling him things, and I know he’s thinking, ‘Brenda, I know that. I’ve been there and done that,’” she said.But Thorp said he still views Kirby as a valuable resource.“She is able to explain things that happened here when I was still teaching CHEM 101, and that’s all really important information to me,” he said. Chancellor Emeritus Paul Hardin, who served from 1988-95, described Kirby as a crucial resource.“She’s tactful. She’s sharp and knows the University impeccably. She’s a delight to work with, just a wonderful person,” he said. James Moeser, who became chancellor in 2000 and now teaches in UNC’s music department, said he remains closer to Kirby than anyone else on campus.“Brenda was literally my right hand when I was chancellor,” he said. “On a typical day, I would probably talk to Brenda 10 to 12 times.”Kirby said she interacts constantly with people who turn to the Chancellor’s office for assistance and plays a large role in coordinating efforts with the Board of Trustees, which meets on campus every two months.“When it comes to the Board of Trustees, Brenda is the second-most important officer in the University,” Thorp said.Kirby said she deals with all correspondence with the board, facilitates its meetings and orchestrates agendas for other events.“It can be stressful, and it can be busy. But that’s what I love. No day’s just like yesterday. Every day is different,” she said. “People say, ‘How can you stand the same job for so long?’ Well, it’s not the same job. It’s different faces and different problems.”Kirby also builds relationships with students. She works especially closely with the student body vice president through the student advisory committee to the chancellor.“She is absolutely one of the most incredible people on this campus,” said former student body vice president David Bevevino. “I don’t know if there’s anyone who knows more about the University as a whole and its history. She’s been a part of it for so long and has just given so much of herself to the University and its people.”Kirby also works closely with student body presidents to help them learn how to collaborate with members of the Board of Trustees.“I don’t like to see anybody put forth a foot that’s not going to bend the right way,” she said. “So I enjoy being a mentor to those student body presidents.”Kirby attended Croft Business College in Durham and worked for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce. She first came to UNC in 1972 to work with the Air Force ROTC.In 1977, Kirby began working for Christopher Fordham in the dean’s office in the School of Medicine. Six months after he became chancellor in 1980, Kirby said she applied for the position of University secretary.Thirty years and five chancellors later, Thorp said Kirby is still widely appreciated on campus.“She’s not the old definition of the secretary,” he said. “She’s an incredibly important officer of the University.”Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(04/15/10 4:35am)
Unsafe water kills more people than all forms of violence, including war, according to a United Nations report released in March.Mark Sobsey believes he can change that.A 66-year-old professor of environmental studies and engineering at UNC, Sobsey, who has been working in water research for more than 40 years, has devised a new water purity test that has gained global attention and could have a dramatic impact in developing countries if marketed.
(03/16/10 1:24am)
The meaning of love isn’t an easy topic to understand.But professor Susan Wolf gave it a shot Monday night in the first of three lectures on the definition and value of love.“If you love someone, you have a stake in the world,” she said.
(02/23/10 4:53am)
Chancellor Holden Thorp took two hours out of his Monday afternoon to chat with students, covering a variety of topics from the reading list for English majors to bike paths to Carolina North.The Student Advisory Committee to the Chancellor held the open house, where a variety of students, faculty and administrators came together to discuss issues of importance on campus.Below are Thorp and other administrators’ answers to student questions:Q: What is the goal of the ongoing curriculum evaluations?A: The current curriculum was implemented in the fall of 2006. A study of 670 student participants seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum. The students will be tracked for four years after they graduate, said Bobbi Owen, senior associate dean of undergraduate education in the College of Arts and Sciences. But Owen said there will not be a complete revision of the curriculum in the near future.“That’s a once-a-generation exercise and won’t happen for another 15 years,” she said.Owen said tweaks to the current curriculum are expected.“We discovered in November that 1,400 seniors supposed to graduate in May had not yet had a fine arts course above 200, and so we really made some changes with them and presented a variety of options.”Owen discussed globalization as a highlight of the curriculum.“More students are studying abroad, and more students are aware of international and global issues, and that’s an area where I think we’ve had a real success with this curriculum.”Q: How can students be reminded to give to Haiti beyond the “honeymoon period”?A: Thorp advised students to keep doing what they’re doing, in response to concerns from Campus Y co-president Erin Marubashi, who said she hopes student generosity and support will continue as the year goes on.Thorp said he will make sure the link to participate in Haiti relief will remain on UNC’s Web site.“If you need our help with fundraisers, we can do it,” Thorp said. “But you all probably have more ability to communicate than we do. I’m not on Facebook.”Q: How can the alumni be involved in raising money for Haiti? Can UNC hold a benefit event?A: “The University can’t raise money for anything besides the University,” Thorp said. “We have to walk a careful line.”Thorp explained that the University is prohibited from raising money for other recipients. But the athletic department has been involved in supporting relief efforts.Q: Who is the new University Career Services director, and how will he work with UNC?A: As of March 1, Ray Angle will be the new director, said Chris Payne, an associate vice chancellor for student affairs and interim director of Career Services.There will be a welcome reception at 3 p.m. Monday in Hanes Hall, and students are encouraged to share their experiences and suggest ways to strengthen career services.Thorp said Angle is being presented with a great opportunity.“He is going to feel very needed,” Thorp said. “My advice to him would be to be as innovative and experimental as you want to be, which is what I tell most people who come to work here.”Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(02/09/10 5:54am)
UNC’s nine a cappella groups came together to sing as “1 Voice 4 Haiti” in a benefit concert Monday night at Memorial Hall.
The event raised more than $5,000 for Architecture for Humanity, a nonprofit organization that brings development efforts to areas in need, to support its reconstruction efforts in Haiti.
“When we heard about the devastation in Haiti, we agreed that there was no better time than the present to get together,” said Andrew Simpson, a member of the Clef Hangers.