Tar Heel Bus Tour rolls out this week

A week after the University celebrated Carolina’s service to North Carolina at University Day, 75 Tar Heels will experience it firsthand in a journey across the state: the 2023 Tar Heel Bus Tour.

Fifty-three Carolina faculty members and 22 senior administrators, representing 13 schools and 53 campus units, will depart from the Friday Center on Wednesday, Oct. 18. Two buses, one traveling to the East and the other to the West, will make 21 stops in 19 counties, covering over 1,000 total miles. The participants will learn about Carolina’s partnerships across the state and hear from North Carolinians about their communities’ needs and how Carolina can help address them.

The East bus will travel up to the coast. In Morehead City, participants will board UNC Institute of Marine Sciences vessels and learn how the institute is addressing the challenges facing North Carolina’s coastal communities.

The West bus will travel as far as Canton, where the Pactiv Evergreen paper mill closed after 115 years of operation. They will meet with NC Growth, a partner of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, to learn about economic development plans to help the community recover.

Lynn Blanchard, the director of the Carolina Center for Public Service, has seen Carolina’s resources help in communities like Canton before.

“There is a lot of potential in what Carolina can do with these strong community partnerships,” Blanchard said. “We can offer expertise but always in partnership with the community and being responsive to what they need. On the tour, we hear we hear directly about how Carolina has really made a difference.”

Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz welcomes the strong connections the annual tour builds. “The Tar Heel Bus Tour is an opportunity for administrators and faculty to see the towns and communities our students call home and witness first-hand the challenges and opportunities across the state of North Carolina,” said Guskiewicz. “I look forward to the connections that our faculty and staff will make on this year’s bus tour, and how these partnerships and new-found perspectives will impact our teaching, our research, and our service to the state for the better.”

Dr. Marie Lina Excellent, an assistant professor in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, will be traveling on the West bus. She’s looking forward to the opportunity to learn more about the state she serves. “Understanding where my students are coming from, going to where they’ve grown up and seeing their community is going to be invaluable for my teaching and mentorship,” she said.

As a Gillings alumna who is now a faculty member, Excellent appreciates the chance to learn more about how her work may contribute to pressing public health issues facing the state and how she and her students can “give back” to North Carolina. Excellent anticipates building relationships with other faculty members, which will enable her to serve North Carolinians in new ways.

“I’m excited about this unique opportunity to interact with a group of people who share the same vision and same commitment of service to the state,” she said. “I strongly value and appreciate interdisciplinary work, so I look forward to building those connections.”

Chancellor Michael Hooker launched the Tar Heel Bus Tour in 1997. It was later paused for over a decade before Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz revived it in 2019. Blanchard encourages tour participants to use the opportunity to listen carefully and learn from the people of North Carolina. After the 2019 tour, she said: “I grew up in North Carolina, and every tour I learn something new.”