Well Said: The Tar Heel Bus Tour
On this week’s podcast, Lynn Blanchard, the director of the Carolina Center for Public Service, explains why 90 faculty members and administrators are spending fall break on buses touring the state.
Former Chancellor Michael Hooker began a tour of the state in 1997 to help new faculty learn more about North Carolina, and ever since the last tour in 2008, Lynn Blanchard has been asked when it was coming back.
“I don’t think I’d go a month or two without running into somebody who was on one of the prior tours, and they’d ask, ‘Are they ever bringing them back?” said Blanchard, who is the director of the Carolina Center for Public Service and organized previous tours.
When Interim Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz was appointed to his role in February, he wanted to bring the tour back.
This year’s tour began Oct. 16 when 90 faculty members and senior administrators left Chapel Hill to travel across North Carolina in three buses on different routes: western, eastern and southeastern.
On the tour, which ends Oct. 18, participants will learn how the University is serving the needs of the state and see ways Carolina can continue to help.
On this week’s episode, Blanchard explains why the buses are rolling again and why listening to and learning from the community is vital to Carolina’s identity as a public university.
This episode of Well Said can be heard in the player above, on SoundCloud, Spotify or wherever podcasts are played.
Join us every Wednesday for Well Said to hear from students, faculty, staff and alumni. Each week, you’ll learn what’s going on in classrooms, labs and around campus, and how it pertains to the local, national and international headlines.
