Media Advisory

Local angles: Charlotte,
Chimney Rock

Connecting with UNC-Charlotte, Chimney Rock
economic development are bus tour’s Thursday focus

Thursday, May 18

Opportunities for building relationships and forming partnerships with a sister state university and learning how small towns can leverage their cultural and environmental strengths to promote economic development will be Thursday’s (May 18) topics on the 2006 Tar Heel Bus Tour for 36 new faculty and administrators from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

UNC-Charlotte Chancellor Phillip L. Dubois will host a breakfast meeting for the bus tour participants and more than two dozen UNC-Charlotte faculty and administrators for a discussion of higher education in North Carolina and potential collaboration. Later, tour participants will meet with community leaders in Chimney Rock who have helped make their community a national model for how to use local strengths to foster economic recovery. The Tar Heel travelers also will visit Chimney Rock Park.

Chancellor James Moeser will rejoin the tour Thursday morning and continue onboard through the tour’s Friday afternoon conclusion. Dr. Joseph Templeton, chair of the faculty and a chemistry professor at Carolina, has joined tour participants for the full week.

Thursday’s schedule, highlights:

7:30 a.m. Depart from Omni Charlotte Hotel, 131 East Trade St., Charlotte.

8-10 a.m. UNC-Charlotte, Prospector Café in the University Bookstore, 9201 University City Blvd., Charlotte.

Chancellors Moeser and Dubois each hope that the breakfast meeting will help the more than four dozen faculty members from the two universities both learn more about the state’s higher education system and seek out opportunities for cooperation and collaboration. The meeting will be a networking opportunity for faculty and administrators at both schools to discuss potential collaboration on research, public service and other topics. The Bus Tour participants also will get a tour of the UNC-Charlotte campus.

Noon – 1:45 p.m. Old Rock Café, 430 Main St., Chimney Rock Village, Chimney Rock.

Chimney Rock Mayor Barbara Meliski will host a lunch meeting with the group where the discussion will cover what makes Chimney Rock a national leader in how to bring economic development to small, rural communities. Leslie Anderson, adjunct of public management and government at the UNC School of Government, will talk about her work with Chimney Rock and other small towns. After lunch, the group also will hear from Mary Jaeger-Gale, vice president of marketing for Chimney Rock Park, who will lead the participants on a walk along the newly refurbished Rocky Broad Riverwalk, which attracts tourists year-round. One of the topics covered will be the role HandMade in America, an Asheville-based nonprofit working to nurture the creation of traditional and contemporary crafts, has played in economic development efforts by promoting the spiritual, cultural and community life of the western part of the state.

2 p.m. – 4 p.m. Chimney Rock Park, Chimney Rock.

Tar Heel Bus Tour participants will go hiking in Chimney Rock Park, just across the Rocky Broad River from the village of Chimney Rock. The Chimney – the peak of Chimney Rock Park – offers hikers 75-mile views at an elevation of 2,280 feet.
Interviews: Participants and tour organizers are expected to be available for print and broadcast interviews at each stop. During the tour, call UNC News Services at (919) 962-2091 with questions about coverage, directions to tour stops or help setting up interviews with tour participants.

Tour background:

The UNC group is traveling more than 1,000 miles this week (May 15-19) in a classroom on wheels to learn about distinctly North Carolina topics and visit some of the state’s historic and scenic sites. The tour highlights the university’s public service commitment by promoting scholarship and service that are responsive to the concerns of the state and contribute to the common good.

“We aim to help faculty gain a better understanding of North Carolina and the people we serve,” said Chancellor James Moeser. “As we aspire to be the leading public university in the country, we must serve the people and communities that surround us.”

The privately funded tour, which began in 1997, aims to teach new faculty and administrators about North Carolina’s people, geography, economy, culture, history, education system and health and social issues. Many stops highlight UNC outreach projects. The participants also have opportunities to learn how their research, teaching and public service can serve the state’s needs.

On Friday, participants will wrap up the tour by learning about a state-of-the-art textile factories keeping North Carolina competitive in that fast-changing industry and the UNC-founded Citizen-Soldier Support Program that helps provide a support network to families of National Guard and National Reserve soldiers deployed overseas.

Stops on Monday, in Halifax and Rocky Mount, covered the life of UNC founder William R. Davie and university outreach work with a health services program. On Tuesday, tour participants visited the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City and took a boat trip to Shackleford Banks – learning about how hurricanes have affected water quality in the state. Later, in Albertson, the group visited B.F. Grady Elementary School to hear how UNC School of Education professors have worked with teachers and leaders there to meet the needs of the district’s fast-growing Hispanic population. And in Shannon, participants visited the Lumbee community facility at Three Sisters Farm, run by the American Indian Mothers group. On Wednesday, the focus was on the state’s higher education system as tour participants met with peers at UNC-Charlotte) before heading to Chimney Rock and gaining knowledge of the economic development efforts underway in that small town and others across North Carolina.

Carolina Connections: Mecklenburg County is home to 2,013 Carolina students and 14,695 alumni and Rutherford County is home to 47 students and 384 alumni.

- 30 -

2006 Tar Heel Bus Tour news release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/may06/bustour051106.htm

News Services contacts: Karen Moon, (919) 962-8595 or karen_moon@unc.edu; LJ Toler, (919) 962-8589 or laura_toler@unc.edu