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Leadership

Guskiewicz promotes return of Tar Heel Bus Tour at BOT meeting

Carolina Football, paid parking on weeknights and an innovative exercise program for cancer survivors were all discussed at the Board of Trustees meeting.

Interim Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz talks at the Board of Trustees meeting.
Interim Chancellor, Kevin Guskiewicz, makes remarks during the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees full board meeting. Thursday April 4, 2019 at the Carolin Inn. (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

At his first Board of Trustees meeting as interim chancellor, Kevin Guskiewicz was greeted by an old friend sitting in the audience.

“I’m glad that I could come while we’re undefeated,” returning head football coach Mack Brown joked after being recognized by Chair Haywood Cochrane at the April 4 meeting. During Brown’s previous stint as Carolina’s coach (1988-97), he and his staff cooperated with Guskiewicz in his research on football players and concussions.

“In the mid- ‘90s, when this guy came through to talk about head injuries,” Brown said, “I thought, ‘You know, I’m going to be back in Chapel Hill coaching in 2018, and he’s going to be the chancellor.’”

Continuing the #ThrowbackThursday theme, Guskiewicz announced his plan to bring back something else from a previous era, the annual Tar Heel Bus Tour. On the tour, about three dozen new faculty members spent the week after Spring Commencement crisscrossing the state, learning about its history and people and visiting Carolina research and service projects outside Chapel Hill.

“We’re going to restart the engine on the bus,” said Guskiewicz, who has proposed a bus trip over the next fall break, Oct. 16-19. “This will help us build trust and accountability with the people of our state and allow us to demonstrate exactly how and why Carolina is passionately public.”

Other highlights from the meeting included:

  • Trustees passed two resolutions of appreciation, one for Winston Crisp, the former vice chancellor for student affairs who retired last fall after 26 years working at the University, and one for outgoing Student Body President Savannah Putnam.
  • The student government office suite in the Student Union will be named for Crisp, Putnam announced in her final remarks to the board before being succeeded by new Student Body President Ashton Martin.
  • Claudio Battaglini, professor of exercise physiology, presented information on Get REAL & HEEL, his exercise program for cancer survivors. He also spoke about his participation in Health and Happiness, one of the new Triple I courses being piloted this spring as part of the proposed new general education curriculum.
  • Trustees approved the Aug. 15 implementation of campus paid parking on weeknights, part of Transportation and Parking’s five-year plan.
  • Trustees postponed to the May meeting a vote on the Campus Master Plan, which was approved by the University Affairs committee April 3.